CURRENT NOTES. 169 



Secretary, under whose experienced care we are (|iiite sure that all 

 arrangements will be well carried out for the comfort of the visitors. 

 The County (Hertfordshire) Museum will be opened free on each day 

 of the Congress, and there will also be a Loan Museum at the Town 

 Hail, where members and friends of the Hertfordsbire Natural History 

 Society will exhibit their collections. Those delegates and members 

 who attend the Congress will have opportunities for making observa- 

 tions in natural history at several of the afternoon excursions, and on 

 the last day the local Society have invited the members of the South 

 London Entomological and Natural History Society to join them in a 

 field meeting at Gorhambury, the seat of the Earl of Verulam. It is 

 the intention of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society to issue 

 a Guide Book to the neighbourhood, dealing with Geology, Natural 

 History, etc., within a radius of five miles of the city. We wish the 

 meeting every success, more especially as it was an annual gathering 

 in which our late Editor took a strong personal interest. 



Many bulletins, pamphlets, etc., dealing with insects injurious in 

 agriciilturehave recently been sent to us from departments or museums 

 of foreign countries. A comparison of these elaborate publications 

 with the meagre leaflets issued by our English Board of Agriculture 

 is a striking instance of the old saying "comparisons are odious." 

 We have before us a Bulletin of the Xew Yorl,- Ai/riciiltiiral E.vperi- 

 iiioital Station entitled 'Thf A/ijile and Pear Meinbraciih. The Mein- 

 hraridae are a family of the Homoptera characterised by the bizarre 

 forms of the pronotum of various species, and one which is very 

 dominant in many areas of the new world. One of the British " frog- 

 hoppers," Centrotiis rorniitii.'^, will be called to mind as a member of 

 this family. The brochure in question consists of some thirty-two 

 pages with eight plates of many figures, and deals with every aspect of 

 the life history of the four species concerned. Every detail of the 

 structure and habits of these insects ascertained by long and close 

 observation and experiment, is fully described, and illustrated by 

 admirable figures, not only of the depredators themselves, but of the 

 depredations they cause. On the practical side as regards agriculture 

 no less care has been shown in advising not only what to do, but 

 precisely how to do and wdien to do, that which will effectually deal 

 with the trouble. Foremost among the antidotes is clean cultivation. 

 It was found that the nymph stage of these insects depended on 

 succulent weeds and plants for sustenance, hence the total clearance 

 of all such anywhere in the neighbourhood of the orchards is a most 

 efficient and practicable preventitive, and if a control is obtained by 

 the introduction and encouragement of bymenoptera parasitic upon the 

 eggs, it is stated that immunity from any attack detrimental to the 

 crops may be anticipated. 



A few days after penning the above remarks, I turned to the 

 weekly article contributed to the Daili/ Telenrajih by Sir Ray Lancaster, 

 under the heading "Prevention and Cure," to find the opening 

 paragraphs imbued with the same ideas. 



Sir Ray Lancaster says : — " There is no official entomologist in this 

 country employed either by the Local Government Board (which has 

 to do Avith the care of the health of the commuunity) or by the Board 

 of Agriculture (which has to do with regulations affecting our field 

 crops, fruit crops, and our herds). In every other civilised country 



