136 NATURAL HISTORY. 



them into Europe, and when placed in conservatories, 

 has proved successful. 



The Kennes (coccus ilicis) is a scale insect, and lives 

 on a kind of prickly oak found in the south of Europe. 

 The males have white wings, the females are without. 

 These insects are, in March, about the size of a millet 

 seed, enveloped in a kind of cottony substance, and 

 resemble a small plum cut in half ; by April they have 

 acquired the size of a pea, are round, and instead of their 

 cotton covering, are clothed with a thick white dust, 

 which, being examined, will be found to contain perhaps 

 two thousand pale red eggs, each one about the size of 

 half a poppy seed. They are also used for dyeing. A 

 similar species is found on the roots of plants in Poland, 

 and is termed the Scarlet Grain. 



The Gum Lac (coccus lacca) is also found among the 

 scale insects ; . scarcely as large as a common louse ; the 

 body consists of twelve rings, is oval, nearly flat, and 

 red, with a ridge along the back. The under side is 

 smooth, their antennae are filiform and extended, each 

 dividing into two or three fine joints, like bristles. The 

 extremity of the body is similarly furnished with two of 

 the same. These insects live on the sap of the banana 

 and jujube trees, the plaso and some mimosas, which is 

 milky and adhesive ; this sap, on being exposed, becomes 

 hard like lac, and so strong a bird-lime is made from it 

 by the natives, that peacocks are taken with it, A thick 

 red-colored fluid exudes from the bodies of these insects, 

 which also hardens into lac. The female deposits her 

 eggs within this mass and dies, so that it may be said her 

 own body serves for the first nourishment of her young. 

 They are found in immense numbers and furnish the 

 well known gum-lac, which, partly used as crimson dye, 



