142 THE APPLE. 



double purpose of wafting the young insect througli the 

 air when about to found a new colony, and of protecting it 

 from the cold when established in its new dwelling. It 

 injures the tree, and, if not checked, finally kills it, by 

 sucking its juices through the bark. Many methods of 

 destroying it have been suggested, among which one of the 

 simplest is to brush over every infected part with size. 

 But even this remedy requires frequent repetition, as the 

 insect infests even those parts of the tree which are beneath 

 the ground. The subject is treated at length in the 

 Gardener's Magazine^ vol. ix. p. 334. 



The Apple-tree, both in its wild and cultivated state, is 

 liable to be infested with the Mistletoe, which frequently 

 does great injury. 



In the west of England this parasite is but little known, 

 but the Apple-trees, especially in the vicinity of the sea, 

 are often so thickly infested with lichens, that the bark is 

 scarcely to be distinguished, except on the very young 

 shoots. Most of them are of a pale ashen-grey or whitish 

 tint ; one, however, which oocurs but rarely in the eastern 

 counties, Borrera fldvicans, is very conspicuous for its 

 tangled golden tufts, which in winter, when the tree is 

 divested of foliage, are very ornamental. 



I must not omit to mention that the Mistletoe Thrush, 

 or Storm-cock, which at most seasons is one of our wildest 

 birds, in spring deserts its favourite tree, the Mountain 

 Ash, and resorts to the neighbourhood of human dwellings. 

 There it selects, as a fit place for rearing its young, an 

 Apple-tree close to the house, choosing the angle between 

 the trunk and one of the principal branches. It builds its 

 nest of materials which closely resemble the bark of the 

 tree, and though exceedingly shy at other seasons, now 

 sits so closely that one may advance to within a few yards 

 of the nest without being noticed. The beautiful copper- 

 coloured Chaffinch also prefers to build her elegant nest 

 among the twigs of the Apple-tree, and decorates it in the 

 neatest manner with the lichens which infest the tree she 

 has selected. 



