•NATURAL HISTORY. 
81 
mology merits particular attention in connection 
with the preservation of our orchards. Many insects 
commit great ravages among our fruit trees, and 
unless their history is minutely known, no well- 
directed exertions can be employed for their destruc- 
tion. Several lepidopterous insects feed upon the 
leaves of the apple and pear, but the Aphis lanata^ 
or American blight, has proved uncommonly destruc- 
tive, and the cotton-like substance in which the 
insect is enveloped, is extremely annoying and un- 
sightly. It has now advanced from the apple to 
various other trees and plants, and it seems every 
season to be gaining ground ;^ nor does it appear 
that any process that has been hitherto made use of, 
is fully adequate to the destruction of this pest. 
The study of entomology is also absolutely neces- 
sary to the florist who designs to keep his favourites 
free from insect ravages. This will appear evident 
from the following extract from a paper addressed by 
John Williams, Esq. of Pitmaston, to the Worcester- 
shire Horticultural Society, in 1829. "The splendid 
green and gold beetle^ was rather a scarce insect in 
this neighbourhood till within the last three or four 
^ Salisbury says it was first brought to this country by the refugees from France, 
in the reign of Louis XIV., when a colony of these people settled at Paddington, 
and there it was first observed to begin its depredations on the apple trees. That 
it is a native of a warmer climate appears evident from its being killed by exposure 
to the action of frost. Salisbury's Hints to Proprietors of Orchards, p. 38. 
^ Scarahceus aurntus, Lin. — Cetonia aurata, of modern entomologists. — Rose 
may chaffer, green beetle, and brass beetle in some parts of England. When 
touched it emits a fetid moisture from the tail. The grubs of the rose beetle feed on 
dead leaves and stalks, and should be searched for at the roots of trees and shrubs in 
the garden. 
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