INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE VINE. 143 



of the manuscripts should be retained in both authors, and 

 the word volvocem, consequently, restored to the passage in 

 Pliny. 



Columella, in his Treatise on Trees, 1 after speaking of the 

 mice and rats that infest the vine, says : — " Genus est ani- 

 malis, volucra appellatur, id fere prserodet teneras adhuc 

 pampinos et uvas : quod ne fiat, falces quibus vineam putaveris, 

 peracta putatione sanguine ursino linito . . . . vel si pellem fibri 

 habueris, in ipsa putatione quoties falcem acueris, ea pelle 

 aciem detergito atque ita putare incipito:" " There is a kind 

 of animal called volucra, which eats the young shoots of the 

 vine almost entirely, and consumes the grapes. To prevent 

 its attacks, when the vine is cut, it should be frequently 

 rubbed with bear's blood, and whilst pruning the knife must 

 be rubbed with the skin of a beaver every time it is 

 sharpened." 



In his poem on horticulture, Columella, after having spoken 

 of culinary plants, recapitulates the disasters that deceive the 

 hopes of the agriculturist, i. e. tempests, rain, hail, floods, and 

 what is still more to be dreaded than these, the volucras and 

 the caterpillars, enemies of Bacchus and the green willows, 

 which poison the seeds, devour the leaves, and leave nothing 

 besides a naked trunk, withered and useless : — 



" Brassica, cumque tument pallentia robora beta?, 

 Mercibus atque olitor gaudet securus adultis, 

 Et jam maturis quaerit supponere falcem 

 Saepe ferus duros jaculatus Jupiter imbres, 

 Grandine dilapidans hominumque boumque labores : 

 Saepe etiam gravidis irrorat pestifer undis 

 Ex quibus infestaj Baccho, glaueisque salictis 

 Nascuntur volucres, serpit eruca per hortos 

 Quos super ingrediens exurit semina morsu 

 Quae capitis viduata coma, spoliataque nudo 

 Vertice, trunca jacent tristi conjuncta veneno." k 



Thus the volucrce and the erucce are here mentioned as 

 different insects by Columella; the first are said to be par- 

 ticularly injurious to the vine, the second in osier grounds : — 

 " Et quibus infestae Baccho nascuntur volucres, glaueisque 

 salictis (infesta) serpit eruca per hortos." 



' Colum. des Arbor, c. 15 ; torn. i. p. 55. 



k Columella, liv. x. de Cultu Hortor um, ver. 3, 26, 33G. 



