THE GARDENS OF EPICURUS 59 



destroyed by it. But I cannot say, that I ever found 

 either my figs or pears infected with it, nor any trees 

 upon my east walls, though I do not well conjecture 

 at the reason. The rest were so spoiled with it, that 

 I complained to several of the oldest and best gardeners 

 of England, who knew nothing of it, but that they 

 often fell into the same misfortune, and esteemed it 

 some blight of the spring. I observed after some 

 years, that the diseased trees had very frequent upon 

 their stocks and branches a small insect of a dark 

 brown colour, figured like a shield, and about the size 

 of a large wheat-corn : they stuck close to the bark, 

 and in many places covered it, especially about the 

 joints : in winter they are dry, and thin-shelled ; but 

 in spring they begin to grow soft, and to fill with 

 moisture, and to throw a spawn like a black dust upon 

 the stocks, as well as the leaves and fruits. 



I met afterwards with the mention of this disease, 

 as known among orange-trees, in a book written upon 

 that subject in Holland, and since in Pausanias, as a 

 thing so much taken notice of in Greece, that the 

 author describes a certain sort of earth which cures 

 Pediculos Vitis, or, the lice of the vine. This is of 

 all others the most pestilent disease of the best fruit- 

 trees, and upon the very best soils of gravel and sand 



