62 SYLVA BRITANNICA. 



requisite for obviating an evil, of which, as yet, they 

 had no experience ; and now, when perhaps it is too 

 late, the minister of marine has determined to follow 

 M. de Cerisier's advice. It is from such instances 

 that we perceive the truth of an observation made 

 by a French academician, while alluding to the de- 

 vastation which such insects may occasion : " L'his- 

 toire de ces animaux me'rite d'etre connue, ;\ raison de 

 son extreme importance, de tous les grands pro- 

 prie"taires, et surtout par les inspecteurs gnraux de 

 nos forets ; elles ont aussi leurs insectes destructeurs ; 

 et ils verroient combien de causes, qui dans le prin- 

 cipe ne fixent au moment 1'attention, peuvent par 

 negligence devenir funestes a 1'Etat." 



THE CRAWLEY ELM 



stands in the village of Crawley, on the high road 

 from London to Brighton. It is a well-known object 

 to all who are in the habit of travelling that way, 

 and arrests the eye of the stranger at once by 

 its tall and straight stem, which ascends to the 

 height of seventy feet, and by the fantastic rugged- 

 ness of its wildly-spreading roots. Its trunk is per- 

 forated to the very top, measuring sixty-one feet in 

 circumference at the ground, and thirty-five feet 

 round the inside, at two feet from the base. 



In former ages it would have constituted a fit 



