160 BRITISH APHIDES. 



l.-ON THE ANTIQUITY OF APHIDES AS EXEMPLIFIED 

 BY THEIR REMAINS IN AMBER. 



The occurrence of insects, twigs, fruits, seeds, and 

 other organic remains in amber has been remarked 

 from very early times. But although the old Greeks 

 knew the resinous substance that forms the matrix, 

 and surrounds these small beings of ancient days, they 

 chiefly prized this material, known by them as electron, 

 on account of the many hidden virtues supposed to 

 reside in it. 



Buffon singularly regarded amber as hardened honey; 

 Pliny, however, had more acutely suspected its truer 

 vegetable origin. He says* : — " Nascitur autem de 

 fluente medulla pinei generis arboribus, ut gummi in 

 cerasis, resina pinis. Erumpit humoris abundantia, den- 

 saturrigore vel tempore autumnali. . . . Archelaus, 

 qui regnavit in Cappadocia, illinc pineo cortice inhre- 

 rente tradit advehi rude. . . . Liquidum primo distil- 

 lare argumento sunt qusedam intus translucentia ut 

 formica3, aut culices, lacertseque, quas adha3sisse musteo 

 non est dubium ut inclusas indurescenti." 



Berzelius investigated the chemical properties of 

 amber, and showed that it has considerable hardness 

 and inflammability, and is strongly resistant to most 

 agents as regards its solubility. He regarded it as an 

 exudation from a plant, which, originally in the condi- 

 tion of a balsam, afterwards hardened, haviug pre- 

 viously entangled insects, &c, within its tenacious 



substance, t 



Although there is now no doubt as to the true nature 

 of this resin, the exact age in which the parent trees flou- 



* 'Historic naturalis,' Pliny, Lib. xxxvii, xi. 



f The Latin succinum probably is from succtM juice. The Greek 

 word i)\tKrpov is not so clear as to its signification. Perhaps the resin 

 took its name from the golden alloy known by that name, the splendour 

 of which, amber is thought to imitate. 



