BLIGHT. 349 



of its body a quantity of long, cottony matter, 

 which, becoming interwoven and entangled, prevents 

 the young from falling to the earth, and completely 

 envelops the parent and offspring. In this cottony 

 substance we observe, as soon as the creature be- 

 comes animated in the spring, and as long as it 

 remains in vigour, many round pellucid bodies, 

 which, at the first sight, look like eggs, only that 

 they are larger than we might suppose to be 

 ejected by the animal. They consist of a sweet, 

 glutinous fluid, and are probably the discharges of 

 the aphis, and the first food of its young. That it 

 is thus consumed, I conjecture from its diminution, 

 and its by no means increasing so fast as faecal 

 matter would do, from such perpetually feeding 

 creatures. I have not, in any instance, observed 

 the young to proceed from these globular bodies, 

 though they are found of various ages at all times 

 during the season. This lanuginous vestiture seems 

 to serve likewise as a vehicle for dispersing the 

 animal ; for though most of our species of aphis 

 are furnished with wings, I have never seen any 

 individual of this American blight so provided, 

 but the winds wafting about small tufts of this 

 downy matter, convey the creature with it from 

 tree to tree throughout the whole orchard. In the 

 autumn, when this substance is generally long, the 

 winds and rains of the season effectually disperse 



