320 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



RUMANIA 



There has long been a Museum of Natural History in Bucharest ; 

 and for many years a first-class entomologist and long-time corre- 

 spondent of the entomologists in Washington was A. L. Montandon 

 who specialized in the Heteroptera and whose work was well known 

 to the entomologists of the world. Montandon, by the way, published 

 a paper, as early as- 1901, on the injurious insects of Rumania. 



Since the World War Rumania has grown in size and importance 

 among the nations, and has realized the importance of plant protec- 

 tion. In 1926 an article was published in the Anzeiger fiir Schad- 

 lingskunde by Dr. W. Knechtel entitled "Applied Entomology in 

 Rumania." In this article it was shown that the Department of Agri- 

 culture had a Bureau of Plant Protection in which there were two 

 ofificials. The country was divided into two sections, each of which 

 was visited by one official, and all experimental farms, vineyards, and 

 nurseries of the Government were inspected every two months. Dis- 

 eases and infestations by injurious insects were reported at head- 

 quarters and necessary steps were taken to efifect control. The Bureau 

 published charts and bulletins and gave information and advice. Doc- 

 tor Knechtel's comment was to the effect that the Bureau was not 

 well established by law and not based upon scientific principles and 

 was not organized for research. He showed, however, that there 

 were certain scientific institutions in Rumania having charge of inves- 

 tigations of infestations by injurious insects. The oldest and most 

 important was the Section of Agricultural Entomology of the Uni- 

 versity of Jassy, which was in charge of Prof. Dr. J. Borcea who 

 was also Director of the Laboratory of Systematic Zoology. He 

 further pointed out that there was in Bessarabia a bio-entomological 

 station at Kichineff, founded by the Russians. I visited this sta- 

 tion in the old days in 1907 when it was in charge of Isaac Kras- 

 silstschik. At the time of my visit, Krassilstschik was in Berlin, a 

 misunderstanding of dates, owing to the Russian calendar, prevent- 

 ing our meeting. But later he was of much assistance to Prof. Trevor 

 Kincaid when he worked in Bessarabia on the parasites of the gipsy 

 moth. Doctor Knechtel adds further that the Laboratory for Syste- 

 matic Zoology of the University of Bucharest, in charge of Prof. 

 Dr. Popovici-Baznosanu, had recently established a division for the 

 control of injurious insects. Further, the German settlements in 

 Bessarabia were stated to have recently established a station at Taru- 

 tino for the control of insect infestations under the directorship of 

 Dr. Karl Stumpf. Lectures on agricultural entomology were given 

 at the Agricultural High School at Cluj and Herestrau, and also at 



