172 
ature. In woody plants this deformity is generally confined to some of 
the branches, its occurrence in the flower peduncles being rare. The 
specimens of the sophora above mentioned (Sophora speciosa, Benth.) 
are affected in different degrees, some showing the peduncles but little 
flattened and expanded upward like a club, while the largest is 9 inches 
long, swelling out in the shape of a trumpet, but perfectly flat, 5 inches 
broad at the summit, which is plaited, scolloped, and gashed or split 
into several sections. The flattened surface is covered with a multitude 
of small points, which are undeveloped flowers, each of which has a 
small pointed bract below the bud, and in several places toward the 
summit a number of the buds have developed into ordinary flowers, 
irregularly scattered, each with a short pedicel. About twenty-five of 
these flowers occur on one specimen, while the undeveloped buds amount 
to several hundred. In the normal state the flower peduncles fall off 
after the maturity of the flowers or fruit, as they did in this case until 
the last year; the persistence of these abnormal, hypertrophied pe- 
duncles, and the subsequent development of flowers upon them, being 
very remarkable. The tree which is the subject of this peculiarity 
much resembles the Sophora japonica, and would probably be equally 
ornamental in cultivation. In Texas it is evergreen, the specimens 
showing last year’s leaves and also young ones of the present season. 
CONSULAR COMMUNICATIONS. 
THE VINE DISEASE IN FRANCE.—THE PHYLLOXERA VASTA- 
TRIX.—The Department of Agriculture has received, through the De- 
partment of State, the following communication from M. M. Price, esq., 
United States consul at Marseilles, embracing © variety of statistics in 
reference to the origin, nature, and extent ‘of the disease which for 
several years has so extensively devastated the vineyards of France: 
It is now nearly ten years since certain cultivators at Pujaut, Roqnemaure, and Vil-- 
leneuve, in the department of Gard, a few miles from Avignon and on the right bank 
of the Rhone, called attention to a new disease of the vine. It was first called “la 
pourridie,” (the rot,) from the fact that the vines which died were found to have their 
roots completely rotten. No attenticn was paid to the matter except by those imme- 
diately interested, who found their vines rotting away from year to year, without any 
of the remedies tried having proved efficacious in arresting the increasing mischief. 
Four years passed, and the * rot” continued, thus unnoticed, to pursue its destructive 
work in the best-cultivated wine district of Provence and ‘Languedoc, until the se- 
vere winter of 1867--’68 developed the evil in such proportions that at length, in the 
summer of 1868, was sounded the first note of alarm, which came from a committee 
appointed by the prefect of Gard to examine the nature and explain if possible the 
eauses of the new disease. The committee reported the discovery of a microscopic 
insect feeding upou the roots of the diseased vines. Professor Planchon, of the Col- 
lege of Montpellier, claims the honor of having classed and named the interesting bug. 
He called it at first the Phyzaphis vastatria, but afterward changed it to Phylloxera 
vastatric. It was found upon examination that the insect commenced its work by at- 
tacking the hair-like filaments of the vine-root, thence gradually extending its ravages 
through the entire plexus of radicles and larger roots, till all was rotten and destroyed. 
A singular thing noticed was that generally the vine preserved its usual he: thy ap- 
pearance, gave its usual complement of grapes, and then suddenly collapsed and died. 
By degrees public attention was excited. The Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, 
the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and the Society of Agric ulturists of Fr rance, instituted 
inquiries. A reward of 20,000 francs was offered by the government to whoever should 
discover an effectual remedy, and other smaller rewards were offered by departmental 
societies, which have never yet been claimed. In the fall of 1868, M. Mares, secretary 
of the agricultural society ‘of Hérault, made an excursion through the infected re- 
gion to ascertain the extent of the disease and the direction of its course. He found 
it to extend from Roquemaure in Gard, north to Rochegude, in Dréme, and south 
