Reports to the Board of Agriadture. 39 



reported from Castle Eden, Durham, by Mr. E. Burden, of the Castle, 

 and a request sent to the Board of Agi'iculture for information. Mr. 

 Burden, \mting later to me at the British Museum, says : " I have 

 now noticed a large number of trees attacked more or less in the same 

 way. It looks like a regular epidemic, as it certainly has not appeared 

 in the same way for the last few years. My forester tells me that 

 they had the same sort of epidemic on the Tyne, or in Northumber- 

 land, some fifty years ago (I think) and lost a lot of fine beeches." It 

 has also been reported to the British Museum from Longwillow Hall, 

 Morpeth, from whence the following note was sent : " At a distance 

 the tree looks as if it had been whitewashed ; when it is scraped off, 

 the yellow eggs or insects are to be seen. Two trees are covered on 

 the E. side of their stems. I remember a beech — not an old tree — in 

 Gloucester which was affected in the same way, and died after a 

 time. It smells something like the larva of a Goat Moth." 



This scale insect chiefly attacks the trunk, but may ascend into 

 the boughs. The females give rise to larvae in September, and they 

 envelop themselves in a white cottony secretion, and then cast off' 

 their antennae and legs and remain for the rest of their lives devoid of 

 such appendages. The adult female is a small orange-yellow sac, 

 surrounded by a white mass ; these white patches often unite and 

 form large felted masses, beneath which the larvae burrow and develop. 

 These scale insects suck out the sap very greedily, and often do much 

 harm when present in large numbers. In time they cause the bark 

 to peel off the tree and then decay and death may ensue. Large 

 numbers of trees are attacked in parts of Surrey ; it is also common 

 in Cheshire, Huntingdonshire, and probably occurs in small numbers 

 wherever the beech grows in Europe. 



The trees should be sprayed in the summer with strong paraffin 

 emulsion twice at an interval of two days. In the winter they should 

 be sprayed with caustic alkali wash. 



The method of scrubbing the tree trunks is too laborious if the 

 attack is on a large scale, and thorough spraying with warm paraf&n 

 emulsion is quite effective. 



Mr. Burbidge, of the Botanic Gardens, Dublin, has informed Mr.. 

 Newstead that the weeping beech, of which there are two kinds^ 

 grafted on common beech stocks is not affected by this coccus. The 

 stock may thus be attacked, but the weeping scion is not. 



This insect is not attacked by birds and very rarely by insect 

 parasites, according to Mr. Newstead. 



Should the trees be cut down they should be burnt at once. 



