bristles upon their last joints, and are prolonged into a pointed 

 claw having underneath slightly toothed hooks. The mite has 

 a snout for sucking the juices of the buds. At the tail is a pair 

 of long stout bristles, and there are three other pairs of shorter 

 bristles upon its body, one pair near the long tail bristles, and 

 two pairs near the head. These seem to help locomotion or to 

 steady the creature in its movements, which are wonderfully 

 rapid. In colour it is light grey. Its body is thickly covered 

 with spots or strise. It is indistinguishable with the naked 

 eye, and nothing can be made of it with the strongest pocket 

 lens. 



Eggs arei'ound in the buds during the spring. They have been 

 noticed as early as the 10th of February. They are rather 

 more round than ovoid in their early stages, and are colourless 

 and abundant. It is not known when egg laying ceases, but 

 probably as soon as the buds have expanded, or in cases of 

 bad infestation, when the buds have shrivelled up and the mites 

 are ousted from their homes. They stray about upon the leaves 

 and the shoots, and as they make their peculiar gold-coloured 

 galls (Fig. 2) upon the young and tender twigs, as well as upon 

 the sheathing scales, or embryonic leaves of the buds, it its 

 believed that they live upon these, if not upon the leaves also 

 until the buds are again formed. In January many deserted 

 galls were noticed upon young shoots and less frequently upon 

 older shoots ; they still retained their golden hue in some cases, 

 though many had become blackened. 



Some infested buds were examined in November, 1892, and 

 the mites were found under the first sheathing scales. During 

 the hard frost of the first week in January, ] 893, the mites 

 were found either under the third sheathing scale, or quite 

 within the centre of the whorl. Though the thermometer 

 registered from 20 to 29 degrees (Fahr.) of frost during the 

 week, the mites were most active and feeding, as taken from 

 buds hard frozen. 



MODES OF PREVENTION AND REMEDIES. 



When black currant bushes are planted they should be care- 

 fully examined for the Phytoptus. If there are any signs of un- 

 naturally swollen buds the young trees should not be planted. 

 In taking cuttings in the late autumn those from infested bushes 

 must be rejected absolutely. Infestation is easily seen then by 

 the abnormal buds. 



Infested bushes should be cut very hard, and every particle 

 of cutting carried away and burnt. In the spring the bushes 

 should be syringed well all over with a solution composed of 



1 ounce of Paris Green to from 11 to 12 gallons of water, with 



2 ounces of fine wheat flour added, or 2 ounces of soft soap, 

 to make the solution adhere better. 



