INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 195 



talis Narcissi) whose larva feeds in safety within the 

 bulbs of the Narcissus, and destroys them ; and also of 

 another, though he neglects to describe the species, 

 which tarnishes the gay parterre of the florist, whose 

 delight is to observe the freaks of nature exhibited in 

 the various many-coloured streaks which diversify the 

 blossom of the tulip, by devouring- its bulbs*. — Ray no- 

 tices another mentioned by Swammerdam, probably Bi- 

 bio hortulana, Latr., which he calls the deadliest enemy 

 of the flowers of the spring. He accuses it of despoil- 

 ing the gardens and fields of every blossom, and so ex- 

 tinguishing the hope of the year. But you must not 

 take up a prejudice against an innocent creature, even 

 under the warrant of such weighty authority; for the 

 insect which our great naturalist has arraigned as the 

 author of such devastation is scarcely guilty, if it be at 

 all a culprit, in the degree here alleged against it. As 

 it is very numerous early in the year, it may perhaps 

 discolour the vernal blossoms, but its mouth is furnished 

 with no instrument to enable it to devour them''. 



In oxxY stoves diwA green-houses the Aphides often reign 

 triumphant ; for, if they be not discovered and destroyed 

 when their numbers are small, their increase becomes 

 so rapid and their attack so indiscriminate, that every 

 plant is covered and contaminated by them, beauty be- 

 ing converted into deformity, and objects before the 

 most attractive now exciting only nausea and disgust. 

 The Coccus also, which looks like an inanimate scale 

 upon the bark, does considerable injury to the two prime 

 ornaments of our conservatories, the orange and the 

 myrtle; drawing off the sap by its pectoral rostrum, 



* Rcaum. iv. 499. * Kai. Hisf. Ins. Prolegom. xi. 



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