( Hv ) 



over a large portion of the wine-growing districts of that country, 

 whilst Germany and Switzerland have not escaped. In America 

 the aerial form produces most injury ; but in Europe the greatest 

 destruction has been caused by the subterranean form. The offer 

 of a prize of 300,000 francs has hitherto failed to discover a real 

 remedy for the evil, which was said in 1881 to have inflicted on 

 the French wine-growers alone a loss of three milliards of francs. 

 The area devoted to the growth of the vine in France has 

 diminished since 1873 by 350,000 hectares ; but the yield of the 

 vintage for 1883 amounted to over thirty- six millions of hecto- 

 litres, being the largest in France since 1878 ; and it is satis- 

 factory to learn that not only the Departments of the Loire, the 

 Var, the Bouches-du-Ehone, the Drome, the Ardeche, Lozere, 

 Herault, and Ariege, but also the Vienne, and especially the 

 Gironde, are now more or less on the way to recovery from the 

 ravages of Phylloxera. 



It will be remembered that in 1881 a Committee of this 

 Society was appointed to consider and report on the evidence 

 taken by the Legislative Assembly of Victoria as to the occurrence 

 of Phylloxera vastatrix in that colony (Proceedings, 1881, p. ix.). 

 The evidence was then deemed inconclusive (see the Eeport, ib., 

 p. xi.),* and the Committee recommended that specimens of the 

 supposed Phylloxera, together with young rootlets of vines sup- 

 posed to be attacked, should be forwarded to the Society for 

 examination. This suggestion has been acted upon by the 

 Victorian Minister of Agriculture, and some vine-roots have been 

 sent for inspection, accompanied by a letter from the Premier, 

 dated Melbourne, 24th September, 1883, in which he states 

 " that all vines supposed to be infected with the disease in 

 question have been dug up and destroyed, and the samples now 

 forwarded are roots not removed from the ground at the time of 

 digging out the vines. The insects now forwarded are in the 

 first stage of development after the egg. Specimens of a further 

 stage (obtainable in December or January) will be forwarded 



* Mr. Buckton (Mori. Aphid, iv. 53, 56) speaks of the appearance of 

 Phylloxera at the Cape of Good Hope, and in Australia ; as to the latter, 

 this is unfortunately verified ; but as to the Cape Colony, is there any evi- 

 dence of its occurrence there ? In 1881 a sum of .£25,000 was contributed by 

 the Authorities of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, to be 

 employed in the extermination of the insect. 



