which are injurious to vegetation. 225 



escape being punctured. The irritation arising from these punctures, 

 and from the gnawings of the grubs after they are hatched, causes the 

 young fruit to become gummy, diseased, and finally to drop before it is 

 ripe. Meanwhile the grub comes to its growth, and, immediately after 

 the fruit falls, burrows into the ground. This may occur at various times 

 between the middle of June and of August : and, in the space of a little 

 more than three weeks afterwards, the insect completes its transforma- 

 tions, and comes out of the ground in the beetle form. The history of 

 the insect, thus far, is the result of my own observations ; the remainder 

 rests on the testimony of other persons. 



In an account of the plum-weevil, by Dr. James Tillon of Wilming- 

 ton, Delaware, published in Mease's " Domestic Encyclopajdia," under 

 the article Fruit, and since republished in the " Georgical Papers for 

 1809," of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, and in other works, it 

 is stated that peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, quinces, and cherries are 

 also attacked by this insect, and that it remains in the earth, in the form 

 of a grub, during the winter, ready to be matured into a beetle as the 

 spring advances. These statements I have not yet been able to confirm. 

 It seems, however, to have been fully ascertained by Professor Peck, Mr. 

 Say, and others, in whose accuracy full confidence may be placed, that 

 this same weevil attacks all our common stone-fruits, such as plums, 

 peaches, nectarines, apricots, and cherries ; Dr. Burnett has recently 

 assured me that he has seen this beetle puncturing apples ; and it is not 

 at all improbable that the transformations of some of the grubs may be 

 retarded till the winter has passed, analogous cases being of frequent 

 occurrence. Those that are sometimes found in apples must not be mis- 

 taken for the more common apple-worms, which are not the larvae of a 

 weevil. The Rev. F. V. Melsheimer remarks in his Catalogue, that this 

 insect lives under the bark of the peach-tree. Professor Peck raised the 

 same beetle from a grub found in the warty excrescence of a cherry-tree, 

 and from this circumstance named it RhynchcBnus Cerasi, the cherry- 

 weevil. The plum, still more than the cherry tree, is subject to a disease 

 of the small limbs, which shows itself in the form of large irregular warts, 

 of a black color, as if charred. Grubs, apparently the same as those that, 

 are found in plums, have often been detected in these warts, which are 

 now generally supposed to be produced by the punctures of the beetles, 

 and the residence of the grubs. Professor Peck says that " the seat of 

 the disease is in the bark. The sap is diverted from its regular course, 

 and is absorbed entirely by the bark, which is very much increased in 

 thickness ; the cuticle bursts, the swelling becomes irregular, and is form- 

 ed into black lumps, with a cracked, uneven, granulated surface. The 

 wood, besides being deprived of its nutriment, is very much compressed, 

 and the branch above the tumor perishes."* The grubs found by Profes- 

 sor Peck in the tumors of the cherry-tree, went into the ground on the 

 sixth of July, and on the thirtieth of the same month, or twenty-four days 

 from their leaving the bark, the perfect insects began to rise, and were 

 soon ready to deposit their eggs in healthy branches. 



* See Professor Peck's account of Insects which affect Oaks and Cherry trees ; 

 with a plate; in the " Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal." Vol. 

 V. p. 312. 



VOL. IX. — NO. VI. 29 



