VOL. LXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. . 321 



drawing the elder over the ears of com of such fields as were not too far 

 advanced in blossoming. Mr. G. conceived, that the disagreeable effluvia of the 

 elder would efFectuallv prevent those flies from pitching their tents in so noxious 

 a situation; nor was he disappointed, for he was firmly persuaded that no flies 

 pitched or blowed on the corn after it had been so struck. But he had the 

 mortification of observing the flies, the evening before it was struck, already on 

 the corn, 6, 7, or 8, on a single ear, so that what damage accrued, was done 

 before the operation took place; for, on examining it last week, he found the 

 com which had been struck pretty free of the yellows, very much more so than 

 what was not struck. One of those yellow flies laid at least 8 or 10 eggs, of an 

 oblong shape, on his thumb, only while carrying by the wing across 3 or 4 ridges, 

 as appeared on viewing it with a pocket microscope. 



4th. Crops of turnips are frequently destroyed, when young, by being bitten 

 by some insects, either flies or fleas; this he flatters himself may be effectually 

 prevented, by having an elder bush spread so as to cover about the breadth of a 

 ridge, and drawn once forward, and backward by a man over the young turnips. 

 He was confirmed in this idea, by having struckan elder bush over a bed of young 

 cauliflower plants, which had begun to be bitten, and would otherwise have 

 been destroyed by those insects; but after that operation it remained untouched. 



In support of his opinion, Mr. G. mentions the following fact from very 

 credible information, that about 8 or 9 years before, this county was so infested 

 with cock chaffers or oakwebs, that in many parishes they eat every green thing* 

 except elder; nor left a green leaf untouched besides elder bushes, which alone 

 remained green and unhurt, amid the general devastation of so voracious a mul- 

 titude. On reflecting on these several circumstances, a thought suggested itself 

 to him, whether an elder, now esteemed noxious and offensive, might not be one 

 day seen planted with, and entwisting its branches among fruit trees, to preserve 

 the fruit from destruction of insects: and whether the same means which 

 produced these several effects, might not be extended to a great variety of other 

 cases, in the preservation of the vegetable kingdom. The dwarf elder (ebulus) 

 he apprehends emits more offensive effluvia, than common elder, therefore must 

 be preferable to it in the several experiments. 



XXI f^. A Letter from John Call, Esq., to Nevil Maskelyne, F. R. S., Astron. 

 Royal, containing a Sketch of the Signs of the Zodiac, found in a Pagoda, 

 near Cape Comorin, in India, p. 353. 



This sketch, fig. 1, pi. 7, Mr. Call drew with a pencil, as he lay on his back 

 resting himself during the heat of the day, in a journey from Madurah to Twin- 

 welly, near Cape Comorin. After such a discovery, he searched in his travels 

 many other pagodas, or choultrys, for similar carvings, but nev^r found above one 



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