206 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



passes thiongh the ravaged country during the subsequent 

 winter. Sour cherry, apricot, and plum-trees, are less 

 affected by them, while ripe fruit is seldom touched. Of 

 berries, strawberries and blackberries are devoured, where 

 raspberries are frequently unmolested. Flowering shrubs 

 very generally suff^er; and the)' are particularly fond of rose 

 and lilac. Of herbaceous plants, Helianthus, Amaranthus, 

 and Xanthinm, are eaten with especial avidity. Grape-vines 

 suffer more from the girdling of the fruit-stems than from 

 defoliation. Forest and shade-trees suff'erin diff'e rent degrees, 

 and some, when young, are not unfrequently killed outright. 

 Last year, honey locust, red cedar, box elder, Osage orange, 

 elm and oak, were either untouched or but little injured, 

 while the following trees were preferred in the order of their 

 naming: ash, willow, coUonwood, balm of Gilead, silver- 

 leaved and Ijombardy poplars, black ash, black locust, black 

 walnut, hickory, Ailantluis, maple. Sumach, and evergreens. 

 In every case they show a marked preference for plants that 

 are unhealthy or withered.'" 



English philanthropists, who have taken such laudable 

 pains to discover outlets for their charity in Africa, would do 

 well to direct their attention to the naturally fruitful, but now 

 desolate, regions westward of the Mississippi : the plethora 

 of English wealth might here find a safety-valve among a 

 people who are really and positively our own kith and 

 kindred. Attracted by reports, to what was represented a 

 western paradise, thousands of families have migrated from 

 their homes in England to find a desolate, inhospitable 

 waste, rendered so by the ravages of these insatiable 

 destroyers. It may be asked whether the Americans them- 

 selves are doing their best to meet the emergency. And the 

 answer is certainly in the affirmative. Men of science have 

 exerted themselves to the utmost in diffusing a knowledge of 

 the natural history of the insect, and in endeavouring to find 

 means of exterminating or, at any rate, checking the increase 

 of the enemy ; while the benevolent have sought, by every 

 means in their power, to repair the losses, and thus mitigate 

 the sufferings. 



A crumb of comfort remains to the afflicted; although 

 some differences of opinion prevail on the subject, a general 

 o))inion prevails that the locust has reached its eastern limit 



