294 NATURAL HISTORY 
like substance, surrounding a multitude of eggs. 
This curious and uncommon production put me 
upon recollecting what I have heard and read con- 
cerning the coccus vitis vinifere of Linnzus, which 
in the south of Europe infests many vines, and is 
a horrid and loathsome pest. As soon as I had 
turned to the accounts given of this insect, | saw 
at once that it swarmed on my vine, and did not 
appear to have been at all checked by the prece- 
ding winter, which had been uncommonly severe. 
Not being then at all aware that it had anything 
to do with England, I was much inclined to think 
that it came from Gibraltar among the many boxes 
and packages of plants and birds which I had for- 
merly received from thence, and especially as the 
vine infested grew immediately under my study 
window, where I usually kept my specimens. True 
it is that I had received nothing from hence for 
some years; but as insects, we know, are conveyed 
from one country to another in a very unexpected 
manner, and have a wonderful power of maintain- 
ing their existence till they fall into a mzdus proper 
for their support and increase, I cannot but suspect 
still that these cocci came to me originally from 
Andalusia. Yet all the while candour obliges me 
to confess that Mr. Lightfoot has written me word 
that he once, and but once, saw these insects on a 
vine at Weymouth, in Dorsetshire, which it is here 
to be observed is a seaport town, to which the coc- 
cus might be conveyed by shipping. 
As many of my readers may possibly never 
have heard of this strange and unusual insect, I 
shall here transcribe a passage from a Natural 
History of Gibraltar, written by the Reverend John 
