188 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 
named Volvox by Pliny is the same as that which he names Convol- 
vulus, for he himself distinguishes them. 
After indicating the remedy for the Convolvulus, this author informs 
us that the Volvox is another animal which destroys the young grapes ; 
and to prevent its propagation, he recommends that the knife em- 
ployed to dress the vine should be wiped with the skin of the beaver, 
and the plant rubbed with bear’s blood. 
“Alii Volvocem appellant animal prerodens pubescentes uvas : quod 
ne accidat, falces, cum sint exacute fibrina pelle detergent, atque ita pu- 
tant; sanguine ursino linirt volunt post putationem easdem.” 
XVII. Volucra.—Fruca.—We must consider these two words toge- 
ther, because we find them associated in the same passage of Columeila ; 
and indeed I am not certain that they ought to be separated from Vol- 
vox; for it must be stated, that in the passage of Pliny which I have 
just quoted, several editors read Volucra instead of Volwocem. Vol- 
vocem is however the reading of all the ancient manuscripts of Pliny ; 
and the reading of Voluera has only been introduced, because there is 
a passage in Columella which, though rather different, appears to have 
been derived from the same source: and as it is impossible to substitute 
Volvox for Volucra in Cotumella,—this latter word being a second time 
employed in the plural, in a verse which cannot be altered without de- 
stroying the measure,—the editors of Pliny have decided upon altering 
the text to bring it into agreement with that of Columella. Columella’s com- 
mentator, Gesner, justly censures this alteration, and recommends that the 
reading of the manuscripts should be preserved in these two authors, and 
that consequently the word Volvocem should be re-established in Pliny. 
In his treatise upon trees, Columella*, after mentioning the rats and 
mice which infest the vine, says: “‘ Genus est animalis, Volucra appel- 
latur, id fere prerodet teneras adhuc pampinos et uvas: quod ne fiat, 
falces quibus vineam putaveris, peracta putatione sanguine ursino l- 
NIULO. 2.20 Vel si pellem fibri habueris, in ipsa putatione quoties faleem 
acueris, ea pelle aciem detergito atque ita putare incipito.” 
“ There is a kind of animals named Volucra, which destroys almost 
entirely the tender shoots of the vine and the grapes. To prevent its 
ravages, the vine after it is dressed should be frequently anointed with 
bear’s blood, and the pruning-knife rubbed with beaver’s skin every time 
it is sharpened.” 
Columella in his poem upon the cultivation of gardens, after speak- 
ing of culinary vegetables, recapitulates the enemies by which the hopes 
of the agriculturist are destroyed, viz. tempests, rain, hail, inundations, 
and, which are still more formidable, the Volucra and Caterpillar, ene- 
mies of Bacchus and green willow plats, which envenom the seed, 
* Columella, De Arboribus, chap. 15. vol. i. p. 54. 
