1893.] SILVER-TOP WHEAT 247 



American observations point to this, but these you probably 

 are well acquainted with -(and, indeed, it is not these you 

 are inquiring about). In my notes I mention the peculiar 

 manner in which the injured upper part of the stem can be 

 withdrawn, the stem having been apparently severed about 

 three or four inches above the uppermost knot. In the 

 only instance I have seen in which the attack was still in pro- 

 gress (that is, the stem was not already parted, although it 

 cracked asunder on being pulled), I found that at the point 

 of fracture the straw tube had within an irregular swollen 

 growth, what might be described as a granulated growth, 

 filling up the tube ; also the cross-section showed small 

 open cells which had been cracked across in severing the 

 stem. I had specimens of the attack also on barley, and at 

 the time I was inclined, from the absence of all insect appear- 

 ance, to ascribe it to some vegetable disease, but in the 

 years that have elapsed since then it has appeared to me 

 more likely to be attributable to thrips. 



I am afraid that there is not anything worth your study in 

 the page and a few lines of my remarks, but if you would 

 care to see it, I would gladly direct a copy of my twelfth 

 Annual Report to be sent for your acceptance. I would do 

 so now 7 , but I have not an unbound copy by me. Many 

 thanks for your own publications which you have kindly 

 sent me. I have read with great interest your remarks on 

 the Argyresthia conjugella, Zell. 1 We have an apple attack 

 here occasionally noticeable which agrees well with the 

 characteristics of this infestation, but I have never been 

 fortunate enough to identify the cause. 



Yours very truly, 



ELEANOR A. ORMEROD. 



To Professor Dr. Alfred Nalepa, Gmunden, Vienna. 



TORRINGTON HOUSE, ST. ALBANS, ENGLAND, 



August 3, 1893. 



MONSIEUR, I am very greatly indebted to your kindness 

 and courtesy in taking the trouble to give me all the very 

 valuable and helpful information which you favoured me 

 with in your letter of the 28th July. I also thank you much 

 for your permission to make some extracts in my Annual 

 Report from the information which you have placed in my 



1 The larvae of this species infested badly the apple fruits in the 

 whole of Finland in the summer of 1898. (Cfr. "Ent. Rec.," xi., No. 2, 

 1899, pp. 37-39, and "Can. Ent," xxxi., 1899, pp. 12-14). E. R. 



