Not being then at all aware that it had anything to do with England,
I was much inclined to think that it came from Gibraltar among the
many boxes and packages of plants and birds which I had formerly
received from thence; and especially as the vine infested grew
immediately under my study-window, where I usually kept my
specimens. True it is that I had received nothing from thence for
some years: but as insects, we know, are conveyed from one
country to another in a very unexpected manner, and have a
wonderful power of maintaining their existence till they fall into a
nidus proper for their support and increase, I cannot but suspect
still that these cocci came to me originally from Andalusia. Yet, all
the while, candour obliges me to confess that Mr. Lightfoot has
written me word that he once, and but once, saw these insects on a
vine at Weymouth in Dorsetshire; which, it is here to be observed,
is a seaport town to which the coccus might be conveyed by
shipping.
As many of my readers may possibly never have heard of this
strange and unusual insect, I shall here transcribe a passage from a
natural history of Gibraltar, written by the Reverend John White,
late vicar of Blackburn in Lancashire, but not yet published:
'In the year 1770 a vine which grew on the east side of my house,
and which had produced the finest crops of grapes for years past,
was suddenly overspread on all the woody branches with large
lumps of a white fibrous substance resembling spiders' webs, or
rather raw cotton.
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