310 OF INSECTS IN GENERAL* 



and an elegant varnilli, which is provided by a certaia 

 fpecies of winged ant. The celebrated purple dye of the 

 ancients was the produce of a fmall fpt-cies of ftiell-fifh ; 

 and we are told by Pli?iy, that the difcovery of its vir- 

 tue was occafioned by a dog, who, in eating the fifli, had 

 dyed his cars with that beautiful colour *. It feems 

 probable that the ancients were capable of communicat- 

 ing to their fluffs many beautiful fhades of fcarlet with 

 which we are unacquainted ; and it is not unlikely that 

 we have alfo fome rich tints of that colour which they 

 wanted. It is certain that our finefl ^d colours are fur- 

 nilhed by infecls with which they were unacquainted. 

 Cochineal, the extenfive and profitable ufes of which have 

 been long known, is now univerfally allowed to be an 

 infect, which is propagated with care, and in vafl num^ 

 bcrs, in the kingdom of Mexico. The Itermcs, or grain 

 of fcarlet, which was formerly imagined to be one of the 

 salles or excrefcences that are fecn on ihrubs, is now un- 

 derftood to be an infefi, which attaches Itfelf in that form 

 to a fpecies of the oak f . 



The medical ufes of certain infects are far from being 

 inconliderable ; and to thcfe purpofes they have long been 

 applied, perhaps more frequently, and with better elTeft, 

 than at prefent J. The valuable purpofes to which the 



caur 



* Reamure, Tome I. p. 5. 



f The quercus coccifcra of Limiaeus. The red dye colIccStcd from this 

 tree is produced in /.frica ; it is not fo bright, but more permanent than 

 cochineal. The cecciis quercus forms galles upon the ccmmon oak, which 

 are brought from the Levant, and are unive/fally ufed in dyeing over Eu- 

 rope. We have this plant in Britain, and alfo that of the coccus poloni- 

 cus : The iiifedl which inhabits thcfe plants might in all probabilif* 

 tlirive, if imported into this ifland. 



i Hifl. Medic, des Anim. par Vanden Bofche, LIv, iv. 



