3C4 NATURAL HISTORY 



vinifera of Linnaeus, which, in the south of Europe, 

 infests many vines, and is a 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 pre- 

 ceding winter, which had been uncommonly severe. 



Not being then at all aware that it had any thing to 

 do with England, I was much inclined to think that it 

 came from Gibraltar among the many boxes and pack- 

 ages 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 seaport 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 every thing that touched it, and capable of being 

 spun into long threads. At first I suspected it to be 



