282 SENECIO JACOBAEA & CALLIMORPHA JACOBAEA POOLE. 



This reply suggested in turn a second question — might 

 the Cinnabar moth if introduced into Canada become as 

 disastrous an importation as the gypsy and brown-tailed 

 moths had proved to be? I referred this question to Mr. 

 South of the Natural History Museum, and he had no hesi- 

 tation in saying he saw no reason to dread the introduction of 

 the Cinnabar moth. It was not of a class to become a pest 

 as the narcissus fly or the larch saw-fly. He further permits 

 me to quote him and to refer to him if need be. 



A third question that presents itself is — what are the 

 prospects that the Cinnabar moth will, if introduced into 

 Nova Scotia, to establish itself there? To this, all that can be 

 said without actual trial is, that the moth survives in the 

 climate of Perth in a latitude far to the north of Pictou. 

 Then it may be asked if the moth should be found to stand 

 the climate of Nova Scotia, is there a probability of its aban- 

 doning its European predilection for Ragwort and taking to 

 feeding on other allied species of plants ? 



About the time that Ragwort established itself at Meri- 

 gomish, cases of hepatic cirrhosis occured among cattle of the 

 same district. This was a new disease, entirely local, that 

 yielded to no known treatment. Current belief imputed the 

 disease to the weed but up to the end of the last century 

 investigations had failed to establish a connexion. As the 

 weed spread and flourished in new ground so did the disease 

 range over a widening area from new centres of virulence. 



These new centres were in some cases places where the 

 weed had been growing for very many years without an 

 occurrence of the disease, or if there was a case, it was a solitary 

 one, which inquiry showed had lately come from an infected 

 locality. Since the present century came in the spread of the 

 disease seems to have been more rapid, and in remote districts 

 beyond the height of land that isolated, as it might be said, 

 the primarily infected area. 



Ragwort being a biennial has no chance of flowering and 

 seeding in the pastures grazed over by sheep which are clos^ 



