ANBURY. 



ANBURY. 



The disease now makes rapid progress ; the 

 swelling continues to increase ; for the vessels 

 of the alburnum and the bark continue to 

 afford their juices faster than they can be con- 

 veyed away. Moisture and air are admitted to 

 the interior of the excrescence through the per- 

 foration made by the maggot; the wounded 

 vessels ulcerate, putrefaction supervenes, and 

 death concludes the stinted existence of the 

 miserable plant. The tumour usually attains 

 the size of a large hen's egg, has a rugged, 

 ichorous, and even mouldy surface, smelling 

 strong and offensively. The fibrous roots, be- 

 sides being generally thickened, are distorted 

 and monstrous, from swellings which appear 

 throughout their length, which apparently 

 arise from an effort of nature to form recep- 

 tacles for the sap, deprived as it is of its natural 

 spissation in the leaves. These swellings do 

 not seem to arise immediately from the attacks 

 of the weevil, for I have never observed them 

 containing its larva. Mr. Marshall very cor- 

 rectly describes the form which this disease 

 assumes when it attacks the turnip. It is a 

 large excrescence appearing below the bulb ; 

 growing to the size of both hands, and as soon 

 as the hard weather sets in, or it is, by its own 

 nature, brought to maturity, becoming putrid, 

 and smelling very offensively. On the last day 

 of August, when the bulbs of the turnips were 

 about the size of walnuts in the husk, the an- 

 buries were as big as a goose's egg. These 

 were irregular and uncouth in their form, with 

 excrescences resembling the races of ginger 

 hanging to them. On cutting them, their gene- 

 ral appearance is that of a hard turnip ; but on 

 examining them through a magnifier there are 

 veins, or string-like vessels, dispersed among 

 the pulp. The smell and taste somewhat 

 resemble those of turnips, but without their 

 mildness, having an austere and somewhat 

 disagreeable flavour resembling that of an old 

 stringy turnip. The tops of those much affected 

 turn yellow, and flag with the heat of the sun, 

 so that in the daytime they are obviously dis- 

 tinguishable from those which are healthy. 

 These distortions manifest themselves very 

 early in the turnip's growth, even before the 

 rough leaf is much developed. Observation 

 seems to have ascertained, that if the bulbs 

 have attained the size of a walnut unaffected, 

 they do not subsequently become diseased. 

 Mr. Spence has clearly shown, from established 

 facts, that the anbury does not arise from any 

 imperfection of the seed sown : for experience 

 demonstrates that, in the same field and crop, 

 the attacks are very partial ; and crops in two 

 adjoining fields, sown with seed from the same 

 growth, will one be diseased, and the other 

 healthy. Secondly, it does not arise from an 

 unfavourable time of sowing, or from dry, un- 

 propitious seasons, during their after-growth ; 

 for on this supposition we might expect that in 

 all turnip districts the disease would occasion- 

 ally make its appearance, in consequence of 

 variations in the period and mode of sowing, 

 rr from following droughts ; yet we know that, 

 j many parts of the country, it has never been 

 neard of. Thirdly, it does not arise from the 

 quality of the soil, for Sir Joseph Banks suffered 

 from its infecting thin stapled, sandy fields ; 

 94 



whilst all Holderness, which is generally a 

 strong loamy soil, was found equally liable to 

 the disease. It is occasioned by the poisonous 

 wound inflicted by an insect in an early stage 

 of vegetation, or rather by its insinuating its 

 egg into the tender plant. The maggot found 

 in the turnip anbury, is the larva of a weevil 

 called Curculio pleurontigma by Marsham, and 

 Rhynchaenus sulcicollis by Gyllenhal. " I have 

 bred this species of weevil," says Mr. Kirby, 

 from the knob-like galls on turnips, called the 

 anbury, and I have little doubt that the same 

 insects, or a species allied to them, cause the 

 clubbing of the roots of cabbages." (Kirby and 

 Spence's Introduction to Entomology.) Marsham 

 describes the parent as a coleopterous insect, 

 of a dusky, black colour, with the breast spot- 

 ted with white, and the length of the body one 

 line and two-thirds. 



A very full description of this insect is in 

 the Insedd Svecica dexcripta, of Gyllenhal, vol. 

 iii. p. 5229, under the name of Rhynchxnus sul- 

 cicollis. 



The general experience of farmers and 

 gardeners upon the subject, testifies that the 

 anbury of the turnip and cabbage usually at- 

 tacks these crops when grown for successive 

 years on the same soil. This is precisely 

 what might be expected ; for the parent insect 

 always deposits her eggs in those situations 

 where her progeny will find their appropriate 

 food ; and in the fragments of the roots, &c., 

 of preceding crops, some of these embryo 

 ravagers are to be expected. That they never 

 attack the plants upon a fresh side is not as- 

 serted ; Mr. Marshall's statement is evidence 

 to the contrary ; but it is advanced that the ob- 

 noxious weevil is most frequently to be ob- 

 served in soils where the turnip or cabbage 

 has recently and repeatedly been cultivated. 

 Another general result of experience is, that 

 the anbury is most frequently observed in dry 

 seasons. This is also what might be anticipated, 

 for insects that inhabit the earth just beneath 

 its surface are always restricted and checked 

 in their movements by its abounding in moist- 

 ure. Moreover, the plants actually affected by 

 the anbury are more able to contend against 

 the injury inflicted by the larva of the weevil 

 by the same copious supply. The develope- 

 ment of their parts, their growth is more rapid ; 

 consequently the maggot has not to extend his 

 ravages so extensively in search of food as in 

 drier seasons, when the stem is less juicy and 

 of a smaller growth. In wet periods, also, the 

 affected plants show less the extent of the in- 

 jury they have sustained, for their foliage does 

 not flag ; because their transpirations of watery 

 particles is less, and their supply of nutriment 

 from the soil is more free. 



In considering the best modes of preventing 

 the occurrence of the disease, and of palliating 

 its attacks, it is apparent that any addition to 

 the soil that renders it disagreeable to the 

 weevil will prevent the visits of this insect. 

 The gardener has this in his power with but 

 little difficulty ; for he can keep the vicinity of 

 his cabbage, cauliflower, and brocoli plants 

 soaked with water. Mr. Smith, gardener to 

 Mr. Bell, of Woolsington in Northumberland, 

 expresses his conviction, after several years' 



