The ravages of the Phylloxera on vines continue unabated, 

 and have become more and more widely spread. Numerous 

 notices and papers on the subject have appeared in the various 

 horticultural and other journals, including II. Y. HaimhoiTen's 

 article in the twenty-fifth volume of the Vienna ' Verhandlungen/ 

 whilst the different modes adopted for the prevention of the 

 disease have been recorded in the 'Comptes Rendus' of the 

 Academie des Sciences of Paris, and other journals. A most 

 lamentable account of the result of the action of these insects in 

 the vineries of some parts of France is given by M. Duchartre, of 

 the Central Horticultural Society of France (Gard, Chron. 

 January 18th, 1877). A summary also of the elaborate report 

 made by Professor Mouillefert (who had been delegated by the 

 Academie des Sciences to institute a series of experiments on the 

 various proposed means of destruction of the Phylloxera) to the 

 Academie, extending to 200 pages, is given in the ' Gardener's 

 Chronicle ' Januarj-^ 20th, 1877 (whilst this Address is passing 

 through the press), from which it appears that of all the various 

 chemical materials which have been suggested, onlj'- sulphur 

 compounds have been found at all efficacious. 



A curious memoir by Dr. F. A. W. Thomas on the action of 

 the very minute mites of the genus Phytoptus, which he terms 

 Acarocecidien, upon the leaves of many different species of trees 

 and plants, appears in the thirty-eighth volume of the ' Nova 

 Acta,' 187 G, 4to, with three plates, showing the various modes in 

 which the leaves are deformed by these minute creatures. A 

 paper on the same subject by Dr. Low appears in the twenty-fifth 

 volume of the Vienna Zool. Bot. Ges. 



It may be in the recollection of some of the members of the 

 Society that, at the time of the potato murrain in 1845, amongst 

 the various causes of the disease, it was suggested by Mr. Alfred 

 Smee (whose death, on the 11th of January, 1877, we have to 

 deplore) that it Avas the result of the attacks of a species of Aphis, 

 to which he gave the name of Aphis vastator — an opinion which 

 obtained but little support amongst naturalists. Within the last 

 few years the microscopical investigations of various fungologists, 

 especially of Mr. Worthington G. Smith, have clearly shown 

 the disease to result from the attacks of a minute fungus 

 belonging to the genus Peronospora. It appears, however, from 

 an article in the 'Gardener's Chronicle,' for April 8, 1876, that 



