4 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
seem of little practical importance now that the scale is fully established 
on this continent, but its solution may be of the highest value, inas- 
much as it is evidently no serious pest where it came from and must 
therefore be kept in check by its natural enemies, which, as so often hap- 
pens, have not accompanied it in its voyage to North America. If its 
native home could be discovered with certainty there would probably be 
no insuperable difficulty in importing the useful insect, or the vegetable 
parasite, as the case may be, which keeps it under control. 
In 1880, it was scientifically described by Prof. Comstock under the 
name of Aspidiotus perniciosus, the specific designation proving to be 
most appropriate, though at that time and for many years longer its de- 
vastating work was confined to California. It was not until August, 
1893, that it was noticed east of the Rocky Mountains; it was then found 
to be injurious in an orchard in Virginia and was traced from there to 
some nursery gardens in New Jersey, whose managers had imported 
plum trees from California and distributed them, after a few years 
further growth in their plantations, far and wide throughout the Eastern 
States. In 1894, and again two years later, the scale was discovered in 
British Columbia, but on both occasions the affected trees were promptly 
destroyed and the infestation was put an end to. Only three years ago 
it was found for the first time in this province of Ontario in the counties 
of Kent and Lincoln where it soon revealed its destructive powers. Since 
that time it has continued to be a subject of absorbing interest among 
fruit growers and has led to the adoption of very stringent measures for 
its repression by both the Dominion and Provincial Legislatures. In the 
winter following its discovery in Canada, an Act was passed (January 
17th, 1898) by the Legislature of Ontario forbidding the importation 
or sale of any plants infested by the scale and providing for the inspec- 
tion of orchards and the destruction by burning of all trees or plants 
found to be attacked. The Dominion Parliament almost immediately 
afterwards passed an Act (March 18th, 1898) which prohibited the im- 
portation into any part of the Dominion of any “nursery stock” from the 
United States, Australia, Japan and the Hawaiian Islands; greenhouse 
plants with the exception of roses, herbaceous perennials and bedding 
plants, all conifers, and bulbs and tubers, being free from liability to at- 
tack by the scale, were exempted by Order-in-Council from the opera- 
tions of the Act. 
Legislative enactments were also passed about the same time by no 
less than sixteen of the United States dealing more or less rigidly with 
the importation or distribution of infested plants and those liable to 
attack, and the destruction of those found to be affected. In Germany 
a decree was proclaimed (February 5th, 1898) absolutely prohibiting the 

