THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 267 



application of a remedy to so many trees was a matter of so 

 much labour, nothing was attempted to remedy the evil." 



Then follows a list of the pear-trees injured; and from this 

 it appears that some varieties suffered much n)ore severely 

 than others. In the course of a fortnight after these observa- 

 tions were made, new leaves began to push out vigorously on 

 the defoliated trees, and within a month or six weeks all was 

 green again. 



"In the meantime," says Mr. Bethune, "the mischief- 

 makers were preparing for a second descent, and we in our 

 turn were preparing to receive them. On the 29th of July, 

 when going through the orchard in the afternoon, the new 

 brood of flies were found in the greatest abundance, resting 

 on the young leaves and on those portions of green which 

 still remained on the leaves partially eaten by the last brood. 

 They were congregated, however, most thickly on those trees 

 where green leaves were most abundant. On disturbing them 

 they would fall to the ground, with the antennae bent under 



the body, and the head bent downwards We caught 



sixty specimens, and might have taken hundreds: they were 

 so thickly spread that in many instances there were two or 

 three on a single leaf. By the last week in August the second 

 brood of slugs were hatched. Now those trees which had 



previously escaped were all more or less infested A 



raised platform was rigged up in a one-horse cart, in which 

 was placed a barrel of water in which a pound of powdered 

 hellebore had been mixed ; and from this elevated stand this 

 mixture was showered lightly on the trees from the rose of a 

 watering-pot. It was astonishing how quickly the trees were 

 cleared by this method : scarcely a slug could be found on a 

 tree the morning after the application had been made; and 

 ten pounds of hellebore, with five or six days' work of a man 

 and horse, served to go over the whole ground." 



Powdered hellebore has been successfully tried in England 

 on a small scale ; but there is an apparent difficulty in raising 

 the water to a sufficient height to be of much service among 

 the giant pear-trees of Worcestershire and Herefordshire. 

 Still I would by no means discourage the attempt. 



In a scientific point of view it would be interesting to 

 ascertain the identity or otherwise of the " slugs" of Europe 

 and America, and to ascertain also whether the slugs had 



