706 
[ Assembly 
these widely separated groups resemble each other. I have there¬ 
fore pursued a dilferent mode of arrangement. As the insects 
which infest our fruit trees occupy the chief part of this report, 
they are -first considered. Commencing with those which occur 
upon the Apple tree, I speak in succession of those which affect 
the root, the trunk, the twigs, the leaves, the flowers, and the 
fruit. In the same order, insects which occur upon the Pear, the 
Peach, the Plum, and the Cherry, are successively taken up. 
From our Fruit trees I pass to some species of much interest 
which have been examined, infesting our Forest trees, our Field 
crops, and our Garden vegetables. This mode of arrangement of 
the several topics will be perfectly intelligible to every reader; 
and, aided by the brief heading which precedes the account of 
each species, will enable him to turn at once to any insect which 
he wishes to find, which is here described. 
In a field of such extent, and comprising such a multitude of 
objects, it will not be expected that the researches of a single 
season can suffice to bring this subject to anything approaching to 
completeness. I think it is Saint Pierre who remarks that he had 
made it a point to examine the several insects which made their 
appearance upon a particular rose bush in his garden, and at the 
end of thirty years he continued to find new kinds which he had 
never seen upon the bush before. And however assiduously one 
may investigate the history of a particular species duiing the 
period of its appearance one season, if he returns to the same 
insect another year, additional traits in its habits commonly con¬ 
tinue to be discovered, equal in importance frequently to those 
which were first noticed. Those species which I have been able 
to investigate since I received your instructions, including several 
which have never been noticed in our^ country before, will be 
found fully reported in the following pages. The history of some 
important depredators upon our American fruit trees, the Plum 
weevil, for instance, and the Canker worm, which I have not as 
yet had time and favorable opportunities for examining, I hope to 
present on a future occasion. 
As it is the primary object of this report to diffuse information 
upon an important topic with which very few are at present con- 
