Page:Scientific Memoirs, Vol. 1 (1837).djvu/228

 lead us to any probable conjecture upon the subject of the Thola or Tholea, if this word, which in the Bible is employed separately, were not elsewhere frequently found in conjunction with the word Dibaphi to denote the insect that the Arabs term Kermes, and which, when heated with vinegar, produces a fine red colour, in a word, the Cochineal insect. The species of cochineal which produces this colour in Europe are the Coccus Ilicis, which attaches itself to the green oak, and which consequently may be the insect mentioned in the Bible as the destroyer of a tree giving shade; and the Coccus Polonicus, which adheres to the roots of the annual Scleranthus and other plants. The Coccus of the vine does not produce this colour, but the resemblance of these insects, and their generic affinities, must have caused them to be confounded with the other Coccus, or the Tholaath Dibaphi, or at least comprehended under the same denomination. Thus we say, and with much less propriety, the worm of the apple and the nut, though these are the larvæ of insects of very dissimilar genera. The word Thola or Tholaath in the Bible was employed for vermin, louse, a small, insignificant, vile, and contemptible insect, as the Phtheir; but the epithet Dibaphi, designating the Kermes or insect useful in dyeing, which was sometimes added to the word Thola or Tholaath, indicated sufficiently, by the similarity of the species, the nature of the insect or vermin intended by the word, and which was productive of so great injury to the vine and certain trees.

XI. Means which are to he employed to destroy the Insects which infest the Vine.—The recipes of Pliny and Columella for the protection of the vine from the insects which attack it appear to prove that the Cocci committed greater ravages upon the vines in ancient than in modern times. Their directions were to rub the stems and branches of this plant with greasy substances, such as oil or bear's fat, to which was also added the use of vesicating substances. Modern cultivators, as I have said, protect the vine from the Coccus by pruning it. But other methods must be employed for the destruction of the Weevils (Becmares) and Coupe-bourgeons, the Rhynchites Bacchus and ''Rhynch. Betuleti, and the Eumolpus Vitis''. The best of all is to choose the moment when these insects have undergone metamorphosis and begin to copulate, and to place under each vine a kind of basin made for the purpose in the form of a deeply recurved crescent, so as to surround the stem or branch