106 MULTUM E PARVO. 



larvge penetrate between the bark and the wood, and 

 destroy the vital connexion between these parts, inter- 

 rupting the course of the descending sap, and inducing 

 rapid decay and speedy death. 



In tlie north of France, the public promenades are 

 almost everywhere shaded by avenues of noble elms. In 

 very many cases these trees are fast disappearing before 

 the assaults of a similar foe. And the grand old elms of 

 our own metropolitan parks and gardens are becoming so 

 thinned, that great alarm has been felt, and the resources 

 of science emi:)loyed for the checking of the mischief. 

 Fifty thousand trees, chiefly oaks, have also been destroyed 

 in the Bois de Vincennes, near Paris. In all these cases 

 the minute but mighty agent has been some sjDecies or 

 other of the genus Scolytus. 



Fortunately in this clime we know only by report the 

 consumptive energy of the termites, or white-ants ; " cola- 

 mitas Indiarum." AVood, timber of all kinds, with one 

 or two exceptions, is the object of their attacks ; and so 

 unrelenting is their jDcrseverance, so incredible are their 

 numbers, that all the wood-work of a house disappears 

 before them in the course of a night or two ; though in- 

 dividually they are about the size of the common red ant 

 of our woods. They have an aversion to the light, and 

 invariably work under cover : hence, in attacking a tree, a 

 post, a rafter, or a table, they eat out the interior, leaving 

 the thinnest possible layer of the outer wood remaining. 

 It frequently happens that, after their depredations have 

 been committed, no indication of the work appears to the 



