86 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 



280. Cantharides, a drug of great value, and 

 which, as the principal ingredient of blisters, is yet 

 unequalled, is the name given to beetles collected 

 in great abundance from ash and other trees in the 

 south of Europe ; they are merely dried and 

 pounded, and are at once fit for use. 



281. Silk, an article of dress, and one which 

 gives employment, and consequent means of sub- 

 sistence, to millions of human beings, is, as we 

 have already related, the produce of the silk- 

 worm. 



282. Ink, an article of immense importance in 

 our communications with each other, and in the 

 preservation of knowledge, is principally made 

 from galls produced on trees by a minute insect 

 called the gall fly. 



283. Cochineal, the most valuable and beautiful 

 of dyes, is an insect which feeds on a species of 

 cactus in Mexico, and other parts of the continent 

 of America. 



