11 
The subject announced, namely, “Entomology in its Relation to Hor- 
ticulture,” is one chosen by some enterprising member of your Board, 
and is altogether too comprehensive to be dealt with without more time 
and more thought than I have had at command. I shall endeavor to 
confine my remarks to scale-insects, and particularly to what you know 
as the White Scale. This is the insect which undoubtedly most con- 
cerns you just now, and [ have an elaborate article upon it now going 
through the press at Washington. This, however, would require two 
or three hours to read, and I will pass over the purely historical and 
entomological details and touch only upon such points as will probably 
interest you. 
NOMENCLATURE. 
There is no doubt whatever about this insect being the Icerya pur- 
chasi, of Maskell, and its scientific name is, therefore, fixed.* In refer- 
ence to its popular name, there are several in use, and as between 
“Australian Bug,” ** White Seale,” and ‘* Cottony Cushion-seale” there is 
very little choice, and it is, as a rule, useless to endeavor to change pop- 
ular names that have once come into vogue. So far as they ean be 
changed, however, and with a view of inducing unanimity in the adop- 
tion of a single name, it were better to reject all these names and call 
it the Fluted Scale. There are many Australian bugs and many white 
scales, some of which, belonging to the genus Pulvinaria, equally well 
deserve that cognomen. Cottony Cushion-scale is both too long to be 
acceptable and would likewise apply to the species of this last genus, 
whereas no scale-insect injurious to fruit or other trees, at present 
existing in this country, secretes its white, waxy matter in such a per- 
fectly fluted mass as this. The generic term, Icerya, if once popular- 
ized like Geranium, Phylloxera, &c., has the advantage of brevity and 
still greater accuracy. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
Historical evidence all points to Australasia as the original home of 
this insect, and its intreduction from Australia to New Zealand, Cape 
Town, South Africa, and California. Nothing was known or published 
upon the species prior to the seventh decade of this century, and it seems 
to have first attracted attention almost simultaneously in Australasia, 
Africa, and America. The evidence as to whether it is indigenous to 
Australia or New Zealand, or to both, is not yet satisfactory. The first 
personal knowledge which I had of it was from specimens sent to me in 
1872 by Mr. R. H. Stretch, then living in San Francisco, and all the 
evidence points to its introduction into California by the late George 
Gordon, of Menlo Park, about the year 1868, and probably from Aus- 
tralia, on Acacia latifolia. 
* This statement is, of course, based on the assumption that Maskell’s purchasé is a. 
good species. It may yet prove to be synonym of sacchart Signoret. 
