270 SPRUCE FIR. — -WILLOW. 



would not develop enough to nurse up the young brood. 

 This clearing of mature, much-infested trees is very important, 

 — cure is hopeless when they are in this condition, — and 

 whilst each year they become more unhealthy under the 

 attack, they form centres to spread the Chermes all around. 



Where young trees only a few feet high are attacked, it is 

 desirable to go over them and remove the galls carefully, so as 

 not to bruise or tear the other shoots, and it is well to do this 

 as soon as the galls begin to show. The sap that would have 

 gone to the distorted growth is thus preserved for the healthy 

 shoots, and hatching of the Chermes out of the galls is 

 prevented. When growth is more advanced their removal is 

 best performed by a man furnished with an apron with a 

 large pocket ; into this each gall should be put as it is cut, 

 and the collection should be most carefully destroyed. An 

 apron is more convenient than a basket, which requires the 

 use of the second hand ; but if the galls, save in their earliest 

 stages, are merely thrown to the ground, the Chermes will 

 develop within, and probably be in no way checked by the 

 oj)eration. 



How far soil and situation affect the amount of attack does 

 not appear to have been fully noted, but probably they have 

 influence as in other cases of Aphis attack. The worst in- 

 stances of gall-presence that I have seen were on trees of about 

 thirty years old, which were somewhat overcrowded, and in a 

 damp locality, on a cold, stiff clay ; and also, after removal, 

 on some fine young trees about three or four feet high, which 

 had been planted in a space in a Fir wood so sheltered by the 

 neighbouring trees and hedges, and also by long rough grass 

 and weeds, that there was no free play of air. 



Where there are only a small number of young trees to be 

 attended to, drenchings with any of the Aphis washes in July, 

 or when the Chermes were seen to be hatching, would be use- 

 ful in clearing many from the trees. 



WILLOW. 



Willow Beetle. L'hrutora vitelUiuc, Linn. 



The Willow Beetle, Phratora vitellince, Linn., is a small 

 oblong-oval, shiny beetle about the sixth of an inch long, of a 

 bronze or green or bluish tint above, more brassy below. 



