46 RAVAGES OF TIMBER-EATING INSECTS 



don, from about 1820 to 1 824-, presented many examples. The 

 Elm-trees in both of these " Lungs of London," as they have 

 not unaptly been termed, and particularly in St. James's Park, 

 were rapidly disappearing. In spring, the leaves were seen 

 to sprout out from the venerable trunks in all the luxuriance 

 of vegetation, when of a sudden they were blasted, as if by 

 lightning, the bark fell from the stem, and long ere winter 

 the finest tree perhaps in the Park was fit only for firewood. 

 Whole rows thus disappeared, and were rapidly disappearing 

 in the Mall and the Birdcage-walk, threatening entirely to 

 destroy the antiquated appearance of the Park, associated with 

 the recollections of times gone past. 



As the persons who had the charge of the trees were entirely 

 ignorant of the true cause of the mischief, and as it was clear 

 that the trees died in consequence of being completely stripped 

 of their bark, rewards were at first offered for the discovery of 

 the delinquents who so mischievously barked them ; but these 

 were offered in vain. It was observed, however, and the 

 observation claims some credit for its ingenuity, that no 

 more of the tree was barked, from the ground, than what was 

 easily within the reach of a soldier's bayonet ; and this was 

 sufficient to throw suspicion on some unfortunate recruits, of 

 whom more than one was arrested, without producing any 

 diminution of the evil. In vain too were persons employed to 

 sit up during whole nights, watching for the enemy ; the bark 

 continued to be found every morning at the roots of the trees ; 

 and the park-keepers, after all their trouble, could only con- 

 clude, " that the bark fell off in consequence of something be- 

 ing placed on the trunks during the day-time" *. About the 

 same period, the Elms in the Grove at Camberwell, near 

 London, a place consecrated in the memories of many per- 

 sons by having been the residence of the late philanthropist 

 Dr. Lettsom were observed to be undergoing a similar pro- 

 cess of destruction ; and the proprietors being equally ig- 

 norant of its cause as in the instances I have just mentioned, 

 the injury was ascribed to the effects of gas, escaped from the 

 pipes for lighting the road, which had just been laid down ; 

 and legal proceedings, for the removal of this nuisance, were 

 actually commenced against the Gas Company which had 

 undertaken the supply. 



Entomologists, it is true, had long been aware that the ope- 

 rations of insects were the cause of all this mischief; unfortu- 

 nately, however, they were not believed, until the disease had 

 reached that pitch which threatened to make remedy hopeless. 

 It was evident to those acquainted with the subject, that un- 

 * Philosophical Magazine, vol. hii. p. 253. 



