A fourteenth letter to Sir Joseph Banks ... on the subject of cochineal insects, discovered at Madras / [James Anderson].

  • Anderson, James, 1738-1809
Date:
1788
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A fourteenth letter to Sir Joseph Banks ... on the subject of cochineal insects, discovered at Madras / [James Anderson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Since the receipt of the above I have had two more plants from the fame hand by the Ship Ind us, but one of them is gnaw’d by Rats or V’ermine, and the other damaged by too much Water :■ had it occurr’d to the gentlemen, that tiiis plant is fo fucculent, it will live for fomc months without Earth, the quantity they mention might have afforded branches enough to have been pack’d amoitgll: flraw, in Bal'kcts or Chefts to lay out Plantations heie without lofs of time. On fome young Citron Trees juft landed from China, I find a Coccus Infedl more deeply inter- fedfed between l;he abdominal tings than any of thofe on the Coaft, which I have therefore called Dlacopeis, and on a Tree which is very common here named IVodier by the ’Tamuh^ fome of the Branches are covered with a very Torpid infect, to which 1 have given the Specific name Narcodes. Being poileff’d only of an old Copy of Linnaeus, I do not find any genus under which the IVliter Tree can be brought, and will only remark, that its Leaves are oppofitely and com- pleatly Pinnated. 'I'he Racemi iflue from the trunk at the axis of the leaf. 'Phe Calyx Tetra- petalous^— The Stamina eight Filaments with Kidney-lhap’d fingle Seftile autherce^ The Qerrnen terminates in two Seffile Stigmata, and becomes an oblong Drupa containing one feed. As Mr. Kincaid’s difeovery at a place of fuch relort as Canton, flamps more value on the fubject of thele Letters, it comes within the plan I have laid out, to corredt every error, and fill lip as many omiffions in the Journal of the two laft years, as the experience of the prefent Seafon will warrant. A material circumftance here merits my particular notice, that! find the Coccus Lrion, as well as the Coccus ‘Trkhodes on the Hibifeus Rofa Sinenjis, and now perceive Figure No. 8. is a reprefentation of the Coccus Erion, which is lefs hairy, and without the excrefcence at the extremity of the abdomen, fo remarkable in the Coccus Trichodes, as will appear by the Plates.—In my Letter of the Feb. 20fh, too ; the Egaty and yumbo'ViQO^ are unnecefl'ariiy blended together, as no Coccus Infedfshave yet been found on the Agaty. By the Ship Bufbridge which left this place fometime ago, I acquainted you by addition to the 13th Letter, that the Motchey or Painters ‘Tree, was the Erythrina Orientalis, and that 1 had found a Coco Nut Tree, Ccroi entirely covered with the Coccus Erion, which it is pro- per to notice here, for the information of thofe who had Copies of that Letter previous to her failing. A want of perfpicuity being what 1 ever wifh to avoid, I muft ftate, that although the Trivial names of plants is futficient to enable perfons in this Country, to difeover any of thofe I have had occafion to mention; yet wifhing to be generally underftood, I have likewile been folicitous to infert their Botanical Names, as I foon perceived a particular defeription of every plant on which Coccus Infects were found would far exceed the bounds of a Letter, Where I could fix on any authority I have in general quoted it; but in fome cafes the minutenefs of f lowers, or the impoffibility of finding plants in Bloflom, has laid me under the neceffity ot iifing indefinite terms, as Grarnen Muticum Pratenje for the Oopuncarugu, which 1 had fuppoled an Aira; but finding the Aira Subfpicata Bearded, and the leaf Plain, I Iliall only obferve, it is the moft common Pafture for Horfes here, being the moft eafily procured ; and have no doubt the Drawings and Sepcimen, fent with the firft Letters will afford you an adequate Idea of it. However forreign to the Subjedl of thefe Letters, it may be of ufe to add, that I have obferved Horfes ii^beft plight thathad Straw of the Kaka-Tsjoalm for f odder; which being a Triandria Digynia may lie an Elymus,hut not the Zizania of Linnaeus ; they likewife prefer Argurn-P lilcy, Agrojiis Radiata, and Mattunga-Pnicy, Agrojiis Cruciata, to the Oopuncarugu ; In the Syjicma Naturae, Publilhed in 1770, the Stigmata of the Agrojiis is Longitudinaliter hijplda, and differs from the Genera Plantarutn ?(\nteA at Vienna in 1767. Where authorities differ from thcmfdves ajid from Nature, I Ihall hold by the Tiswzw/Name, and my own oblervations. The