« 44 



two insects, one fact is wanting, and that is, that bitlierto no one lias yet 

 been able to obtain galls upon the leaves from the FhyUoxera, or insect 

 which produces the galls on the root, and saj'S that this is indispensable, 

 in his view of the case, in order to incontestably prove the identity of 

 the two insects. M. Laliman further says that Mr. Engelman sent to 

 the Garden of Plants several vine-stalks, coming from Missouri, a State 

 at present infested. One of these vine-stalks was given to him by M. 

 Cornu,on which experiments had been tried during the summer of 187 j 

 witli the Pemphigus, or leaf gall-louse, and which, in truth, had j^roduced 

 swellings on the roots, and which was verihed on taking it out of the 

 pot. "When we planted it in the open soil, at the commencement of 

 November, alas! this vine, martyr to science, imprisoned in a pot of 

 twenty-tive centimeters, was superb in vegetation for the situation it 

 was placed in, and the Pemphigus had Hed." 



M. Laliman, after giving other supposed proofs, adds at the end of 

 the paragraph, "consequently the Femphigus is not murderous like the 

 Phylloxera, and it is not the same insect, although having some resem- 

 blance." He says that, in 1869, M. Planchon told the Society of the Gi 

 ronde "the insect has always been in Europe," therefore M. Planchou 

 has altered his views since his visit to America. In 1873 Messrs. Bush 

 «& Son wrote us from St. Louis, " It is only European vines that are 

 lousy, sometimes the Isabella and Catawba, and we pay little attention 

 to it ;" and, lastly, M. Laliman says, " We have sent American vines to 

 a hundred places, and have not had a single report of the introduction 

 of the Phylloxera or root gall-louse." There are also several other points 

 of great importance in M. Laliman's article which we might give, but 

 enough has been said to show that some French aird American vine- 

 growers differ from the opinion of Messrs. Eiley and Planchon as to the 

 identity of the two insects, and the American origin of the great French 

 vine-destroyer. Phylloxera rastatrix, or the root gall-louse of the vine. 



Some of the American papers have also taken the matter up. In an 

 article in Moore's Rural New Yorker, copied into the Farmer and Gar- 

 dener, edited by Mr. P. J. Berckman, in Augusta, Ga., Mr. E. J. Labiaux, of 

 North Carolina, states that Dr. Planchon says he " is satisfied that the 

 American Phylloxera and theirs are identical." This opinion JNIr. Berck- 

 man seriously questions, but, admitting it for the sake of argument, he 

 denies that the identity proves that the insect in question was ever 

 exported from this country to France. He then inquires why Dr. 

 Planchon did not visit the locality in Georgia wh'ence, as stated by Dr. 

 Plumeau, of Bordeaux, the insect was exported to France, and asks^ 

 " AVhat positive proof has Dr. Planchon acquired during his hasty visit 

 to assert that the insect is of American origin ?" and adds that when 

 the report of the special committee, appointed by the American Pomo- 

 logical Society, at its late meeting at Boston, to investigate its origin 

 and injury, will be made next summer, it is more than probable that its 

 existence on this continent will be traced to importation from France, 

 and that instead of American vines having introduced the insect into 

 France, we owe to the introdaction of French vines its existence in a 

 few districts in the West. M. Berckman also questions the value of the 

 remedy proposed, namely, the fumes of suli)huret of carbon applied to 

 the roots, and says that, when properly applied, the fumes of this chem- 

 ical will destroy the insects but will also materially injure the vines. 

 He quotes three experiments made by a competent vineyard-owner in 

 1869. In the first experiments the application of sulphuret of carbon 

 killed most of the vines operated upon ; in the second, a portion of the 

 vineyard was destroyed, even with the application of about one ounce 



