434                                 KALM'S   TRAVELS  IN  NORTH   AMERICA.
ceived them, I was more frightened than I fhould have been at the fight of a viper.
For I at once had a full view of the whole damage, which my dear country would have
fuffered, if only two or three of thefe noxious infects had efcaped me. The pofterity of
many families, and even the inhabitants of whole provinces, would have had fufficient
reafon to deteft me, as the càufe of fo great a calamity. I afterwards fent fome of them,
though well fecured, to Count Teffin, and to Dr. Linnaeus, together with an account of
their deftrudtive qualities. Dr. Linnasus has already inferted a defcription of them in an
academical differtation, which has been drawn up under his prefidency, and treats of
the damages made by infects*. He there calls this infect the Bruchus of North
America f. It was very peculiar that every pea in the paper was eaten without exception.
When the"inhabitants of Penfylvania fow peafe procured from abroad, they are not
commonly attacked by thefe infects for the firft year ; but in the next they take poffef-
fion of the pea. It is greatly to be wifhed that none of the fhips which annually depart
from New York or Penfylvania, may bring them into the European countries. From
hence the power of a fingle defpicable infect will plainly appear; as alfo, that theftudy
of the ceconomy and of the qualities of infects is not to be looked upon as a mere
paftime and ufelefs employment J.
The rhus radicans is a fhrub or tree which grows abundantly in this country,
and has in common with the ivy, called hedera arborea, the quality of not growing
without the fupport either of a tree, a wall, or a hedge. I have feen it climbing to the
very top of high trees in the -woods, and its branches fhoot out every where little roots,
which fatten upon the tree, and as it were enter into it. When the ftem is cut, it
emits a pale brown fap of a difagreeable fcent. This fap is fo fharp^^iat the letters
and characters made upon linen with it cannot be got out again, but grow blacker the
more the cloth is wafhed. Boys commonly marked their names on their linen with
this juice. If you write with it on paper the letters never go out, but grow blacker
from time to time.
This fpecies of fumach has the fame noxious qualities as the poifonous fumach, or
poifon-tree, which I have above defcribed, being poifonous to fome people, though not
to every one. Therefore all that has been faid of the poifon-tree is likewife applicable
to this ; excepting that the former has the ftronger poifon. However, I have feen
people who have been as much fwelled from the noxious exhalations of the latter, as-
they could have been from thofe of the former. I likewife know, that of two fifters,
the one could manage the tree without being affected by its venom, though the other
immediately felt it as foon as the exhalations of the tree came near her, or whenever
fhe came a yard too near the tree, and even when fhe flood in the way of the wind,,
which blew directly from this fhrub. But upon me this fpecies of fumach has never
exerted its power ; though I made above a hundred experiments upon myfelf with the
greateft Items, and the juice once fquirted into my eye, without doing me any harm.
On another perfon's hand, which I had covered very thick with it, the fkin, a few hours
after, became as hard as a piece of tanned leather, and peeled off in the following days,
as if little fcales fell from it.
* Diff. de Noxalnfe&orum, Aaiœn. Acad. vol. 3. p.347.
•J- In hÎ3 Syftema Naturae, he calls it bruchus pifi, or the peafe beetle ; and fays» that the gracula
quifcula, or purple daw of Catefby, is the greateft deftroyer of them, and though this bird has been pro-
fcribed by the legiflature of Penfylvania, New Jerfey, and New England, as a maize-thief, they feel how-
ever the imprudence of extirpating this bird : for a quantity of worms, which formerly were eaten
by thefe birds, deftroy their meadows at prefent.    F.
X If the peafe were fteeped, before they are fown, in a lye of lime water and fome diffolved arfenic, the
pupa or aurelia of the infect would be killed.   F.
Oct.