188 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 



named Volvox by Pliny is the same as that which he names Convol- 

 vulus, for he himself distinguishes them. 



After indicating the remedy for the Co7ivolvulus, this author informs 

 us that the Volvox is anotiier animal which destroys the young grapes ; 

 and to prevent its propagation, he recommends that tiie knife em- 

 ployed to dress the vine should be wiped with the skin of the beaver, 

 and the plant rubbed with bear's blood. 



"^/«' Volvocem appellant animal prcerodais puhescentes tivas : quod 

 ne accidat, fakes, cum sint exacutcc Jibrina pelle detergent, atqtie ita pu- 

 tant; sanguine tirsino liniri voltint post putationem easdem." 



XVII. Volucra. — Eruca. — We must consider these two words toge- 

 ther, because we find them associated in the same passage of Columella ; 

 and indeed I am not certain that they ought to be separated from Vol- 

 vox ; for it must be stated, that in the passage of Pliny which I have 

 just quoted, several editors read Volncra instead of Volvocem. Vol- 

 vocem is however the reading of all the ancient manuscrijits of Pliny ; 

 and the reading of Volucra has only been introduced, because there ia 

 a passage in Columella which, though i-ather different, appears to have 

 been derived from the same source : and as it is impossible to substitute 

 Volvox for Volucra in Columella, — this latter word being a second time 

 employed in the plural, in a verse which cannot be altered Avithout de- 

 stroying the measure, — the editors of Pliny have decided upon altering 

 the text to bring it into agreement with that of Columella. Columella's com- 

 mentator,Gesner, justly censures this alteration, and recommends that the 

 reading of the manuscripts should be preserved in these two authoi's, and 

 that consequently the word Volvocem should be re-established in Pliny. 



In his treatise upon trees, Columella*, after mentioning the rats and 

 mice which infest the vine, says: " Genus est animalis, Volucra appel- 

 latur, id fere prarodet teneras adhuc 2wmpinos et uvas : quod nejiat, 

 falces quibus vineam jniiaveris, peracta putatione sanguine ursino li- 



nito Vel si jiellem Jibri habucris, in ipsa putatione quoties falceni 



acueris, ea jjelle aciem detergito atque ita putarc incijnto.' 



" There is a kind of animals named Volucra, which destroys almost 

 entirely the tender shoots of t^e vine and the grapes. To prevent its 

 ravages, the vino after it is dressed should be frequently anointed with 

 bear's blood, and the pruning-knife rubbed with beaver's skin every time 

 it is sharpened." 



Columella in his poem upon the cultivation of gardens, after speak- 

 ing of culinarj' vegetables, recapitulates the enemies by which the hopes 

 of the agriculturist are destroyed, viz. tempests, rain, hail, inundations, 

 and, which are still more formidable, the Volucra and Caterpillar, ene- 

 mies of Bacchus and green willow plats, wliich envenom the seed, 



* Columella, De Arborihus, chap. 15. vol. i. p. 55. 



