INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 213 



less subject to injuries from the same quarter, but these 

 being more out of the reach of observation, have not 

 been much noticed. Acorns, however, a considerable 

 article with nurserymen, are said to have both a moth 

 and a beetle that prey upon them ; and what is remark- 

 able, though sometimes one larva of each is found in 

 the same acorn, yet two of either kind are never to be 

 met with together^. The beetle is probably the Cur- 

 culio Glandhim of Mr. Marsham, and is nearly related 

 to the species whose grub inhabits the nut. 



Having now conducted you round and exhibited to 

 you the melancholy proofs of the universal dominion 

 of insects over our vegetable treasures, while growing 

 or endued with the principle of vitality, in their se- 

 parate departments, — I must next introduce you to a 

 pest worse than all put together, which indiscriminate- 

 ly attacks and destroys every vegetable substance that 

 the earth produces, and which, wherever it prevails, 

 carries famine, pestilence and death in its train. Hap- 

 pily for this country, and we cannot be too thankful 

 for the privilege, we know this scourge of nations 

 only by report. The name o{ Locust, which has been 

 such a sound of horror in other countries, here only 

 suggests an object of interesting inquiry. But the 

 ravages of locusts are so copious a theme that they 

 merit to be considered in a separate letter. 



I am, &c. 



^ Reaura. ii. 502. 



