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PART IV. 
REVIEWS AND EXTRACTS, 
1.—On The Utility of the Knowledge of Nature, by E. 
- W. Brayley, Esq. 8vo. 
’I'hk following Extract, on the Ravages of Insects, which lias been kindly 
furnished by the author, appears to be of uncommon interest, to all persons 
connected with Horticulture, and we therefore strongly recommend it to the 
perusal of our readers. The Work itself, from the enlarged view it takes of 
Nature, promises to be of the greatest utility to the admirers of her wonder¬ 
ful operations. 
“Almostall timber-eating insects are comprised in three orders;—viz. Coleo])~ 
teruy or beetles; Lepidopterciy or moths, butterflies, &c., imA Hyynenopteray ox 
bees, wasps, &c. All these, in their youngest state, after leaving the egg’, are 
worms, or larvaj, and it is while they are in this stage of their life that they commit 
the direct injury to the trees, either by gnawing oft’the bark, or by devouring the 
wood. The communication of the disease to other trees is periodical ; for when 
the worms or larv 0 e,just mentioned, arrive at their perfect or winged state—be¬ 
come butterflies, or beetles, or wasps, &c., the mischief committed by them 
is comparatively trifling, and generally results, in fact, not so much from their 
voracity, as to their attempts to extricate themselves, and to arrive at the external 
air; or from their endeavours to commit their eggs to a proper nidus,ox situation, 
and surrounding’ nvaterials, proper for the vivitication and support of thelarvieto be 
hatched from them. But as the insects are now winged, and are capable of de¬ 
positing myriiids of eggs,—the germs of so many devouring la rvye, the disease is 
thus dispersed throughout the neighbourhood of the tree originally infected. 
“From this general view of the subject, let us proceed to notice some of the 
ravag-es which insects have committed upon timber-trees. 
“ The Fine forests of Germany have at various times, sustained enormous injury 
from the attacks of a small beetle, belonging to the genus Hostrichns, and named 
by naturalists, the fiostric/ins Ti/pographns, or Printer Bostrichiis, on account of 
a fancied resemblance between the paths which it erodes in the trees, and rows of 
letters. This insect, in its preparatory or larvm state, feeds upon the soft inner 
bark only of the trees; but it attacks this important part in such vast numbers, no 
fewer than eiglify f/ionsand larvm being sometimes found in one tree, that it is very 
far more noxious than any of those insects which liore into the wood itself; and 
such is its tenacity of life, that thongh the bark be battered, and the tree plunged 
into water, or exposed to a freezing temperature by being laid upon the ice or 
snow, it remains alive and unhurt. The leaves of the trees infested by it, first 
become yellow, the trees themselves then die at the top, and soon perish entirely. 
I'he ravages of this insect have long been known in Germany, under the name of 
fFurm trdrhncssy (decay caused by worms;) ami in the old liturgies of that coun¬ 
try, the Divine interposition to check its raiages is formally besought; it being 
