446 Mr. MacLeay on the devastations 



care, as to fancy that all similar mischiefs must proceed from oae 

 and the same cause. 



In the Kdiuburgh Philosophical Journal* I have shewn that the 

 Elm trees in St. James's Park are destroyed by a Coleopterous 

 insect, the Hylesmus destructor o( Fabricius, or Scolytus destruc- 

 tor of Latreille. I have, moreover, in the same Journal, ventured 

 to state it as probable, in my opinion, that all those infectious 

 diseases which destroy only one species of tree in a plantation, 

 are the consequences of the prevalence of particular destructive 

 insects. In confirmation of the truth of this remark, I lately re- 

 ceived from J. Loch, Esq., the Agent for the Estates of the Mar- 

 quis of Staiford and the Earl of Carlisle, a letter, dated Naworth 

 Castle, August 29th, 1824, of which the following is an extract : 

 '' There has been lately a great failure of the young Firs and 

 Larches on Lord Carlisle's estates here. It was at first thought 

 to be occasioned by Mice, so completely was the bark destroyed. 

 The Wood Warden is now, however, persuaded, that the mischief 

 is done by the insects enclosed in the box sent along with this. 

 The destruction is more rapid where the roots of the Scotch Fir 

 are in a state of decay." This last remark, indeed, goes of itself 

 far to prove that the author of the mischief is an insect, for Mice 

 would only attack the green and healthy bark ; and io set the ques- 

 tion at rest, the insect, of which many specimens were sent, proved 

 to be no other than the Hylobius Abietis of Germar, (Curculio Pint 

 of the Entomologia Britanm'ca,) an insect most destructive to Firs. 

 It is very common in the Pine forests of Sweden and Scotland ; 

 but in England, I believe, it has only as yet been found in Cum- 

 berland and Shropshire. As a British Insect, it was first made 

 known by the President of the Linntean Society, who found it at 

 Rivelston Wood, near Edinburgh. 



I shall take this opportunity of giving some of its more useful 

 synonyms, as no small portion of obscurity hangs over the identifi- 

 cation of tbe Species, although one of the largest of our indigenous 

 Curculionidw . 



Curculio Fini. Lin. Faun. Suec. 589. 



Linnaius describes it as most common throughout Sweden, inhabiting 

 * Vol. xi. p. 123. 



