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In the 2nd Part of K. Henry VI. (Act I. se. 2) the canker is “ambition.” The 
Duke of Gloster, replying to his wife, says: 
O Nell, sweet Nell, if thou dost love thy lord, 
Banish the canker of ambitious thoughts. 
In another part of the same play (Act III., se. 1) it is disappointment. The: 
unfortunate Henry exclaims, when ill news comes from France: 
Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud 
And caterpillars eat my leaves away. 
In Hamlet it is overwrought feeling. The gentle Ophelia, mourning for the 
strange behaviour of her lover, says (Act IIT., se. 1): 
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, 
That suck’d the honey of his music vows, 
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, 
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh 
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth, 
Blasted with ecstasy. 
And in Romeo and Juliet it is death: 
Two such opposed foes encamp them still 
In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will ; 
And, where the worser is predominant, 
Full soon the canker death eats up the plant. 
Other passages in which reference to the canker is made are Midsummer 
Night’s Dream, Act IIL, sc. 2; 2nd Part of K. Henry IV., Act II., se. 2, and Act 
IV., sc. 4; 1st Part of K. Henry VI., Act II, se. 5; Coriolanus, Act IV., se. 6; 
Romeo and Juliet, Act L, se. 1. 
In England the larva of one of the plume moths, Pterophorus rhododactylus, 
feeds in the buds of the rose. There is a variety of small moths that infest the 
blossoms, leaves and young shoots of the Queen of Flowers. Among them are: 
GEOMETRINA. TORTRICINA. TINEINA. 
Articlea badiata. Antithesia cchroleucana. Lampronia quadripunctella. 
of derivata. Pardia tripunctana. Colophora gryuphipennella. 
Cideria psittacata. Spilonota roborana. 
“ fulvata. ns rosecolana. 
Hedya pauperana., 
Cresia Bergmanniana, 
es holmiana. 
Peronea variegana. 
Of larvee that feed upon the flower-buds of the apple, one of the most destruc- 
tive is that of the Figure of Eight Moth (Diloha ceruleocephala), one of the Bom- 
byces. This insect is so destructive that it was called by Linnaeus, the “Pest of 
Pomona.” The larve of the Winter Moth (Cheimatobia brumata) are also very 
injurious. Immediately after they are hatched they make their way to the 
unopened buds and burrow in them, concealing themselves from sight. The 
Green Pug (Hupithecia rectangulata) is another objectionable insect :—“The 
larva feeding in the young buds of the apple-trees, devouring the stamens and 
pistils, and protecting itself by tying together the petals” (Stainton’s Manual, 
Vol. IL, p. 92). By the caterpillars of a tiny moth Hyponomeuta padellus, 
belonging to the Tineina, the apple-trees are not unfrequently entirely stripped 
of their foliage. Besides the insects already named, at least 15 species, belonging 
to the groups Tortricina and Tineina, infest the English orchards. 
In King Richard II., by a striking metaphor England is represented as a. 
disordered garden, over-run with caterpillars (Act III, sc. 4). Twice the word 
“caterpillar” is used by Shakespeare as one of contempt; in 1st Part of K. Henry 
IV., Act II., sc. 2, and in 2nd Part of K. Henry VI., Act IV., se. 4. 
I find the word “moth” used three times: In the Merchant of Venice, 
“Thus has the candle singed the moth,” Act IL, sc. 9; in Othello where Desde- 
