ILLUSTRATIONS. 133 



the larva of the aphidivoroos fly. It is not yet settled whether the hessian fly 

 is of foreign ot domestic origin : although-a species of tipula, yet it is not the 

 one just mentioned, as 1 am informed. The farmers on Lonj Island complain 

 of the septennial ravages of an insect which destroys their barley, and which 

 they denominate the army worm, from its numbers. 



Dr. Barton has very justly remarked, that it is an object of the first import- 

 ance to investigate the natural history of those insects, which are peculiarly 

 injurious to us in any way, and that unfortunately our country, as milch perhaps 

 as any on this globe, abounds with such insects. 



Dr. Smith, the celebrated president of the Lannaean Society, observes, that 

 botany necessarily leads- to the study of insects ; for it is impossible to investi- 

 gate plants, in their native situations, without having our attention perpetually 

 awakened by the inlinite variety of those active little beings, employed in a thous- 

 and different ways, in supplying themselves with food and lodging, in repulsing 

 the attacks of their enemies, or in exercising a more than asiatic despotism over 

 myriads below them ; and he exultingly exclaims that, in England, no branch of 

 natural history, after botany, has, for some years, had more attention paid to it 

 than entomology : while with us, to adopt the language of dr. Barton, " notwith- 

 standing the importance of the science of entomology, the history of oar insects 

 has hitherto excited but little attention." 



IN'OTE 35. 



Mr. Green, in his discourse on the botany of the United States, pronounces, 

 that the florin grass is a native of this country ; that it has been discovered in 

 Sussex county, New-Jersey, onthfe margin of the Genessee river, and on an island 

 below the city of Albany. Whether this be the same as the florin- grass of Eu- 

 rope is still a question subjudice. In 1740 Kalm visited the island below Alba- 

 ny, and in his journal he has mentioned several of its vegetable productions : the 

 agrostis stolonifera, if growing there at that time, escaped his penetrating eye ; 

 but, whether indigenous or not, we k;iow that it has been imported and success- 

 fully cultivated ; that its alimentary qualities, and its cr^ps, are great beyond 

 example, and that it flourishes in defiance of soil, drought, and climate. 



I do not know that saintfoin, or sainfoin, (hedysarum onobn chis,} which sig- 

 nifies wholesome hay. lias succeeded as well in tins country as in France, from 

 whence it is derived. The milk of cows fed on it is nearly double, and makes 

 most excr-' lent cren:n and butirr It fatten? sheen better than any othor food, 



