28 
history, would suspect this single species of being designated by 
such a profusion of terms. Who, on reading the page referred 
to, of the Patent Office Report, (and it is a correct transcript of 
the very words which are in popular use,) but would receive its 
statements as conclusive evidence that we had in eastern New 
York at least four or five kinds of destructive insects preying 
upon our wheat crops. Such mistakes are the inevitable results 
of a diversity of names. So important therefore do we deem this 
topic, that we are induced to assign to it a distinct head. 
It is very fortunate that no confusion of the kind just alluded 
to, has ever existed with reference to the species under considera- 
tion. Its popular name, Hessian fly, was first bestowed upon it 
by Colonel Morgan, soon after its appearance on Long Island. 
Some two or three of the earliest writers allude to it by the 
names of Hessian bug, and Hessian insect, but these designations 
were speedily dropped, and Hessian fly became universally the 
only name by which it was definitely distinguished, not only in 
this country, but in all parts of the world where the English lan- 
euage was spoken. Even when it was by every one deemed to 
be a native insect, and the epithet Hessian was therefore remarked 
by different writers as most inappropriate, still it was in such uni- 
versal use, that no one had the presumption to propose a different 
name. Certainly, then, at the present day, when scarcely a doubt 
can be entertained but that it is a Hessian species, any attempt to 
foist upon it a new popular name, must prove signally unsuc- 
cessful. 
But, Mr. M. B. Bateham, editor of the Genesee Farmer in 1843, 
and subsequently of the Ohio Cultivator, bestows upon this spe-" 
cies the name of “ wheat-fly.”* If love of novelty, or fondness 
for innovation, prompted this gentleman to discard a name which 
all the rest of the worl had concurred in, he could not possibly 
* We have been informed, by different persons, who are or have been resi- 
dents of western New York and Obio, that in familiar conversation in those 
districts, the species under consideration is alluded to simply as “the fly.” If 
any epithet is prefixed to this, it is always the word “ Hessian;” they recol- 
Ject in no instance to have heard it called the “ wheat-fly.” 
