180 ON THE INSECTS BY WHICH THE VINE IS INFESTED. 
the second. As it is certain that, in Europe at least, no serpent injures 
the roots of plants, from the comparison of this passage of Pliny with 
that of Aristotle we deduce the following facts : 
Ist. That the larva of the insect named Spondyle by the Greeks was 
known to the Latins, and that it devoured the roots of plants of every 
kind. 
Qnd. That this larva was very large, since it was compared to a small 
serpent. 
We shall see hereafter the consequences deducible from these circum- 
stances. 
It may perhaps be said that this long discussion on the word Spon- 
dyle might have been omitted, because Pliny speaks only of the wild 
vine, Vitis silvestris, which is not really the vine, nor has it any relation 
to the plant producing grapes, but which was an annual, like the Aristo- 
lochia, as Pliny himself informs us. To this I reply, that the vine is 
included in the plants mentioned by Pliny as being exposed to the at- 
tacks of the Spondyle, and that consequently anything relating to this 
insect belongs strictly to my subject. 
[To be continued. } 
