380 On a Disease in Elm Trees. 



of the trustees for lighting the village to lay down the mains 

 in the Grove under their act of Parliament. Upon this ques- 

 tion I need not trouble your readers, as it is of no public inte- 

 rest. I am informed that no such action has been brought, 

 and, moreover, that the plaintiff has subsequently moved to 

 dismiss his bill, which can only be done upon payment of 

 costs. From this circumstance, and from the legal ability 

 and well-known perseverance of the plaintiff in all cases 

 where success is attainable by talents, such as he is admitted 

 to possess, I am justified in concluding that he satisfied him- 

 self, as, I confess, I am satisfied, and all those with whom I 

 have conversed, that there was no connection whatever be- 

 tween the introduction of the gas and the decortication of 

 these old elm trees. I have, by permission of the solicitor 

 for the defendants, perused carefully all the depositions, as 

 well those upon which the application for an injunction was 

 founded as those upon which it was resisted. In support of 

 the application, the reasoning that appears most powerfully to 

 have influenced the judgment of the deponents, is the mere 

 fact of the coincidence, as to time, between the introduction of 

 the gas and the appearance of the disease. I am informed 

 that, since the application to the Court, an individual has been 

 found, who noticed the partial decortication of the elms prior 

 to the introduction of the gas : this, though it would have 

 settled the question between the contending parties, had it 

 been known in time, does not elucidate the natui'e or cause 

 of the disease, both of which are interesting to all whos^ ob- 

 servation has been directed to the constitution of plants. 



By two of the gentlemen who were consulted by the defend- 

 ants, I find the decortication of the trees was attributed to the 

 ravages of the little insect called the Scolytus destructor, whose 

 amazing powers of destruction are so ably treated of by Mr. 

 W. S. M'Leay in his report upon the state of the elms in St. 

 James's and Hyde Parks. * The ultimate result is certainly 

 the same, for in both diseases the bark falls off and the tree 

 perishes, and there are a great number of trees in Camber- 

 well Grove unquestionably infested and destroyed by this 

 astonishing little insect ; and even at this moment, if you strip 

 off a piece of the bark, you will find myriads of larvae feed- 

 ing on the soft inner bark, the surface of which presents to 

 the view (as described by Mr. M'Leay) innumerable impres- 

 sions, which may be compared to large and broad scolopendrae, 



* See Edinourgh Philosophical Journal, No. xxi. July 1. 1824, art. xii. ; 

 also No- cccvi. of Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine for October, 1823, 

 art. li. signed *' Dendrophilos." 



