INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FOREST TREES. 177 



down, ought to be carefully collected and burnt, so as to destroy 

 as many as possible of the numerous insects that haunt their 

 crevices. 



We will next devote a few remarks to the extensive Order of 

 Coleoptera, or beetles, an order that includes some of the most 

 destructive enemies with which the forester has to contend, and 

 which, owing to their insidious habit of feeding in the dark, and 

 committing many of their most serious ravages under the bark, or 

 in the interior of the buds and branches, it taxes his utmost watch- 

 fulness to quickly discover their presence, and his determined per- 

 severance and ingenuity to get speedily rid of them. One of the 

 best known and most destructive to the Scotch fir is the pine 

 beetle [Hylurgus piniperda), upon which, and all other insects 

 which infest Coniferse, a most able and instructive essay was 

 written in 1873 by oiu* highly-esteemed vice-president, Robert 

 Hutchinson, Esq. of Carlowrie, and published in vol. vii., p. 123, 

 of the Society's Transactions. 



The next I would draw attention to is the fir beetle (Hylobius 

 abietis), which is about as destructive as the pine beetle. In the 

 Society's Transactions, vol. ii., p. 48, is a very instructive and 

 practical paper upon it by one of the most experienced members 

 of our Society, Mr M'Corquodale of Scone, in which is given 

 an interesting history of the discovery of the insect in Scotland, 

 and a full and clear detail of the operations he found to be suc- 

 cessful in preventing the attacks of' the beetle on young planta- 

 tions of Scotch fir made on ground which had just been cleared 

 of a crop of the same tree, and was badly infested with the 

 beetle. There is also an excellent practical paper by Mr William 

 Tivendale, forester, Houston, in the Transactions, vol. vii, p. 80, 

 giving an interesting account of his experience with both the fir 

 and the pine beetles. In the papers referred to, the subject is 

 so fully treated, and the remedies tried and found effective, so 

 clearly described, that I need not take up your time by recapi- 

 tulating them. I may state, however, that the ravages of the 

 Hylurgus piniperda are by no means confined to the Scotch fir, 

 as I have seen it do severe injury to the Weymouth pine in 

 the midland counties of England, and also do considerable damage 

 to the shoots of Finns insignis, excelsa, and laricio, — in fact, 

 at one time and another, I have seen most of the pine tribe 

 grown in this country attacked by it ; so that wherever a collec- 

 tion of these is grown for specimens, a careful look-oiit ought to 



