124 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Northern apples generally drop too early for our long Autumns ; as examples, take 

 the Roxbury Russet, Rhode Island Greening, Baldwin and Jonathan. Our longest 

 keepers have a more southern origin, such as Janet, Willow Twig, Wine Sap, and 

 Limber Twig. Let us test the Southern apples. 



I will close this article with a few reflections on the'subject of Insect Depreciations : 

 It is certainly not very gratifying to look back over the horticultural investigations of 

 fifty years, and see how little has yet been accomplished by man in checking insect 

 depredations. It seems that all the means that we can employ, in the destruction of 

 insect life, must have such a very limited application, that in the aggregate, very little 

 has been accomplished to abate the evils. 



It is not my purpose to dissuade people from continued efforts, but from needless 

 alarm. While we feel that we have not accomplished much ourselves, we can fall 

 back on a very consoling reflection. 



It seems a universal rule in nature, that whatever species has the most rapid means 

 of increase, nature has also provided the most formidable means to diminish their 

 numbers and check their overspread. In all animate nature there is conflict. Insect 

 life not only preys upon the vegetable, but also upon each other. Scarcely a species 

 exists that has not one or more parasitic enemy. Insects generally, have a rapid means 

 of increase and will exist in proportion as conditions favor their existence. And we 

 can easily understand that the prevalence of any one species will afford a means for 

 the subsistence of their parasitic enemies. In other words, the carniverous insects will 

 spread in proportion to the insects on which they subsist. When the Potato Bug pre- 

 vails then the Lady Bug can flourish and feast on the eggs of the former. Where the 

 Bark Louse has become spread, its little enemy the Mite, finds means to subsist. Then 

 we have extreme atmospheric changes, with the changing seasons — all the changes 

 of the elements favor or check in some way, the spread of insect existence. W T hile 

 we are devising means to work on a small scale, nature often sweeps away the pest in 

 a single season. 



A STATE BOTANICAL SURVEY. 



W. C. Flagg offered the following resolution : 



Resolved, That we hereby solicit the Legislature of this State to provide by law for a 

 Botanical Survey which shall embrace the collection and formation of cabinets of all our 

 native and introdced plants and woods, for our principal institutions ; the preparation 

 and publication of a series of reports ; and finally, the study and description of our na- 

 tive and introduced fungi, especially in their relation to vegetable and animal diseases. 



Adopted. 



RECONSTRUCTION AND ENTOMOLOGY. 



Dr. Warder proposed the name of M. W. Phillips, of Chatawa, 

 Miss., as an honorary member. Carried. 



Dr. Warder also offered the following preamble and resolution : 



Seeing that it is known to most of us, that The American Entomologist, published by 

 R. P. Studley & Co., of St. Louis, at $1.00 per year, and edited by our enthusiastic 



