JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 
XIII 
of Paris, April 18tli, a letter was read, communicating the remark- 
able fact elicited by the investigations of the Chevalier Bassi of 
Milan, into the disease of silk-worms in the North of Italy, termed 
the Muscardine, that it is the result of the development of a Cryp- 
togamous vegetable of the family of the Mucedinees, the Botrytis 
Bassiana, of w hich the germ being introduced into the body of the 
silk-worm causes it to perish, and appears subsequently on the 
surface in the form of a white efflorescence. The knowledge thus 
acquired of the cause and effects of this disease, which is not epi- 
demic, as was formerly thought, but is contagious, being commu- 
nicated by contact or inoculation to other silk-worms, as well as to 
caterpillars of various species, has led to a rational mode of treat- 
ing it. 
“ Scolytus destructor. — Having lately observed that several of the 
fine elms in a particular quarter of the park at Brussels were 
nearly destroyed by the attacks of this pest, which has been so 
injurious in St. James’s Park and other places near London, I 
pointed out the circumstance to M. George, Piofessor of Botany 
in the University, who agreed with me that unless measures were 
taken for the destruction of the larvae with which the inner bark of 
the trees in question are filled, there would be great risk of the 
whole of this beautiful promenade falling eventually a sacrifice to 
the ravages of this insect. Pie represented the matter in a letter 
(subsequently published in the journals) to the burgomaster and 
municipal council, who appointed a commission for investigating 
the subject, at whose meeting I was present on Thursday last 
(April 21st), when a report was agreed to, advising the most likely 
means of remedying the evil, by peeling off and burning all the 
infected bark in trees partially attacked, and taking down those too 
far injured to have any chance of recovery. As there is nothing 
new or extraordinary in the attacks of this insect, I mention the 
preceding fact merely as an instance of the importance of Ento- 
mological knowledge, even in cases where at first sight it seems 
scarcely required. The men employed in the care of the park 
have been long aware of the decaying state of the trees referred to, 
and that even some of the young trees forming the Boulevard are 
similarly affected ; but conceiving the disease to be occasioned by 
some defect in the roots or the soil, they seem to have regarded 
the evil as without remedy, and have never pursued those measures 
for checking it, which they would doubtless have long ago adopted, 
had they known that the secret enemy was an insect whose de- 
structive powers were likely to augment in a geometrical ratio 
