UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 191 



Their utility is so well known in France, that 

 they are almost held sacred there ; and, indeed, 

 they are so pretty as to be favourites every where. 

 Just in the same manner as the locust-eating 

 thrush accompanies the locusts, so the cocci- 

 nellcE seem to pursue the aphides : whether the 

 latter cross the sea is not known ; but the 

 coccinellse certainly do, as they have often 

 alighted upon vessels at sea. 



VI tli. I have just read a passage in Kalm's 

 Travels in North America, which seems, in some 

 degree, to confirm that opinion of Dr. Walker's, 

 about the flowering time of foreign plants, which 

 my uncle mentioned last week. 



'* The crab trees opened their flowers yes- 

 terday ; whereas, the cultivated apple trees 

 which were brought from Europe, had already 

 lost theirs. The wild cherry trees did not flower 

 till May 12th; but the European ones had opened 

 theirs by the 24th of April. The walnuts of this 

 country had neither leaves nor flowers, when the 

 European kinds had both. Hence it appears that 

 the trees brought over from Europe, of the same 

 kind with the wild trees of North America, flower 

 much sooner than the latter. I cannot say the 

 cause of this forwardness, unless it be that they 

 bring forth their blossoms as soon as they get the 

 degree of warmth to which they have been used 

 in their own country : it almost seems as if the 

 native trees of this country are directed, by ex~ 



