34: " THE LEAVES OF THE TREE Were FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS.' 



it H necessary to know something of its character. The insect is akin to the aphis 

 triba, whose fecundity is due to its strange system of generation, which Jias been 

 thus succinctly described: "The congregations of the aphides consist, in spring 

 and summer, of apterous individuals, and of nymphaa with undeveloped wings. 

 All these are females, which give birth to living young, satis accomplement pre- 

 alable. The males are produced towards the end of summer or during the autum- 

 nal season. They fecundate the last broods produced by the /emales first men- 

 tioned, which broods differ from their progenitors in requiring impregnation prior 

 to the continuance of their kind. They lay eggs after the sexual intercourse, and 

 these eggs produce, in spring, the broods above alluded to, which are capable of 

 producing living young without assistance from each other." Article on Entom- 

 ology, in *' Eucyclopaedia Britannica" " Towards the end of summer a winged 

 generation appears, the migration of which form one of the most rapid means of 

 spreading. They are produced upon the decomposition of rootlets which have 

 baen during the summer subjected to attack. Opinions differ as to the sex of these 

 winged insects. M. Balbiani, one of the commissioners appointed by the French 

 Academy of Sciences to investigate the subject, hold them to be females, while Mr. 

 Riley asserts that they are both male and female. This seems, however, a matter 

 of small importance, since there can be no question that they propagate the 

 plague" (?) (This is a popular delusion as they are simply an amnitised form of 

 nature's scavengeis evolved from their torpid condition by the agency of our soil, 

 empoverishing greed for personal gain). The males having served their purpose of 

 fecundating, die; and the females, having laid the impregnated, or as they are 

 called, " winter eggs," enter upon a state of hyber nation, to recommence their work 

 of generation in the spring. The winter egg, likewise, in the spring fulfils its 

 functions and produces the nymph which brings forth living young, as already 

 described. It is considered that eight generations of these nymphs are produced 

 during the season, before the appearance of the veritable female; and it has been 

 calculated that the progeny of a single insect may reach, in a year, the number of 

 5,904.000,000. These figures are held to be too small by some statisticians, but they 

 may be very liberally reduced, and still show the overwhelming forces which the 

 enemy can bring into the field. Before such numbers, the most careful organized 

 system of defence must receive many a rude shock. 



" The full grown phylloxera is B- small almond-shaped insect, about 150th of an 

 iaoh long and 130th of an inch broad; it is armed with a powerful proboscis, or 

 sucking tube, with which it pierces the roots of the vine. Although it may be said 

 generally, that the phylloxera is a root-attaching insect, it is also occasionally found 

 in galls upon leaves, more especially in the case of American varieties; and it has 

 been proved by experiments that, while differing slightly in appearance, the root 

 and gall insects are virtually identical, and that each is capable of taking the place 

 of the other. The winged insect already alluded to is the shape in which the 

 phylloxera is most to be dreaded. The wings are comparatively large, and the in- 

 sect, being light, (resembling fine thistle-down) it is carried great distances by the 

 wind, passing easily over rivers, forests, and long intervening spaces which are not 

 planted with vines. That this forms the principal means of migration is proved by 

 the spread of the pest being generally in the direction of prevailing winds. The 

 phylloxera has, however, other means of locomotion, and, in favorable localities, 

 marches with great rapidity. There is no sort of soil, with the exception of sand, 

 which has yet been found to hinder its progress; but level, open country, more 

 especially when it is of a nature which cracks with drought is the most favorable 

 to its advance. Atmospheric conditions have their influence and very wet sea- 

 sons have always shown a diminution of the scourage. Still no permanent 

 remedy can be looked for even from the most continuous rains." 



THE PHYLLOXERA IN AUSTRALIA. 



The first report of the presence of phylloxera in Australia came from the Gee- 

 long district, in 1878, "(where as in California " farmers found that the lands 

 they had cropped for cereals until they were exhausted, and would not produce 

 grain would still yield large crops of grapes. " ) " According to the Government in- 

 specters, Messrs. Wallis and Hopton, thirteen vineyards were found to be infected 



