254 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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 sea-port 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 Lanca- 

 shire, 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 sub- 

 stance resembling spiders' webs, or rather raw cotton. It 

 was of a very clammy quality, sticking fast to everything 

 that touched it, and capable of being spun into long threads. 

 At first I suspected it to be the product of spiders, but 

 could find none. Nothing was to be seen connected with it 

 but many brown oval husky shells, which by no means 

 looked like insects, but rather resembled bits of the dry 

 bark of the vine. The tree had a plentiful crop o grapes 

 set when this pest appeared upon it; but the fruit was 

 manifestly injured by this foul encumbrance. It remained 

 all the summer, still increasing, and loaded the woody and 

 bearing branches to a vast degree. I often pulled off great 

 quantities by handfuls j but it was so slimy and tenacious 

 that it could by no means be cleared. The grapes never 



