inJURY to GROWTH. ii 
varieties, and in the same numbers, planted alongside, ninety-five per 
cent. germinated.” * 
From experiments made by the same observers, also at the Kansas 
Station, the great loss on weevilled Peas by deficient germination is 
fully proved, and is followed by the remarks of the joint writers of the 
paper—Prof. Riley, late Entomologist of the U.S.A. Board of Agricul- 
ture, and Mr. L. O. Howard, his successor :—‘‘ This evidence practi- 
cally settles the long-mooted question, and it is safe to say definitely 
that weevilled or ‘buggy’ Peas should not be planted.”’ Also, ‘‘ The 
remark which we have just made regarding the germination of wecvilled 
Peas will apply equally well to Beans damaged by Bruchus.”’ 
The amount of injury to one or other of the two kinds of seeds of 
course depends partly on the amount of what would have been the 
seed-leaves which is eaten away, and the consequent amount of removal 
of what would have fed the young plant in its first growth, and also, 
aud very materially, whether it is the nature of the pest to feed on the 
germ in the seed. This makes an enormous difference in the practical 
importance of the two Bean-seed attacks under consideration. 
It is proved that faba (=obtectus) will feed on the germ, but there 
does not appear to be proof that such is the habit of our own special 
long-known pest the rufimanus ; but the experiments of Mr. Theodore 
Wood show with regard to this kind that risks arise from the use of 
even slightly injured seed. 
From a number of infested seeds of B. rufimanus, Mr. Wood 
selected twenty ; three of which had been perforated by three weevils, 
five by two, and twelve by one only. They were sown under favourable 
circumstances, and grew thoroughly well; but when the time for 
fruiting came the blossoms were few and small, the foliage faded, and 
several of the plants died without producing a pod. In Mr. Wood's 
own words :— 
‘Of the first three plants raised from seed pierced by three weevils, 
one was altogether barren, while the remaining two bore but three pods 
between them, none of which arrived at perfection. The next five, 
grown from seed tenanted by two beetles only, were slightly more 
fruitful, bearing in all six pods, of which five reached their full growth; 
two of these five plants, however, were barren. Upon the remaining 
twelve, the seed of which had but one perforation, I counted twenty- 
three pods, not more than ten of which arrived at maturity. Only one 
plant of the latter was entirely unfruitful. It will thus be seen that 
the twenty plants bore among them but thirty-two pods, in all of 
which less than one-half came to perfection.” —‘ Entomologist’s 
Monthly Magazine,’ xxii. p. 114; 1885. 
* See experiments by Prof. E. A. Popenoe, of Kansas Experiment Station, 
quoted in ‘Insect Life,’ Nos. 9 and 10, vol. iv. p. 302, U.S.A. Department of Agri- 
culture, 1892. 
