' FEBRUARY. 37 
APHIS Is NOT APIS, 
Every writer should define his subject. I will therefore endeavour to 
define mine—first, negatively ; and secondly, affirmatively. 
First, negatively. Aphis is not Apis; for, though the name sounds 
so like, it differs trom the latter in several material points. Aphis does 
as much injury to man as apis does good. Aphis sucks up the saccha- 
rine, and injures or destroys what it touches. Apis destroys nothing, 
but reproduces the saccharine in honey and wax. Aphis destroys and 
builds not; but apis is the most wonderful builder in the world. Aphis 
destroys our enjoyments, but apis promotes them. Apis is the only 
insect, that I know of, that administers food to man, while it teaches 
him, at the same time, architecture, industry, and foresight. Other 
insects administer to the service of man, though not to his feeding pro- 
pensities, viz., the silkworm affords clothing, and cantharides a blister 
for his body; and if, brother Rosarians, you are short of this latter 
commodity, aphides will effect this purpose, unless your epidermis is 
thicker than mine. How multitudinously have they swarmed this 
summer, upon Rose trees and’ Sycamores, which latter trees they are 
fond of. Mr, Atkinson, solicitor, of Blandford, told me that his Syca- 
mores had been covered with them, “ infinite multiplied by infinite.” 
Aphis, then, is not apis. Itis a ‘‘ blister,” and aphides are an infinite 
number of ‘‘ blisters.” But true philosophy 
** discerns 
‘ A ray of heavenly light, gilding all forms 
Terrestrial, in the vast and the minute ; 
The unambiguous footsteps of the God 
Who gave its lustre to an insect’s wing, 
And wheels his throne upon the rolling worlds!” 
Secondly, affirmatively. Aphis may be associated with locusts, 
crickets, and grasshoppers, the first and last of which are enemies to 
vegetation. Indeed, the green aphis, though round in body, has wings, 
and legs, crooked like a grasshopper; the difference being this; that 
the grasshopper proceeds by short flights and the aphis by extensive 
ones. There are at least two kinds of aphis, the black and the green. 
The black aphides are destructive, in some places, of Bean crops, and 
sometimes settle so thickly upon the tops as to blacken them. In such 
cases it is best to cut off the tops, which also helps to increase the crop. 
The green aphis is not at all times green, but brown or blackish, 
most probably when about to change its skin, which it does several 
times in the summer, as Bounet proved by confining a very young one 
in a glass case. ; 
There are numerous species of this insect, called plant louse, Vine- 
fretter, or puceron, according to the plant which it attacks. The males 
are winged, and the females are wingless. They are both viviparous 
and oviparous. ‘The first aphis is produced in summer, from an egg, 
and then ten viviparous generations succeed, and the tenth lays an egg 
again, and the same process goes on as before. If you add the ovi- 
parous generations, of course the sum becomes still more incalculable. 
‘The viviparous generations are produced in spring, and the oviparous at 
