340 
In addition to the estates referred to, notice has been taken of 
the disease in various parts of Lancashire, Cheshire, Norfolk, 
South Wales, Scotland, &c. An interesting case was noticed at 
Sandringham. A tree about 40 years of age was covered with 
Coecus more thickly than any tree noted elsewhere. The leaves 
and young growths appeared to be quite healthy ; the tree however, 
for various reasons, had to be cut down, and on the timber being 
split up, it was found to be as clean and as full of sap as unaffected 
trees could be expected to be. 
Microscopic INVESTIGATIONS. 
A microscopic examination was made of numerous specimens of 
bark from trees badly affected with Coccus and from clean trees, 
also from pieces of bark thickly coated with Coccus and from bark 
of the same trees where little or no Coccus was present. Among 
these specimens differences were noted as regards the amount of 
sclerotic tissue in the bast, and the amount of cell-contents in the 
young bast ; but in neither of these particulars did there appear to 
be any constant character associated with the presence or absence 
of Coccus. Here and there under a small thick patch of Coccus a 
brown spot was found in the bark. . This often included a few dead 
cells near the surface and showed a layer of cork dipping a little 
deeper than elsewhere, but the greater part of the bark appeared 
to be unaffected. Sucking tubes of the insects were met with here 
and there in the outer tissues of the bark, sometimes reaching to a 
depth of one millimeter. 
In a certain number of trees small watery blisters are found on 
the lower part of the trunks, and are attributed by some people to 
a action of the Coccus, but no connection between the two was 
o 
SUMMARY. 
There can be no doubt that the Coccus is widely distributed 
about the country at the present time, as it has been for the last 
50 years. It is also equally evident that it has, on the whole, 
increased in quantity during the last 15 years, but that it is doing 
any serious amount of harm, or that it is likely to do so, is doubtful. 
In some of the early records the disease appears to have been quite 
as plentiful as it has been of late years, and to have caused the same 
uneasiness, but the worst expectations were never realised. 
ere can also be little doubt that climatic conditions, varying 
from time to time, favour its increase or decrease. The recent 
increase of the disease may probably be accounted for by the series 
of mild winters which succeeded the severe one of 1894-5. This 
may have favoured the spread of the Coccus on trees, which had 
