224 The Natural History 



LETTER LIII 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



As I have sometimes known you make inquiries about 

 several kinds of insects, I shall here send you an account 

 of one sort which I little expected to have found in this 

 kingdom. I had often observed that one particular 

 part of a vine growing on the walls of my house was 

 covered in the autumn with a black dust-like appearance, 

 on which the flies fed eagerly; and that the shoots and 

 leaves thus affected did not thrive ; nor did the fruit 

 ripen. To this substance I applied my glasses ; but 

 could not discover that it had anything to do with 

 animal life, as I at first expected : but, upon a closer 

 examination behind the larger boughs, we were surprised 

 to find that they were coated over with husky shells, 

 from whose sides proceeded a cotton-like substance, 

 surrounding a multitude of eggs. This curious and 

 uncommon production put me upon recollecting what I 

 have heard and read concerning the coccus vitis vi?iiferc& 

 of Linnaeus, which, in the South of Europe, infests many 

 vines, and is an 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 be at all checked by the preceding winter, which had 

 been uncommonly severe. 



Not being then at all aware that it had anything to do 

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

 from Gibraltar among the many boxes and packages 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 



