248 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The Grape Phylloxera not Perma- 

 nently Destructive. — Some of the vines 

 in the vineyards in Solano County, Cal., 

 which were deserted on account of Phyl- 

 loxera-work, are reported as recovering. 

 We have always believed, and have fre- 

 quently expressed the belief, that even in 

 Europe this pest will have its day, and that 

 from various causes, not far to seek, the 

 vine will be grown again on the very lands 

 of late years ravaged. Catawbas, which 

 for many years had failed in the vicinity of 

 St. Louis, and in some instances were neg- 

 lected and abandoned, have this year — 

 where not killed outright — grown vigor- 

 ously again, as we are informed by Mr. 

 Isidor Bush ; and the past four summers, 

 which have been unfavorable to the Phyl- 

 loxera there, have doubtless had much to 

 do with the improved condition. 



Phylloxera Regulations. — We learn 

 that the Turkish Government has forbidden 

 the introduction of any plants whatsoever 

 into the territories of the Sultan. This 

 wholesale interdict (supposing it were prac- 

 ticable to enforce it) has at least more 

 logic and sense about it than the rules 

 which permit a wagonload of hay to cross 

 the frontier, but confiscate a rose in the but- 

 tonhole of a tourist. — Gardeners' Chronide. 



Shower of Water-beetles. — The peo- 

 ple of Owensville, Mount Sterling, Sharps- 

 burg, and intermediate places in Kentucky, 

 were recently astounded by a veritable 

 shower of large brown, oval-shaped beetles, 

 measuring about one and a half inches in 

 length by half or three-quarters of an inch 

 in breadth. They proved to be the well- 

 known water-beetle {Dystia/s ra'Sciins). 

 Whether they were migrating, or had been 

 swept into the air by a whirlwind, does not 

 appear. — Scientific American. 



[We have no species of Dytiscus of that 

 specific name, but that does not alter the 

 interest of the phenomenon recorded.] 



The sale of silkworm eggs, as shown 

 in a recent publication by the Franklin 

 Institute, of Philadelphia, is an important 



industry. During the years 1874, 1875, 

 1876, and 1877, $6,000,000 worth of eggs 

 arrived at San Francisco, for each of the 

 years stated, from Yokohama, Japan, in- 

 tended to be shipped by the Pacific rail- 

 road to New York, thence by steamers to 

 Havre, France. 



The announcement of the death, at 

 Chickies, Penn., on September loth, of 

 Prof. S. S. Haldeman, in his 69th year, 

 comes to us as a shock. We parted with 

 him at Boston, not many days before the 

 sad event, and he then seemed hale and 

 hearty. Distinguished in several depart- 

 ments of Natural Science, as well as in 

 Philology, he was well known to entomolo- 

 gists for his early writings upon insects, 

 particularly upon the Coleoptera. 



We announce with regret the re- 

 tirement of Mr. Fuller as assistant editor 

 of the Entomologist. During the sum- 

 mer Mr. Fuller has been a great deal in 

 New Mexico, whither his interests are 

 liable to call him at any time. Though we 

 shall miss his assistance, we hope and 

 expect to often hear from him as a con- 

 tributor, and as a fertile writer deeply 

 interested in the subject of entomology, 

 especially in its relations to horticulture 

 and arboriculture. 



On Our Table. 



Evolution, Old and New ; or the Theories of Buffon, Dr. 

 Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck as compared with that of Mr. 

 Charles Darwin. By Samuel Butler, Author of " Erewhon," 

 ■■' Life and Habit," etc. 8vo. pp. 384. S. E. Cassino. Sa- 

 lem, Mass., 1879. " Evolution and what iscallcd Darwinism," 

 writes Mr. Butler, ^'convey indeed the same main conclusion, 

 but this conclusion has been reached by two distinct roads, 

 one of which is impregnable while the other has already fallen 

 into the hands of the enemy." It is the object of the present 

 volume to endeavor to lead its readers into the " impregnable" 

 road— so considered by the author — of purposiveness or teleol- 

 ogy in evolution ; and though it is " a perilous task to try and 

 take evolution from the pedestal on which it now appears to 

 stand so securely, and to put it back upon the one raised for it 

 by its propounders," Mr. Butler undertakes it in these pages. , 



" Not one person in ten thousand," he avers, "■ has any idea ( 

 of what Buffon, Dr. Darwin and Lamarck propounded. He ' 

 therefore gives a full resume of the positions taken by these ; 

 writers in regard to evolution, with a short biographical sketch 1 

 of each, and long quotations from their respective works. \ 

 And, though the reader's attention is chiefly confined to the I 

 above named three, nearly every writer who handled the same , 

 subject is made to contribute evidence for or against the ques- i 

 lion at issue ; and the development of the conception is fol- : 

 lowed " as it has grown up in the minds of successive men of 

 genius." 



Appreciation of Mr. Butler's opinions will vary with the 

 bias of his readers, but few will deny that he has produced a 

 very interesting book. 



American Grape Growing and Wine Making. By George 

 Husmann, Prof, of Horticulture in the University of Missouri. 



i 



