30 MEMOIR OF ALFRED SMEE. [CHAP. IV. 



potato, the turnip, the swede, the beetroot, the cabbage, the 

 broccoli, the radish, the horse-radish, the various wild Solani, 

 some kinds of henbane, the Stramonium, the Belladonna, the 

 clover, the groundsel, the Euphorbia, some sorts of Murex, the 

 mallow, the shepherd's purse, the holy thistle, some kinds of 

 grass, and even wheat, the Jerusalem artichoke and the sweet 

 potato, and perhaps other plants. 



There are many other kinds of aphides, besides the Aphis 

 vastator, which destroy other plants, and even trees, and we had, 

 about five years ago, some large willow-trees totally destroyed 

 by their ravages at "my garden" at Wallington.* Many of 

 these different sorts of aphides and injuries caused by them are 

 also delineated in this work on the potato disease. He also 

 shows the relation of the Vastator and other aphides to fungi ; 

 and he then gives the natural and artificial remedies for the 

 present diseases among plants. The work is illustrated by ten 

 lithographs of potato plants in health and in disease, of diseased 

 carrots and turnips, parsnips, and mangold-wurzel, of the Aphis 

 vastator and of other aphides, and of various fungi. 



Mr. Curtis, the distinguished entomologist, blamed Mr. Smee 

 for having violated the established custom, in not having used 

 the prior name of the aphis. " But it appears," says my father, 

 " that Mr. Curtis named this self-same creature rapte, when it 

 had the former name, dianthi, assigned to it, as Mr. Walker has 

 informed me." Thus we have Aphis vastator (the destroyer) alias 

 rapte, alias dianthi. How many more aliases will this dire scourge 

 to mankind receive ? 



The moment this book on the potato plant was published, 

 it was assailed in the most extraordinary way. The writers did 

 not attempt to attack his facts or his reasoning, but they mis- 

 represented his views, and indeed but too frequently made my 

 father say the very reverse of what he did say, and then they wrote 

 their own fabulous versions of his writings.f 



The controversy which ensued during this potato pestilence, 

 and the violence of various parties, were truly a reproach to science. 

 At last, as my father has said,} 



Foolish people used to amuse me by sending threatening letters by 

 nearly every post (many of these have been collected together), cautioning 

 me that I should be amply punished if I dared to continue to write upon 



* See ' My Garden,' second edition, p. 477. 



f See 'Instinct and Reason,' p. 263. J Idem, p. 265. 



