120 



zeau. Among" the mauy objects of this work was that of collecting 

 specimens of the cocoous of wild silk worms from all portions of the 

 world, with a view to determining whether their silk might not be used 

 commercially to a greater extent. It was also desired to And some 

 wild species which might be successfully crossed with the Bombyx mori 

 and lend new vigor to a species which has been weakened by centuries 

 of domestication. 



At the same time some interest has beeu excited by the success at- 

 tained in this country through the use of osage-orauge {Madura auran- 

 tiaca) in feeding silk-worms, and at the request of M. Dnsuzeau, the 

 Division has furnished him with specimens of osage-raised cocoons. Of 

 them he writes : 



These three varieties of cocoous are very regular, firm, and fiae. I have recently 

 reeled 100 grams of each, and I will send you, a little later, complete reports of the 

 three trials. I must say to you that the variety fed upon mulberry reeled excellently, 

 without the threads breaking; those of the two varieties fed on maclura were a lit- 

 tle less satisfactory, breaking several times. But it will not be possible to draw an 

 exact conclusion from this trial, because the first lot is of unknown origin and can 

 not be compared with the second and third lots, themselves raised from eggs fur- 

 nished by ditferent houses. 



The request for the samples mentioned came too late for me to make 

 a selection proper for such an experiment. This year a better selection 

 will be made and it is hoped that results of more value may be obtained. 



In this connection M. Natalis Kondot, the celebrated French statis- 

 tician, writes : 



I am anxious to settle this question of the raising of worms on the leaves of the 

 osage orange, as I am uow doing in China, with the leaves of the Cudrania triloba.* 



Before determining what ad.vautage the silk raiser would derive in using the leaf 

 of the maclura, it will be necessary to know what is the quality of the silk drawn 

 from the cocoons of the worms nourished with this leaf. It will be necessary to ex- 

 amine the filament of these cocoons. 



In this work the Division will give the French scientists all the as- 

 sistance in its power, and it may be that we shall be able to record im- 

 portant results at a later date. — [Philip Walker. 



THE PEAR DIPLOSIS IN ENGLAND. 



In our Annual Report for the year 1885 we gave a full account of this 

 insect, and from the mode of its occurrence we had good reason to be- 

 lieve that it was an importation from Europe and probably identical 

 with the Cecidomyia nigra (Meigen) of Schmidberger and C. pyricola of 

 l^ordlinger. At that time no Euroj^ean specimens of the imago existed 

 in any collection, so that a direct comparison of the European and Ameri- 

 can species was out of the question. In 1885 Miss E. A. Ormerod (re- 

 port of observations of injurious insects for 1884) first called attention 

 to the existence of the Pear Midge in England, the pest being espe- 



* The Cudrania triloba is a bush of the Nettle family (Order Urticacece). It is not 

 found in the United States. 



