INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 203 



as it should seem from the description, imported about 

 thirty years ago from the Mauritius, or else with the 

 Constantia vine from the Cape of Good Hope, has de- 

 stroyed nearly nine-tenths of the peach trees in the 

 Island of St. Helena, where formerly they were so 

 abundant, that, as in North Ameinca, the swine were 

 fed with them. Various means have been employed to 

 destroy this plague, but hitherto without success^ — 

 The imperial pine-apple, the glory of our stoves, and 

 the most esteemed of the gifts of Pomona, cannot, how- 

 ever precious, be defended from the injuries of a sin- 

 gular species of mite, the red Spider of gardeners, (Aca- 

 rus telarius, L.,) which covers them, and other stove 

 plants, with a most delicate but at the same time very 

 pernicious web. — The olive tree, so valuable to the in- 

 habitants of the warmer regions of Europe, often nou- 

 rishes in its berries the destructive maggot of a fly (Os- 

 cinis Olece, Latr.); and the caterpillar of a little moth 

 {Tinea Oleella, F.), which preys upon the kernel of the 

 nucleus, occasions them to fall before they are ripe. — 

 Every one who eats nuts knows that they are very often 

 inhabited by a small white grub : this is the offspring of 

 a weevil (Curculio Nucum, L.) remarkable for its long 

 and slender rostrum, with which it perforates the shell 

 w hen young and soft, and deposits an egg in the orifice. 

 — In France it sometimes happens, when the chestnuts 

 promise an abundant crop, that the fruit falls before it 

 comes to maturity, scarcely any remaining upon the 

 trees. The caterpillar of a moth which eats into its in- 

 terior is the cause of this disappointment''. — Of fruits 

 the date has the hardest nucleus ; yet an insect of the 



^ Descr, of the L of Si. Helena, 147. " Reaum. ii. 505. 



