98 NATURAL HISTORY 



ceived nothing from thence for some years : 

 but as insects, we know, are conveyed 

 from one country to another in a very un- 

 expected manner, and have a wonderful 

 power of maintaining their existence till 

 they fall into a fiidus proper for their sup- 

 port and increase, I cannot but suspect still 

 that these cocci came to me originally from 

 Andalusia, Yet, all the while, candour 

 obliges me to confess that Mr. Lightfoot 

 has written me word, that he once, and but 

 once, saw these insects on a vine at Wey- 

 mouth in Dorsetshire ; which, it is here to 

 be observed, is a sea-port town to which the 

 coccus might be conveyed by shipping. 



As many of my readers may possibly 

 never have heard of this strange and un- 

 usual insect, I shall here transcribe a pas- 

 sage from a natural history of Gibraltar, 

 written by the Reverend John White, late 

 vicar of Blackburn in Lancashire, but not 

 yet published : — 



In the year 1770 a vine which grew 

 " on the east-side of my house, and which 



had produced the finest crops of grapes 



