42 GOOSEBERRY. 



female Lecanium within them, were now of different sizes, and of 

 various colour and condition, some being shrunicen, so as to show 

 transverse corrugations, and some plump and rounded. 



About a month after (on the 11th of July) a few females were 

 scattered on the old branches, some long dead, and flattened against 

 the boughs with the colour faded, others still bright brown and shiny. 

 Beneath them, in some instances, eggs were still noticeable, but com- 

 monly empty eggshells were the most observable presence, together 

 with some eggs still unhatched, and some recently hatched or hatching 

 larvae. And towards the end of July, though I found little larval pre- 

 sence on the Gooseberry bushes, I found, at the same date, a piece of 

 Gooseberry branch, which had been cut and kept under cover for some 

 time, was sprinlded over with multitudes of the young larval Scales. 

 These were scattered in scores, or rather in hundreds, over every part 

 of the branch excepting the withered leaves, but were then dead from 

 the branch having ceased to supply requisite sap. The marked 

 difference in amount was presumably from the young Scales being 

 washed off in out-of-door circumstances, or destroyed by rain, and also 

 being preyed on by small insect feeding beetles, &c., as there were 

 plentiful remains of egg pellicles. 



Prevention and Eemedies. — Looking at the manner in which the 

 Scales shelter themselves where ragged bark is peeling back on old 

 wood, it is obvious that robbing them of these head-quarters so far as 

 could be managed could not fail to be of service ; and next to this, such 

 treatment of the bushes as would allow of not only spraying the 

 infested boughs, but of wash being run down them to lodge amongst 

 rough bark, and would also allow of the oldest of the infested parts, 

 where there was no fear of rubbing off buds, being well brushed with 

 soap mixtures. 



Much might thus be done by well considered pruning ; but at the 

 same time the pruned off branches should be most carefully removed 

 and burnt. The little larval Scales, though hardly discernible without a 

 magnifier, are actively on foot as early as February, and may perfectly 

 easily wander back from the removed branches if these are left beneath 

 the bushes. 



Where Currants are trained in long rods on walls, these require an 

 eye being given, and perhaps a rod occasionally taken out, down to the 

 root. In my own garden I have found the Scales in patches at 

 intervals on a length of several feet of "White Currant. 



On the 20th of February, Mr. Chas. Whilaker, writing from 

 Caldewell, Pershore, told me that he had had his infested Gooseberry 

 bushes sprayed with " Chiswick Compound," and found it effectual; and 

 in a further communication, a little more than a month later, he added, 



