VUl A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF 



hood ofSelborne, gives the writer an opportunity of applying 

 the succeeding apt passage from ' The Cyder ' of John 

 Philips : 



. . . Who knows but that once more . . . 

 This mount may journey, and, his present site 

 Forsaken, to thy neighbour's bounds transfer 

 Thy goodly plants, affording matter strange 

 For law debates ? 



" "Whether the poet alludes to any actual suit commenced 

 in consequence of such an event, we are ignorant ; but this 

 quotation reminds us of a real litigation in Syria, between 

 the owner of a hill and the possessor of some land in the 

 adjoining dale, which was overwhelmed by its lapse. The 

 Emir Tousef, before whom the cause was brought, finding 

 the travelling of mountains, we suppose, to be a casus omissus 

 in the Koran (the civil as well as religious code of the 

 Mahometans), decided in a manner satisfactory to all 

 parties, by generously making good the losses of both 

 plaintiff and defendant. Volney's Travels, chap. 20. 



" Letter 53 contains a curious account of the Coccus 

 vitis vinifera, an insect very pernicious to vines in southern 

 climates. The vine, having no plants indigenous to England 

 of the same genus, remains here free from the ravages of 

 insects, except in this instance ; though our other kinds of 

 wall-fruit, which have been introduced from warmer climates 

 are annoyed with the insects of the congenerous native 

 plants. This writer is, we believe, the first who has described 

 it scientifically as found in this country. But we apprehend 

 that enthusiastic gardener, Sir William Temple, a century 

 ago, complains of this nuisance as infesting his exotics. 

 Works, vol. 3, p. 209, Svo, 1757. 



" If this author should be thought by any to have been 

 too minute in his researches, be it remembered that his 

 studies have been in the great book of nature. It must be 



