BLIGHT. 
237 
served to be injured by them. This insect is viviparous, 
or produces its young alive, forming a cradle for them 
by discharging from the extremities of its body a quan- 
tity of long cottony matter, which, becoming inter- 
woven and entangled, prevents the young from falling 
to the earth, and completely envelops the parent and 
offspring. In this cottony substance we observe, as soon 
as the creature becomes animated in the spring, and 
as long as it remains in vigor, many round pellucid 
bodies, which, at the first sight, look like eggs, only 
that they are larger than we might suppose to be ejected 
by the animal. They consist of a sweet glutinous fluid, 
and are probably the discharges of the aphis, and the 
first food of its young. That it is thus consumed, I con- 
jecture from its diminution, and its by no means in- 
creasing so fast as faecal matter would do from such 
perpetually feeding creatures. I have not, in any in- 
stance, observed the young to proceed from these glob- 
ular bodies, though they are found at various ages at all 
times during the season. This languinous vestiture 
seems to serve likewise as a vehicle for dispersing the 
animal ; for though most of our species of aphis are 
furnished with wings, I have never seen any individual 
of this American blight so provided, but the winds 
wafting about small tufts of this downy matter, convey 
the creature with it from tree to tree throughout the 
whole orchard. In the autumn, when this substance is 
generally long, the winds and rains of the season effec- 
tually disperse these insects, and we observe them en- 
deavoring to secrete themselves in the crannies of any 
neighboring substance. Should the savoy cabbage be 
near the trees whence they have been dislodged, the 
cavities of the under sides of its leaves are commonly 
favorite asylums for them. Multitudes perish by these 
rough removals, but numbers yet remain ; and we may 
find them in the nodes and crevices, on the under sides 
of the branches, at any period of the year, the long, 
cottony vesture being removed, but still they are en- 
veloped in a fine, short, downy clothing, to be seen by 
a magnifier, proceeding apparently from every suture, 
or pore of their bodies, and protecting them in their 
