( 26 ) 



Surinam, niger, dorfo rubro. Gaz. 140. 18. o. A very fmall 

 black beetle with a red back ; frequently found amongft Cochi- 

 neel ; faid to deftroy that irifeff. : it hatches a little red worm, 

 which clothes itfelf with a very thin filk-bag. 



CAP. VI. 



Insects, whofe Wings are Part Sheathed, with Membra- 

 naceous Tips, as Bugs. 



28. -jjr** Reat Cannacore B ug. Tab. 41. Cimex major puniceiis 



Surinam, ex aureo elegantcr flriatus. G. 146. 25, 26. 

 22, 23, 24. A very elegant infect : fo is its caterpillar, viz. yel- 

 low and green ftudded with red hairy heads ; the body fquare ; 

 the feet and belly covered with a clear thin fkin, fo that it Hides 

 like a fnail. This turned into a yellowiih filk-bag July 22. and 

 hatched Auguft 23. 



29. Surinam Capricorn-Bug. Tab. 21. Cimex Surinam, ma- 

 culis rubicundis. G. 150. 7, S. The cadus, or worm, of this is 

 green,- with a yellowiih head, and neftles in a phryganium, or ftraiv 

 coffin : June 10. it hatched into a brown bug, marked with red 

 and white fpots in the midft of each upper wing ; its horns knot- 

 jointed, like a goat-chaffer. 



30. Surinam Tine-Claw. Tab. 21. Mufca Surinam, pulchre 

 variegata, pedibus chelofis. G. 150. 9. A pretty odd-fhaped fly ; 

 its two hinder feet not unlike crabs claws ; the upper pair very 

 flender and forked, by which it hangs to ftalks, &c. the horns 

 long-jointed and flender. This produces a tufted, fhort-haired, 

 dark caterpillar, fpeckled with red and white, which changed into 

 a filk-bag the 4th of June, and hatched the 14th. 



3i 



G 



CAP. VII. Spiders. 



Reat Namdu, or Hairy Spider. Tab. 18. Araneus max. 

 hirfutus Amcric. G. 142. 21. The body three inches 

 long, and very hairy, as are its legs, which are rateably thicker than 

 long : each toe is faffron-tipt, and ends in one claw : it has eight 

 eyes, which are plainly difcernable ; its filk-bag very large. 

 Thefe frequent the Guava trees, and prey on the Ants which come 

 in their way, and like them change their fkin : when thefe are 

 fcarce, they prey on fmall birds, as Colobritgens, or Humming- 

 birds, which they kill by fucking out their blood and moifture. 



32. Buff Prickle-haired Surinam Spider. Tab. 18. Araneus 

 fulvus Surinam, pedibus aculeatis. G. 142. 22. Larger than the 

 biggelt. Engliih ; buff colour, with eight eyes, and hairy prickled 

 legs : it fpins a circular web, like ours, and carries its filk egg-bag 

 under its belly. 



33. Silver-backed Surinam Spider. Tab. 18. Araneus Surinam. 

 pedibus pilous, dorfo argenteo. G. 142. Painted with a filver 

 back, and white body ; hairy legs : his web like the laft. 



34. Fire-Flies. I took feveral in July. I take them to be a 

 Glow-Worm Volant; their luftrc is placed as in a Glow- Worm. 

 Kill the fly (as I have done) and you find the fcintilla a fmall 

 jelly-like fubftance, which, feparated into atoms, gives ftill, in 

 the dark, a luftre proportionable to the magnitude of each atom. 



I faw Butterflies Eggs that were teftaceous, and near as big as a 

 Wren's, moil fumptuoufly ftudded with gold and filver. At 

 Rhode Bland the mowers find them in the grafs : they hatch in 

 the windows, and are a fport for children. 



M. Du Ferney's * Discourse on the Gene- 

 ration of Snails and Worms, 



In the Royal Academy of Sciences, in Nov. 1708. 

 From the Mercure Galant. 



THE variety of this difcourfe could not but pleafe, fince it 

 throws the greater! artifts into an agreeable furprife, as he 

 explains what relates to the two ordinary kinds of Snails, and what 

 has relation to Snails and Worms. Even thofe, to whom thefe 

 matters are lefs familiar, will find their imaginations pafs from 

 objecl: to object, all very engaging, by the fingularity and novelty 

 of the fatt ; for this fubjecl, though already handled, is quite 

 new in him, on account of the exa&nefs of his obfervations, 

 very different from thofe. Indeed, the ftru&ure and the ufe of 

 thefe parts, ordained for the production of thefe animals, inclu- 

 ding fomething very furprifing in Phyficks and Mechanicks, he 

 begins with ihewing that thefe reptiles are hermaphrodites, and 

 have each the parts of both fexes. 



Befides thefe parts, they have each a fort of ihaft, which in- 

 doles a fling Ihaped like the end of a lance, with four wings : 

 this they dart mutually one againft another : its ufe cannot be 

 certainly determined ; but one niay fuppofe, that pricking thing 

 is to give notice, that that which approaches them is in the ne- 

 ceffary difpolition of the fpecies. We lhall only fay, that by the 

 obfervation he has made, he has come to a nice determination of 

 thofe parts that are proper to the male, and to the female : from 

 which he draws feveral confequences favourable to the opinion of 



the 



* Mef/rs. Homherg and Ponport ajjert, that Ground-Worms are 

 hermaphrodites, or o f both fexes, capable of being father and mother, 

 viz. to perform the operation of both fexes at once, in pairs or units ; 

 and that all Snails, Land and Water, are hermaphrodites. 



Petiver's Memoirs for the Curious, July and Dec. 1708. 

 pag. 197. and 372. 



the modems ; as, for inftance, that the eggs of the female are not 

 immediately fecundated at the ovarium and the tube, became irr 

 Snails of both kinds the fecundation is not made by means of 

 blood and fpirits. He talks alfo, on this occafion, of Earth-* 

 worms, which are not only hermaphrodites, but are doubly fo, ; 

 inlbmuch that each of thefe infects is twice male and twice female. 



He obferves alfo, that the Grey Garden-Snail, thofe of t'nd 

 Vine, the Dew-Snail, and Earth>-Worm, join differently for the 

 production of their fpecies ; that they almoft always chufe the' 

 night for their junction, which differs as to its duration : that of 

 the Grey Garden-Snail lafts at leaft ten hours ; whereas Vine- 

 Snails and Dew-Snails are joined but a very little while, in corri- 

 parifon of the others. 



The fpawn of the Snail is animated before it enters into tlii 

 uterus ; and the animalcula Ihut themfelves up in an egg, which 

 grows in proportion as they advance in the channel which coj^ 

 pofes that part. Thefe animals lay their eggs by the place whertf 

 they were fecundated, which is at the right fide of the neck : 

 they generally lay threefcore, and threefcore and ten eggs, by an 

 amazing artifice. 



When the Snail is ready to lay, it withdraws into forrie frefli 

 and moift place, and there opens the earth with its fnout, in the 

 fame manner as hogs ; fo that the hole is no larger than is necef- 

 fary for it to put in its head and neck: and when this hole is a 

 little deep, it makes ufe of its flimy fubftance to throw out the 

 earth. This hole refembles an oven ; the fides of which are hard, 

 either through the animal's prefiingthe earth with its head, or its 

 fcattering a flime which binds the parts of it together. 



It is in this hole that it difpofes of its eggs, by ftretching out 

 its head and neck : they are often found placed one upon an- 

 other in the form of a loaf, and ftuck together with a fort of glue i 

 then it clofes up the mouth of the hole with earth, which it di- 

 lutes with the flimy froth that comes from it ; and this it does f6 

 artfully, that it is very hard to find them. 



Ray's Method of English Plants Uluflrated, 



In a Letter to Mr. S. D. 



SIR, 



Our command is a fuffkient apology for any thing in my 

 power to attempt. I am convinced the talk will be accept- 

 able to all who have the leaft inclination to know Englifh Plants ; 

 a fcience abfolutely neceffary towards the accompliihing Phjfi- 

 cians, Apothecaries, Surgeons, Chemifts, &c. 



SECT. I. Blink Flowers. 



Mr. Ray names this tribe, Herba flore itnperfeSo, feu ftaminevi 

 (i. e.) fuch herbs as have imperfect or ftamineous, hufky, thready, 

 or blinking flowers. Hift. Plantar. 154. Synopf. 28. edit. 2: 

 p. 52. Method. 65. audi. 17. Dale 130. Supplement. 59. Ele- 

 mens de Botanique 402. Inftitut. Rei Herbaria; 501. 



As the green leaf of any plant in Latin is called Folium, and in 

 Greek Phyllon ; fo the coloured leaf of the flower is by the laft 

 named Petalon ; therefore Mr. Ray, and our modern botanifts, 

 have for the generality diftiriguilhed moft plants by the number 

 of their petals, or flower-leaves, viz. Plantce, flore monopetalo, 

 dipetalo, tripetalo, tetrapetalo, pchtapetalo, hexapetalo, polypetalove, 

 (i. e.) Plants having one, two, three, four, five, fix, or more leaves 

 in each flower. 



But this tribe for the generality has none, and may therefore 

 not improperly be termed Hcrbo? flore apetalo, having, inftead of 

 flower-leaves, only a foliaceous calyx filled with ftamina, or rather 

 (which are more obvious) apices, whofe prolifick farina, falling 

 into the matrix of the ftyle, or piftillum, makes it fertile. This 

 often happens here in different plants ; and then they are diltin- 

 guifhed as Male and Female, viz. in Hops, Hemp, and Mercu- 

 ries. Antient writers called the feed- bearing the Male plant, be- 

 caufe they generally grew tefticulated ; and the barren, the Fe- 

 male ; which Gerrard juftly cenfures in his chapter of Hemp; 

 p. 572. where he fays the Female Hemp being barren, and with- 

 out feed, was contrary to the nature of that fex. 



Others there are, Androgenous or Hermaphroditical, viz. in 

 different parts of the fame plant ; as in Nettles, Spurges, Docks, 

 Sorrel, &c. This I have often obferved in Juliferous trees, whofe 

 catkins and flowers are very diftinft and feparate. 



Buck- Wheat, Arfmart, Biftort, Burnet, Plantane, Knawell, and 

 Knot-Grafs, feem to have coloured calyces, if not flowers. 



The following fcarce obvious, viz. Pond-Weed, Orrach, Elites, 

 Beats, Pellitory, Ladies-Mantle, Golden Saxifrage, Glais-Wort, 

 Rupture-Wort, &c. 



SECT. II. Lactu-Kins, from La&uca?, Lrfiices. Ray H. PI. 

 217. Method. 70. aucl. 29. Synopf. 41. cd. 2. p. 69. Dak 

 151. Suppl. 50. El. Bot. 372. Lift. R. H. 467. Hid. Oxon. 

 feci. 7. p. 56. 



Thefe plants are for the moft' part likeLettices, viz. milky, with a 

 double flat yellow flower, and downy feed. ' Ray ftilcs this tribe, 

 Herb* flore compofito, Nat urn plcr.o latlcfccntcs, feu PlanlpetciLi- la.'hj- 

 ccntes ; and Tourncfort, Her her flore fimiflofaJofo, pappis inflrucfo. 

 Of this clafs we find not many different families, though feme of 

 them pretty numerous, particularly the Haw k-W ecds : the reft are 

 Hares-Lctt'ices or Sow-Thiftles, Golden Lung-Wort, Dandelion, 

 Moufe-Ear, and Goats-Beard : to thefe are added Succory arid 

 Nipple-Wort, which two laft have felid feed ; the reft downy, as 

 is frequentlv to be feen in the heads of Dancfe'iion, by many called 



Piilabcds, 



