coccus. 163 
COLCHICUM. 
stance we call shell lac, which is 
They do no injury to plants, either | 
in their larva or their perfect state ; | 
and when the perfect beetle is found | 
on a plant, it is to find a place where 
itcanlayitseggs. Instinct teaches 
it to visit those plants most infested 
with aphides, for it is on these nox- 
ious insects that the larva of the 
lady-bird feeds ; and consequently, 
the eggs of that insect, which are 
of a bright yellow, are always found 
on the leaves of shoots, the points 
of which are covered with the green | 
fly. The larve are flattish, fleshy 
grubs, tapering to the tail; they 
have six legs, and are very active. | 
Some years lady-birds are much | 
more numerous than in others; but | 
their numbers are always found to 
bear a proportion to those of the 
aphides on which they feed. In 
France and Germany, no peasant 
will kill them, because they are con- 
sidered to be sacred to the Holy | 
Virgin ; whence, no doubt, they 
have received the name of lady-bird. 
When these insects are caught, 
they fold up their legs, and emit a | 
used in making sealing-wax. The 
only cure for these imsects is brush. 
ing them off, and washing the 
branches affected with soft soap 
and water. 
CocuINEAL Fic.—See Opu'nTta. 
Cocxscoms.—See Ce to's!A. 
CockKsPUR-THORN.—See CratTs&'- 
GUs. 
Corrr‘a.—Cinchondcee, or Ru- 
bidcee.—The Coffee-tree, in Eng- 
land becomes a stove-shrub, which 
should be grown in loam and peat, 
|in pots well drained, and sufiicient- 
ly large to allow of plenty of room 
for its roots. The flowers, which 
appear in August or September, are 
white and sweet-scented, and the 
fruit is round, and of a brilliant 
scarlet, enclosing two closely-packed 
seeds, which are the coffee. If the 
plant is kept well watered, it will 
flower every year, and the seeds 
will often ripen in England; but the 
coffee made from them is very in- 
ferior to even the worst of that n- 
pened in the tropics. The Coffee- 
yellow fluid from their joints, which | tree, being a native of Arabia, re- 
has a very unpleasant smell; but | quires a dry heat when it is in a 
which is so far from being injurious, | growing state, and only a moderate 
that it is considered a remedy for | degree of warmth in winter. When 
the tooth-ache. Sometimes the | kept in a moist stove, without a free 
country people even crush the poor | circulation of air, the leaves become 
beetle, and apply it to a hollow mildewed and infested with insects. 
tooth, to prevent it from aching;| Co’~cuicum. — Melanthacee. — 
and thus, as in many other cases,|. Meadow Saffron. A hardy bul- 
in the hope of an imaginary good, | bous-rooted plant, which will grow 
they do themselves a real evil; as, in any common soil. The flowers 
of course, it is the interest of all| come up through the ground with- 
amateurs of gardening, and particu-| out the leaves in autumn, and 
larly all lovers of roses, to protect | closely resemble those of the cro- 
the lady-birds. cus. The leaves do not appear till 
Co'ccus. — The scale - insect. | the following spring, and great care 
These insects are troublesome on | should be taken of them; as if they 
many plants: but more so in the | should be injured, so as to prevent 
kitchen-garden, on the vine and them from exercising their proper 
pine-apple, than on flowering plants. functions in maturing the sap, the 
One species of Coccus infests the bulb will not flower the next au- 
Opuntia, and is what we call cochi-|tumn. An extract of Colchicum 
neal; and another, on a kind of is given in medicine for the rheu- 
fig-tree in India, produces the sub- / matism and the gout; and it is said 
“te 
, tt. 
