342 The Natural History of Selborne 



they were coated over with husky shells, from whose side proceeded 

 a cotton-like substance, surrounding a multitude of eggs. This 

 curious and uncommon production put me upon recollecting what I 

 have heard and read concerning the coccus vitis viniferte of Linnaeus, 

 which, in the south of Europe, infests many vines, and is an horrid 

 and loathsome pest. As soon as I had turned to the accounts given 

 of this insect, I saw at once that it swarmed on my vine ; and did 

 not appear to have been at all checked by the preceding winter, 

 which had been uncommonly severe. 



Not being then at all aware that it had anything to do with 

 England, I was much inclined to think that it came from Gibraltar 

 among the many boxes and packages of plants and birds which I 

 had formerly received from thence ; and especially as the vine 

 infested grew immediately under my study window, where I usually 

 kept my specimens. True it is that I had received nothing from 

 thence for some years : but as insects, we know, are conveyed from 

 one country to another in a very unexpected manner, and have a 

 wonderful power of maintaining their existence till they fall into a 

 nidus proper for their support and increase, I cannot but suspect 

 still that these cocci came to me originally from Andalusia. Yet, 

 all the while, candour obliges me to confess that Mr. Lightfoot has 

 written me word that he once, and but once, saw these insects on a 

 vine at Weymouth in Dorsetshire ; which, it is here to be observed, 

 is a sea-port town to which the coccus might be conveyed by 

 shipping. 



As many of my readers may possibly never have heard of this 

 strange and unusual insect, I shall here transcribe a passage from 

 a natural history of Gibraltar, written by the Reverend John 

 White, late Vicar of Blackburn in Lancashire, but not yet 

 published : 



"In the year 1770 a vine, which grew on the east side of my 

 house, and which had produced the finest crops of grapes for years 

 past, was suddenly overspread on all the woody branches with large 

 lumps of a white fibrous substance resembling spiders' webs, or 

 rather raw cotton. It was of a very clammy quality, sticking fast 

 to everything that touched it, and capable of being spun into long 



