162 INSECT BLIGHTS FROM ELECTRICITY. 
east winds appear also to be occasionally attended 
with blight, from what immediate cause how r ever I 
am as yet unacquainted. 
On June 10th, 1838, I remarked that the apple 
trees in my garden looked unhealthy, and on closer 
inspection, found that a large quantity of buds and 
shoots were killed, the decay extending two or three 
inches down into the very wood of the tree; besides 
this, a vast proportion of the apples, then of the 
size of nutmegs, were seen to be eaten or eroded 
superficially, and in some of these little pits I found 
certain minute green insects (aphides ?) doubtlessly 
the operators. Next day, I found that these had 
congregated on the leaves in large companies, they 
had changed generally to a light brown colour, 
though some were still green, while some few had 
been metamorphosed into winged insects ; those 
yet unchanged seemed lethargic. Some other kinds 
of winged insects, caterpillars, &c. pervaded the 
trees also, and the leaves w'ere wrinkled and faded 
wherever many had got together. In a day or so, 
nearly the whole had disappeared, but the greater 
part of the fruit and leaves thus affected fell sacrifi¬ 
ces to their assaults, and those which survived 
became sickly. It is observeable, that this was not 
the only blight sustained by this neighbourhood at 
the time, for the gooseberry trees suffered in a la¬ 
mentable way by the ravages of a caterpillar which 
eat up presently all the leaves* and induced death 
as a consequence in the fruit. Besides this, the apple 
trees to the eastward of me were attacked *by im¬ 
mense crowds of caterpillars in some situations, 
and of “ fern-webs” (coccinella), or “ oak-webs” 
(scarabeus) in others, which devoured speedily every 
leaf of the trees, and caused death in the fruit of all 
* About July 1st these trees put forth fresh leaves, but not 
vigourously. 
