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 Gi- 

 braltar, written by the Reverend John White, late 

 vicar of Blackburn in Lancashire, but not yet pub- 

 lished : — 



'* 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 over- 

 spread on all the woody branches with large lumps 

 of a white fibrous substance resembling spiders' 

 webs, or rather raw cotton. It was of a very clam- 

 my quality, sticking fast to everything that touched 

 it, and capable of being %pun 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 of grapes set, when this pest appeared 

 upon it ; but the fruit was manifestly injured by 

 this foul incumbrance. It remained all the summer, 

 still increasing, and loaded the woody and bearing 



branches to a vast degree. I often pulled off great 



152 



