51 



valuable drugs employed in medicine and the arts, and 

 to them also for materials for clothing, unrivalled in 

 richness and durabihty by any animal or vegetable 

 fabric. 



In addition to the obvious and salutary influence 

 which insects are appointed to exert in keeping within 

 due bounds the luxuriance of vegetation, they are of 

 immense importance to plants in disseminating the 

 fertihzing principle of blossoms. This principle, a 

 yellow dust, called pollen, is brought, through the 

 agency of insects that frequent flowers, into immediate 

 contact with the organ which contains the yet un- 

 formed or infertile seeds, that afterwards expand and 

 are brought to perfection. Without this agency many 

 plants would never mature their fruits, and others 

 would yield no fertile seeds. Notwithstanding all that 

 has been said to the contrary, it is evident that the 

 bee was as much made for the blossom, as the blossom 

 for the bee. Are not the beauty and harmony of the 

 creation, and the mutual dependence of its various 

 portions, strikingly exempUfied in the relations subsist- 

 ing between insects and plants ? Allured by the 

 attractions of flowers, insects confer an immediate 

 benefit upon them by ensuring the fertility of their 

 seeds, while, by a virtuous theft, they seek to rifle 

 them of their sweets. 



The consequences resulting from the actual or an- 

 ticipated introduction of insects into various countries 

 are of very considerable importance in political, me- 

 chanical, and agricultural economy. It is related that 

 Kalm, the Swedish traveller, after his return from 

 America, was filled with consternation upon discover- 



