INSECT RAVAGES. IGl 



the use of fires in or near forests, and the measures to be taken when 

 thej' become dangerous : 



Akt. 148. It is forbiddt?n tocarrj or kindlo fire within woocls or forests, or witbin 200 

 meters of the borders, under a penalty of 20 to 106 francs, besides the penalties provided 

 in the penal co<le, and all rights for damages to private interests, if any occur. 



Akt. 149. All occupants who, iu case of fire, refuse to bring aid iu the woods under 

 their rights of usage, shall be turneil over to the correctional police and deprived of 

 these rif^hts for not less than one and not more than five years, and shall be further 

 subject to the penalties mentioned iu article 475 of the peual code.' 



The oflScial reports of Austrian forests for 187G show that 170 fires had 

 occurred in their woodlands during that year, of which the cause was 

 accident in 40 cases, malice in 11, locomotive-sparks in 1, and unknown 

 in 112. The area burnt was 841 hectares (2,077.7 acres), and the loss 

 17,181 florins in value. 



INSECT RAVAGES. 



These, at times, become the source of great injury to forests; some 

 species commencing with the seed, and others appearing upon the plant 

 at every stage of its growth, until its final decay is often thus caused, 

 and almost always hastened when begun. 



The damages to leaves are mostly caused by the larvae of lepidopter- 

 ous insects, esptKiially the nocturnal moths and myriads of their cater- 

 l)illars. Of borers, some mine into the heart wood, while others feed 

 under the bark and upon the layer of new wood, and by spreading in 

 their burrows they effectually girdle the trees that they attack. These 

 borers belong to the coleopterous class, and the most extensive families 

 are the Capricorn beetles, belonging to the Fabrican genera : Pri-onus, 

 Ceramhyx, Laytiia, Stenocorus, Leptura, Bagium, Gnoma, Saperda^ Calli- 

 diutrij and Clitus, and to others since described. 



ENEMIES OF THE OAK. 



M. Coutance, a French author, in his special treatise upon the oaks,* 

 enumerates 98 species of insects that infest this tree, of which 49 be- 

 long to the coleoptera, 25 to the lepidoptera, 16 to the hymenoptera, 

 5 to the hemiptera, and 3 to the orthoptera. Of these, 18 attack the 

 wood, chiefly coleoptera; 10 the bark, all of them coleoptera; 30 the 

 leaves, of which 19 are lepidoptera and 10 coleoptera; 12 the leaves and 

 wood, all of them coleoptera; G the fruit, of which 2 are hymenoptera 

 and the rest coleoptera; 3 the flowers and fruit, all lepidoptera; 2 the 

 young shoots, hymenoptera; 5 the petioles, 3 the buds, and 3 the twigs, 

 all hymenoptera; 5 the twigs and petioles, hemiptera^; and 1 the root, 

 orthoptera.^ 



Tlie oak also nourishes hundreds of species of cryptogamous plants, 

 chiefly in its decline, and when dead and rotting. A few only of these 

 injure its growing, chiefly as rust upon the leaves. 



The evergreen oak {Quercus ilex) has suffered much in France from 

 the ravages of the larvic of a beetle (the Goroehus bifasciatus), which 

 pierces the bark and bores galleries in the wood, or inner bark, and 



iThis article imposes a fine of § to 10 francs upon those who refuse or neglect to 

 render aid when requested in case of accidents, * * * fires, or other calamities. 



'^ HMoire du Chcne dans Vant'iquitc ct dans la naiure; ses uppUcutlons a Vlndrntrie aux 

 Constrnctions varalcs, axix Sciences et aux Arts, etc. Far A. Coutance, Frof. d'Hisi. Natti- 

 rellr, a Vecolt du imidecine navale de Brest. Paris, 1873, pp. 558. 



* A Fhj/llox'era nearly allied to the 8}>etiea that has done so much injury to the viue in 

 Europe has been found upon thts oak, but not in sufficient numbers to prove particu- 

 larly injurious. - {Revue dee Euux et Forets, 1874, p. 3C2.) 



11 F 



