Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. 325 



Arthur Young, Esq., the secretary to the Board of Agri- 

 culture, states, of his own knowledge, that the disease in tur- 

 nips called fingers and toes has been known in Suffolk about 

 fifty years. He has no idea of the cause, and never heard of 

 any remedy. 



Messrs. D. and A. Macdougal of Cessford, near Kelso, 

 affirm that the disease has been known in their neighbour- 

 hood nearly twenty years. They think that the disease ori- 

 ginates in the bite of some insect upon the fibres, &c. 



The Rev. George Jennings, Prebendary of Ely, states that 

 the disease in turnips called anbury has been known in the 

 eastern part of England as far back as forty years, He con- 

 ceives it to be caused by a grub forming its nidus in the bulb. 

 " I have not traced the progress of the larva so as to ascer- 

 tain the species of insect ; but a small maggot or grub is visible 

 in every excrescence upon the turnip which I have examined ; 

 in some instances, three or four very near together in the 

 same lump. If it results from the punctures made by some 

 insects, eggs must be deposited at the same time. I know 

 of no remedy which has been tried to prevent this disease in 

 the turnips." 



Sir John Sinclair, having " found some notes on the sub- 

 ject," sends a recipe for a liquid, containing salt, tobacco, 

 soap, soot, and lime, to be poured round the roots of each 

 plant; and which " has been found useful in destroying the 

 insect, if applied early, that is to say, before it has eaten its 

 way deep into the root." We have no faith in recipes of this 

 sort : what would penetrate to and kill the insect would un- 

 questionably destroy the plant. 



The editor of the Farmer's Journal has observed the 

 anbury, or ambury (the word is borrowed from farriery, in 

 which art it is applied to small knots or excrescences, warts 

 or wens, on the l«ins or flanks of horses), only in very dry 

 seasons. He says, it is doubtless occasioned by insects ; per- 

 haps, piercing the roots near the surface, and depositing their 

 eggs, which, as in multitudes of other cases, produce knobs, 

 and intercept the ascent of the vegetable nutriment (sap). If, 

 when the disease has taken place, plentiful rains ensue, the 

 bulbs put out other roots (or, more properly speaking, other 

 fibres enlarge) to supply the places of those which are 

 wounded. 



67. An Account of some Seedling Apples and Plums 'which have 

 been raised at Coul, in Ross-shire. By Sir George Stuart Mac- 

 kenzie, Bart. Read Dec. 26. 1826. 



See the Horticultural Society's Catalogue of Fruits, 2d edit. 



Y 3 



