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PLANT IMPORTATION INTO ITALY. 



We have previously referred in the Bulletins of this Division to the 

 antiphylloxera laws passed at the convention of Berne, and have printed 

 the regulations covering the importation of plants from America into 

 countries represented in the treaty. But as this was some timeago we 

 take occasion to print a letter received by the Italian Minister at Wash- 

 ington from tbe Italian Department of State, which has reached the 

 Secretary of Agriculture through the Italian Legation in Washington 

 and the Honorable Secretary of State : 



Rome, December 4, 1889. 



Mr. Minister : It has happened that certain Royal consular officers in countries 

 which, like the United States of America, do not belong to the International Anti- 

 phylloxenc Union, have issued certificates attesting the freedom from phylloxera of 

 plants sent to Italy, or merely the immunity of the countries from which tho plants 

 are sent. Now it is well to observe that no plants can be imported from countries 

 that have not adhered to the Antiphylloxeric Convention held at Berne, unless 

 by special previous authorization from the Royal Ministry of Agriculture and Com- 

 merce. 



Such authorization, in case it is granted, is always dependent upon the presentation 

 of the same documents that are required for plants that are sent from one to another 

 signatory State of the Swiss Convention, and this is because it is expressly provided 

 that States which did not sign that convention can not be treated more favorably 

 than those which did sign it or have subsequently adhered to it. 



At the request of the Royal Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, I inform you of 

 the foregoing, requesting you to give due notice thereof, and to cause such notice to 

 be given to all whom it may concern in the United States, in order that plants sent 

 from that country to Italy may not be refused admission on the Italian frontier. 



I will add that, in addition to the aforesaid authorization, the certificate that must 

 accompany shipments of plants must be issued by the local authorities and contain 

 the following declarations : 



(1) That the plants shipped are irpm earth that is at least twenty meters distant 

 from any vine, or that it is separated from any vine by some other obstacle that is 

 ■deemed sufficient to prevent the extension of the roots of such vine. 



(2) That such earth does not contain any vine. 



(3) That no viues have been deposited there. 



Damiani, 



Assistant Secretary of State. 



The Royal Legation of Italy, 



Washington. 



TRAPS FOR THE WINTER MOTH USELESS. 



Mr. R. McLachlan, in a recent number of the Gardener's Chronicle 

 {Vol. 7, p. 23), calls attention to the fact that the traps which aim at the 

 destruction of the males of the Winter Moth {Cheimatobia hrumata) will 

 failofgoodresults, since enough will always escape to fertilize the wingless 

 females, and that it is the latter, rather than the males, that should be 

 guarded against. In this connection is noted the " parthenogenesis " 

 or " agamogenesis " of certain of the wingless female moths, which, of 

 course, would render futile the destruction of the males alone. 



