CHAPTER XXIII 



THE PERIL OF INSECTS 



The Phylloxera— French sport—Life history of the Phylloxera— Cock- 

 chafer grubs — Wireworm — The misunderstood crows — Dangerous 

 sucklings of greenflies—' * Sweat of heaven " and ♦ ' Saliva of the stars " — 

 A parasite of a parasite of a parasite — Buds— The apple-blossom weevil 

 — Apple-sucker— The oodlin moth and the ripening apple — The pear 

 midge— A careless naturalist and his present of rare eggs— Leaf- 

 miners — Birds without a stain upon their characters — Birds and man 

 — Moats — Dust and mites — The homes of the mites- Buds, insect 

 e^gs, and parent birds flourishing togpetber. 



THE difficulty in describing the Romance of Plant Life 

 does not arise from a want of romance, but the sieges, 

 battles, and alarms are so difficult to see, and the 

 enemies are so tiny, that the terrific contests continually 

 going on escape our notice altogether. 



When one does 'look carefully and closely at the life of a 

 plant, one sometimes wonders how it manages to exist at all 

 in the midst of so many and great dangers. 



There are great swarms of insects which devour or burrow 

 into it, or suck its life-juices. These are infinitely more 

 dangerous than the relatively clumsy, heavy-footed, grazing 

 animal. 



Every part of a plant has its own special insect foe, and it 

 is really difficult to understand how it can possibly escape. 



Perhaps the " Achilles' heel'' is the root, for, underground, 

 plants get no help from the watchful and ever-present army 



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