The Scottish Naturalist. 203 



fresh farm-yard manure had been used. The remedies found most useful were 

 lime-water and gas-lime. Carrots were seriously injured at Newton near 

 Glasgow by Aphides ; and in the three localities named above (and probably 

 pretty generally) by larvae of the Carrol-fly (Fsila Rosce). Dressings of soot 

 and of paraffin oil were as usual found useful in checking the latter. The 

 Parsnip-fly (Teph. Onopordinis) was noticed as destructive to field parsnips 

 at Newton. Mr. Brown of Watten, Caithness, notes damage to all farm crops 

 from the grubs of " Daddy-long-legs " ( Tipula sps. ), especially on the clay soils. 

 From several English stations it is noted that such attacks were worst after 

 Clover ley, and also that artificial manures had enabled the plants to repair the 

 injuries suffered by them. The wireworm is mentioned as having been checked 

 in Rothsay by scattering sawdust soaked in paraffin over the soil broadcast. 



Gooseberry sauflies {Nematus Ribesii) were troublesome in various localities, 

 but were checked either by application of hellebore to the bushes, or of gas- 

 lime to the soil below them. 



Mr. Coupar communicates methods of preventing the injury done by the 

 Pine Weevil {Hylnrgiis pinipcrda) from near Scone, recommending traps for 

 them, made by laying the tops of young trees about in the plantations, propped 

 up at one end. The beetles lay their eggs under the bark of these pieces, and 

 the eggs can be readily destroyed by burning the sticks. 



Turnips are stated to have been considerably damaged by the same flies as 

 are noted above on Cabbage, as also at Scone by the 1 umip-fly {Haltica 

 nemoritm), and in Caithness by the Gamma moth (Plusia gamma), and by what 

 seems to have been Plntella Cruciferarum, both the latter being of course in 

 the form of larvae at the time they did the damage. 



Books on British Zoology recently published by the Ray Society. 



The publications of this well-known Society having fallen considerably 

 behind date of late years, a strenuous effort has been made recently to 

 clear off arrears, the result being that two volumes were issued in 1882, one 

 volume in 1883, and one volume in 1884 as yet. These were as follows : — In 

 1882, Bowerbank's British Spongiadae, vol. IV., edited by the Rev. A. M. 

 Norman (as the volume for 1879), concluding the monograph of this group ; 

 A Monograph of the British Phytophagous Hymenoptera, by Peter 

 Cameron, Vol. I. (being the volume for 1SS1) ; in 1883, Vol. IV. of the 

 Monograph of the British Aphides, by G. B. Buckton (being the volume 

 for 1882), and in 1884, Michael's British Oribatidae. 



As will be seen from the titles of all these works, the Ray Society now 

 devotes its energies to the furtherance of a knowledge of the fauna (though, we 

 understand, ready to include the flora also on due occasion), of the British 

 Islands. In this restriction of the field, for some time at least, we doubt not 

 that it will command the approval of most, if not of all, to whom the Society 

 commends itself as worthy of support. The field, even when thus limited, is 

 amply sufficient to try the powers of any such association to cover. It will 

 also be observed that the works mentioned above, except the last, are all onlv 

 volumes, none of the groups treated of for a good many years past being dis- 

 missed within the limits of a single volume, with the exception of the very small 

 group of Oribatidae which are exhaustively treated in the volume devoted to 

 them. In this we are inclined to think that a mistake is made, the publi- 

 cations on any group being rendered too expensive, and purchasers thereby 

 too few, to allow of the wide circulation, and the consequent wide support desir- 

 able for such a Society. That the monographs are very complete in general, 

 needs not to be said ; but we believe that they would be rendered more widely 

 useful by greater regard to brevity, and less tendency to discursiveness in some 

 cases. Alike in the direction of saving time and of diminishing expense is 

 this desiiable, as works of reference like these ought not to be confined to 

 public libraries, but should be in the hands of the specialists in the various 

 groups. 



