122 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA : 



destructive by far being the insect called Phylloxera 

 vastatrix. None of the remedies hitherto suggested seem 

 to have proved really effective, or they are not of suffi- 

 ciently easy and cheap application, and the phylloxera 

 thus is still rapidly on the increase in Europe. According 

 to latest accounts most vineyards of France were affected, 

 and the disease is also spreading in Italy, Spain, Germany, 

 Austria, Hungary, Algeria, Syria, and South Africa. 



" The most effectual method of combating this enemy 

 in France has been found in grafting the ordinary grape- 

 vine on stocks of several American species of Viti-s. It 

 may be worthy of trial how far the grape-vine can be 

 grafted on such other species not American as may not 

 be attacked by the phylloxera. Professor Monnier, of 

 Geneva, has introduced the very exhaustive sulphurous 

 anhydrous-acid gas against the phylloxera. The cultiva- 

 tion of insecticidal plants to check the ingress of the 

 phylloxera should be more extensively tried, as such 

 plants might ward off the insect, at all events in its wing- 

 less state. Dr. Herman Behr, the well-known American 

 entomologist, suggests for the mitigation of this plague 

 the ignition of wood near vineyards, when the insects are 

 on the wing, as all such insects seek fire and succumb in 

 them, the attraction to the fire light being greatest when 

 the sky is overcast, or when the nights are without moon- 

 light. Dr. Leacock, in Madeira, applies a coating of a 

 sticky solution of resin in oil of turpentine advantageously 

 to the roots of the vines affected by phylloxera. Dr. 

 Clemm extols an application of easily decomposed car- 

 bonates or sulphides to the soil with subsequent addi- 

 tion of any diluted acid, whereby the suffocating carbonic- 

 acid gas or the sulphuret of hydrogen is formed and 

 liberated, the resulting salts in their turn to invigorate 

 and nourish the suffering plant (Dr. S. Krause). Suc- 

 cessive broods of phylloxera maintained their vitality on 

 remnants of vine roots for six years and more. Inundation 

 to the depth of a few inches for about a month, when that 

 is practicable, completely suffocates the phylloxera, but 

 renders the vine for a time much less productive. In 



