442 Remarks on Blight. 



commonly, but I suspect improperly, called blight. On look- 

 ing into several dictionaries for the meaning of this word, I 

 find that by some it is called a disease, b}' others a wither- 

 ing, &c. Johnson calls it mildew; and in Crabbe's Techno- 

 logical Dictiotiary it is described in such a manner as to include 

 both what constitutes the mildew and the smut. On con- 

 versing with several gardeners and farmers, I find many have 

 not any distinct ideas on the subject of either mildew or blight. 

 Some consider the former a disease in the juices ; othei's that 

 it is produced by insects ; some attributing it to the real cause, 

 fungi ; and some think that it may proceed sometimes from 

 one cause and sometimes from another. The paper in your 

 last Number (p. 325.), to which I allude, distinctly points out 

 parasitic fungi as mildew; and I apprehend it is no less 

 certain that what is generally termed blight is produced by 

 insects. It seems to me, however, that the term blight ought 

 to be restricted to such a withering or blasting of plants as we 

 sometimes see produced by lightning, or sudden alternations 

 of extreme cold and extreme heat. The smut appears to me 

 an organic disease; and if this be the case, we have here 

 three distinct terms for three distinct manners in which plants 

 are injuriously affected, independently of the evils produced 

 by insects; to express some of which the term blight is now 

 generally made use of. In speaking of the injuries done by 

 insects, it will generally be necessary to add to the general 

 term insect the name of the kind or the class ; such as the 

 A^phis, green, black, and woolly ; or of the class, as the cater- 

 pillar; of which last there is a great variety of sorts, some 

 of which, when they appear on trees, are called blight; and, 

 when on gooseberries or currants, simply caterpillars. How- 

 ever, I leave the arrangement of the subject entirely in your 

 hands, and beg to subscribe myself, Sir, yours, &c. 



Hampstead, June 29. 1833. James Webb. 



Into our last Number (p. 334.) we quoted from the Ento- 

 mological Magazine, No. ii., an interesting notice on the cotton 

 blight of the apple tree, A^his lanigera, from an able contri- 

 bution to the latter work by Rusticus of Godalming. In 

 No. iii. of the Entomological Magazijie, published in April, 

 the same writer has communicated a series of facts on the 

 species of A^phis generally, and especially on the hop fly, 

 A^his humuli. Rusticus, besides describing the habits of 

 this particular species, shows that its prevalence or compara- 

 tive absence, insignificant as so diminutive a creature may 



