On an Insect occasionally very injurious to Fruit-Trees. 439 
threwn over the bushes, lime, and chimney-soot, and a strong 
decoction of elder leaves; but who can eat gooseberties and cur- 
rants after they have been besmeared with such filthy materials, 
which at best apply to the evil in part? But, if any one can 
discover a means of keeping off the fly by the smell of something 
which is disagreeable to it, it goes to the root of the evil at once; 
and there is nothing in the smell of coal-tar which can excite a 
prejudice in the most delicate stomach. If this should not ge- 
nerally succeed, what has been said upon the subject may per- 
shdps be the means of some of your chemical and_ philosophical 
correspondents finding out something that will. Black pepper 
keeps off the flies from meat, and it is by no means impossible 
that a discovery may be made to keep these flies from the goose- 
berry-bushes ; for I am well assured, that there can be’ no ef- 
fectual remedy for this evil, but the discovery of something the 
effluvia of which will produce this effect: and the season is now 
approached when the attempt should not be neglected: for, if 
the first invasion succeeds in making a lodgement, it may not 
be so easy to prevent a second and a third from taking entire 
possession of all the bushes. It is upon this principle of creat- 
ing an offensive smell, that turnip-seed is recommended to be 
steeped in train-oil before it is sown; and it is said to bea per- 
fect security against the bite of the turnip-fly. 
Totness. J.C. 
XC. On an Insect which is occasionally very injurious to Fruit- 
Trees. By Witi1am Spence, Esq. F.L.S.* 
My attention was first attracted to this insect some years ago, 
by observing small masses of saw-dust-like excrement, the usual 
indication of the presence of larve, protruding from the edges of 
the cankered parts of a very diseased summer apple-tree, of the 
name of which | am ignorant. On cutting off a portion of the 
wood, J found many small white larye inhabiting cavities which 
they had excavated between the bark and alburnum, and some- 
times wholly in the latter, upon which they seemed to feed. 
These larve were of different sizes, and amongst them were se- 
veral chrysales, which having detached, and placed under a glass, 
they produced in a few davs the Tortrix Weeberana, a small moth 
very abundant in the garden, and thus proved to be the purest 
of the larve. ; 
I at first supposed that these insects, like many others, de-, 
posited their eggs only upon parts of the trees previously dis- 
eased, Even on this supposition, their injurious effects would be 
* From the Transactions of the London Horticultural Society. 
very 
