CURRANT MITE. 151 
acre picking off the galls comes to a very serious item, but I do not 
see that there is anything else we can do; if you can suggest anything 
we shall be very glad. 
‘« We have in some cases cut off the trees to the ground, and the 
young trees when they come up are full of Gall Mites. We have 
syringed with Paris-green, and we have limed the stools; all this 
seems to have no effect in getting rid of them, 
‘¢ What we want to know is more of the life-history of this pest ; 
where does it hybernate, and what season of the year does it move 
from bud to bud, and when is the breeding season ?”’ 
On December 22nd, 1897, Mr. Wise wrote further :— 
** Acari.—I am sorry to say that the Black Currant Gall Mite 
increases with us; the bushes this autumn are covered with galls, and 
it is becoming really a most serious matter to know what to do. If 
we could only find out a little more of the life-history of these Mites, 
we might be able to cope with the pest.” 
In the course of correspondence and of observations of this attack, 
it occurred to me that it might be possible that there were varieties of 
the Ribes nigrum which were less liable to attack than others, and 
. consequently on my application on this subject to Prof. J. Jablonow- 
ski, Director of the Government Entomological Station at Budapest, 
Hungary, he was good enough to procure for me from the Director of 
the Horticultural Institute some cuttings of Black Currant, which 
arrived in excellent condition, and which I shared for experiment 
between Mr. Speir (above mentioned) and Mr. Wise, keeping two or 
three for myself, but which afterwards, on having the pleasure of 
becoming in communication with Woburn, I forwarded for trial. We 
shall thus learn whether my view of there being possibly ‘ Mite- 
proof” varieties is well founded, though I fear it may probably be 
otherwise. 
The following valuable notes were sent to me in reply to some of my 
enquiries on this subject, as well as of other possible means of lessening 
amount of the Black Currant Phytoptus injury, by Mr. Malcolm Dunn, 
from The Gardens, Dalkeith; and I feel much pleasure in giving his 
well-weighed views on the points that I submitted to him :— 
. “I will answer your queries about the ‘Black Currant Bud 
Mite’ in the order they come in your letter. 
“1. The kinds of Currants most liable to attack. — So far as I have 
seen, or heard, the attack of the Phytoptus in question is confined to 
the one ‘kind’ of Currant (Ribes nigrum, L.) in Britain; and so far as 
my personal observations go, I have not noticed the insect showing a 
preference for any one or more of the ‘ varieties’ of the Black Currant. 
It is one of the few cultivated fruits which diverges very little in its 
character. 
