Lac is known in Europe by the different appellations of _stick-lac_, when in its natural state, adhering to, and often completely surrounding, for five or six inches, the twigs on which it is produced by the insects contained in its cells; _seed-lac_, when broken into small pieces, garbled, and the greater part of the coloring matter extracted by water; when it appears in a granulated form; _lump-lac_, when melted and made into cakes; and _shell-lac_, when strained and formed into transparent laminæ. Lac, in its different forms, is made use of in the manufacture of varnishes, japanned ware, sealing-wax, beads, rings, arm-bracelets, necklaces, water-proof hats, etc., etc. Mixed with fine sand it forms grindstones; and added to lamp or ivory black, being first dissolved in water with the addition of a little borax, it composes an ink not easily acted upon by dampness or water. It has been applied also to a still more important purpose, originally suggested by Dr. Roxburgh about the year 1790--that of a substitute for Cochineal in dyeing scarlet.[908] From this suggestion, under the direction of Dr. Bancroft, large quantities of a substance termed _lac-lake_, consisting of the coloring matter of stick-lac precipitated from an alkaline lixivium by alum, were manufactured at Calcutta and sent to England, where at first the consumption was so great, that, according to the statement of Dr. Bancroft, in 1806, and the two following years, the sales of it at the India House equaled in point of coloring matter half a million of pounds’ weight of Cochineal. Soon after this, a new preparation of lac color, under the name of _lac-dye_, was substituted for the lac-lake, and with such advantage, that in a few months £14,000 were saved by the East India Company in the purchase of scarlet cloths dyed with this color and Cochineal conjointly, and without any inferiority in the color obtained.[909] The Coccidæ, although they furnish an invaluable dye and many articles of commerce, are among the most hurtful of insects in gardens and hot-houses. In 1843, the orange-trees of the Azores or Western Islands were nearly entirely destroyed by the _Coccus Hesperidum_; and in Fayal, an island which had usually exported twelve thousand chests of oranges annually, not one was exported.[910] ORDER VIII. HETEROPTERA. Cimicidæ--Bed-bugs. “In the year 1503,” says Moufet, “Dr. Penny was called in great haste to a little village, called Mortlake, near the Thames, to visit two noble ladies (_duas nobiles_), who were much frightened by the appearance of bug-bites (_ex cinicum vestigiis_), and were in fear of I know not what contagion; but when the matter was known, and the insects caught, he laughed them out of all fear.”[911]