68 CITRUS AURANTIUM. 
form. It is in this condition that they receive the embraces of the males, after 
which, they continue to increase in size for a time, eject their eggs, and gradu- 
ally shrink away, leaving nothing but their dry, outer skins, and perish on the 
spot. After the eggs mature, they imperceptibly pass under the body of their 
mother, where they remain, until they undergo the changes before described. 
The species that commonly attacks the orange in southern Europe, the Azores, 
and the West India Islands, is the Coccus hesperidum, which also infests the 
myrtle. It may be known by the oblong-oval form, and brownish colour of its 
shield, which is covered, as it were, with a coat of varnish. Another species, the 
pest of Florida, for the last five years, is the Coccus * * * * ? It is about one-eighth 
of an inch in length, and one tenth as wide as it is long, of a brownish colour, 
pointed at the extremities, and straight, or curved, according to the nature of 
the surface to which it adheres. The larvse make their first appearance at St. 
Augustine as soon as a few warm days occur, in January or February ; but 
their general hatching period is not considered to begin before March, and is 
never suspended from that time until the commencement of the cool weather 
in November or December. Myriads of these young insects, scarcely discernible 
to the unaided eye, may be observed crawling over the trees, puncturing the 
tender shoots and leaves, and sucking their sap, by which they gradually increase 
in size, and in about eight days, permanently fix themselves to the trunk, 
branches, and leaves, to undergo their transformations. Soon after the com- 
mencement of hot weather in May, vast numbers of the perfect male insects 
may be seen, and, as the season advances, they become still more numerous, 
until they are checked by cool weather, in September or October. In shaking 
violently a tree infested with these insects, myriads and myriads of them may 
be seen flying between the observer and the rising sun. And during the sum- 
mer, the young leaves, branches, and other uninfested parts of the trees become 
rapidly and successively covered with the scales of these insects, which are at 
first scarcely perceptible to the naked eye, but soon increase to their full size. 
This circumstance tends to prove that there are many broods or generations 
in the same season. 
This insect first made its appearance in Florida, in Robinson's grove, at Man- 
darin, on the St. John's, in 1838, on some trees of the Mandarin variety, which 
had been procured in New York. In the course of three or four years they 
spread to the neighbouring plantations, to the distance of ten miles, and were 
the most rapid in their migrations in the direction of the prevailing winds, which 
evidently aided them in their movements. In 1840, Mr. P. S. Smith, of St. 
Augustine, obtained some orange-trees from Mandarin, and had them planted 
in his front yard. From these trees the insects went to others of the same 
enclosure, and rapidly extended themselves to the trees and plantations to the 
northerly and westerly parts of that city and vicinity, obviously aided in their 
migration by the south-east trade-winds, which blow there almost daily during 
summer ; and what is remarkable, these, insects were occupied nearly three 
years in reaching trees in the south-east part of the city, only about half of a 
mile from their original point of attack. They have since, however, extended 
themselves to all the trees in and about the city ; but have not yet travelled in 
any direction beyond ten miles. Being aided in their dispersion by birds and 
other natural causes, impossible to guard against, they must eventually attack 
most, if not all the trees in Florida ; for the wild orange groves suffer equally 
with those which have been cultivated, and no difference can be perceived in 
their ravages, between old and young trees, nor between vigorous and decayed 
ones. Various remedies have been tried to arrest their progress, such as fumi- 
gating the trees with tobacco smoke, covering them with soap, lime, potash, 
sulphur, shellac, glue, and viscid or tenacious substances, mixed with clay, 
