96 PEOCEEBINGS OF THF, 



of his fellow-couutryraen. As far back as 1863 it was noticed 

 that vines were perishing from some unknown cause, and by May 

 I8G7 the effect on the vineyards had become most marked and 

 disastrous. In July ISGS it was known that it was due to insect 

 agency, and a Commission was engaged in tracing out its history, 

 but it was a twelvemonth later before Planchon detected the 

 galls, resembling those of an American species 0^ Pemphigus. A 

 few days later specimens of Phi/lloxera were found at Bordeaux, 

 and Planchon and his colleague Lichtensteiu at once thought that 

 the two were not only related, but were actually Pemphigus 

 citifolia, a supposition afterwards confirmed by Riley, the United 

 States entomologist, who came over expressly to investigate the 

 matter. In 1878 Planchon and Lichtensteiu presented a memoir 

 to the Academy, recounting the progress and life-history of the 

 pest, followed up by a still more important one the next year ; 

 Planchon's interest in the subject only ceasing with his life. He 

 took an active part in advising remedies to stay the plague, and 

 in introducing the American varieties of vines for stocks. 



Professor Planchon went to the United States in 1873, and 

 his second and last visit to this country was paid in August 1886, 

 after an interval of twenty-five years. He was elected a Foreign 

 Member of this Society on May 1st, 1855. 



John Smith was born at Aberdour in the county of Fife, 

 October 5, 1798, where his father was a gentleman's gardener, 

 and his early education was of the usual type of young Scotchmen 

 of his station, costing as a whole, as he himself recorded, not 

 more than five pounds. 



In 1818 he was a journeyman in the Edinburgh Botanic 

 Garden, living in a bothy with four others, with a money wage of 

 nine shillings per week. Out of this scanty stipend he managed 

 to save enough to buy Sir J. E. Smith's ' Compendium Flora? 

 Britannic£E ' and some drying-paper for specimens. In 1820 he 

 came south, and on the recommendation of Wm. Townsend Aiton, 

 Superintendent of the Royal Grardeus, was appointed to a place 

 in the Royal Gardens at Kensington. Two years later he was 

 transferred to Kew, where he was employed in the propagating 

 pits, the wages of the young gardeners then being twelve shillings 

 a week. The following year he was appointed foreman of the 

 hothouses and propagacing department, and soon began to mani- 

 fest a special interest in ferns ; at this time there were about 

 eighty species in cultivation at Kew, one half of that number 

 being hardy. From this time until the Royal Gardens became 

 public property, John Smith was the acting chief, at a salary of 

 .£40 a year, whilst the titular head, the younger Aiton, was 

 receiving .£1200 annual for practically a nominal superintendence 

 of the whole of the Royal Gardens. In 1810, when a scheme had 

 been propounded to hand over Kew to the Horticultural Society, 

 Dr. Lindley, Mr. Bentham, and Mr. Joseph Paxton were ap- 

 pointed a Commission to investigate the condition of the Gardens, 



