July 14, 1888.] 



TEE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



45 



subordinate branches aspire, or radiate, or droop in 

 loose ornamental sprays. The slender, greyish- 

 given needles are from 8 to 12 inches long, loosely 

 tasselled, and incline to droop in handsome curves, 

 contrasting with the stiff, dark-coloured trunk and 

 branches in a very striking manner. No other tree 

 of my acquaintance, so substantial in body, is, in its 

 body so thin and so pervious to light. The sunbeams 

 silt through even the leanest trees, with scarce any 

 interruption, and the weary, heated traveller finds 

 but little protection in the shade. It grows only on 

 the torrid foot-hills, seeming to delight in the most 

 ardent sunheat, like a Palm, springing up here and 

 there singly, or in scattered groups of five or six, 

 anion? scrubby white Oaks and thickets of Ceanothus 

 and Manganita : its extreme uppper limit being 

 about 4000 feet above the sea, its lower about from 

 500 to 800 feet. The generous crop of sweet nutri- 

 tious nuts [seeds] which it yields makes it a great 

 favourite with Indians and with bears. The cones 

 are truly magnificent, measuring 5 to 8 inches in 

 length, and not much less in thickness ; rich choco- 

 late-brown in colour, and protected by strong, down- 

 curving hooks, which terminate in scales. Never- 

 theless, the little Douglas squirrel can open them. 



" Indians gathering the ripe nuts make a striking 

 picture. The men climb the trees like bears and 

 beat off the cones with sticks, or recklessly cut off 

 the more fruitful branches with hatchets, while the 

 squaws gather them in heaps, and roast them until 

 the scales open sufficiently to allow the hard-shelled 

 seeds to be beaten out. Then, in the cool evenings, 

 men, women, and children, with their capacity for 

 dirt greatly increased by the soft resin with which 

 they are all bedraggled, form circles around the 

 camp fires on the bank of some stream, and lie in 

 easy independence, cracking nuts, and laughing and 

 chatting, as heedless of the future as bears and 

 squirrels." 



Entomology. 



THE PEAR MIDGE. 



The extraordinary meteorological conditions of 

 the last, and the commencement of the present, year 

 induced the production of a splendid amount of 

 bloom on our fruit trees, especially on the BeurreCIair- 

 geau Pears, which were literally covered with sheets 

 of blossoms. But notwithstanding the great cold 

 which afterwards cut off the wall-fruit blooms before 

 they had time to set the fruit, the insects which 

 attack the Apples and Pears in the youngest 

 state of the leaves and fruit were most abundant, 

 especially the leaf-rolling caterpillars of the small 

 moths of the family Tortricida; and the gall-midges 

 and sawflies, the larva: of which live in the heart of 

 the young fruit. 



The history of a small species of midge, par- 

 asitic on Pears, was first investigated by Joseph 

 Schmidberger, Canon of St. Floriac, in a report made 

 to the Imperial Agricultural Society of Vienna, 

 which was embodied by M. Kollar, the head of the 

 Natural History Museum of Vienna, in his " Treatise 

 on Insects Injurious to Gardeners, Foresters, and 

 Farmers," (Vienna, May, 1837), translated by 

 J. and M., Loudon (with uotes by the present writer, 

 and published by W. Smith, London, 1840, in 12mo). 

 Schmidberger considered his insects to be identical 

 with the Cecidomyia nigra of Mergen, ,( because the 

 description which Mergen gives of the black gall- 

 midge completely agrees with them." More recent 

 writers on the Diptera have doubted the correctness 

 of this identification, and Dr. Ililey has given the 

 name of Cecidomyia (Diplosis) pyrivora to the Pear 

 midge. 



It was in the winter of 1831 that the insects 

 first appeared in the perfect winged state, and by 

 February 15 more than a hundred had appeared in 

 the Canon's glasses, from pupa; placed there in the 

 previous autumn. He says, " When the blossom-buds 

 of the Pear tree were so far developed that in the 

 single blossoms a petal showed itself between the 

 segments of the calyx, I found the first midge in the 

 act of laying the egg on the blossom, on April 12. 

 It had fixed itself almost perpendicularly on the 

 middle of a single blossom, and having pierced the 

 petal through with its long ovipositor, it laid its 



eggs on the anther of the still closed blossom. On 

 cutting the pierced bud open the eggs were found 

 lying in a heap one upon another on the anthers — 

 from ten to twelve and even twenty in number. The 

 midges ceased appearing in the garden and laying 

 their eggs as late as April 18. On the fourth day 

 after oviposition the small larva; were found on the 

 embryo of the blossom, into which they began to 

 bore, usually in or near the stem of the calyx ; they 

 then descend to the core, when they begin to devour 

 the fruit on all sides. When they have attained 

 their full size, and consumed the pulp of the 

 young fruit, they make their way out, and as 

 soon as they get to the surface of the now hollow 

 little Pear, they bend themselves into a flattened 

 ring, and, by suddenly straightening the body, they 

 make a spring of several inches and fall to the 

 ground to bury themselves. Generally, however, 

 they remain within the Pear till it falls, which it is 





Fig. 5.— tue rr.AR-.MiDc! 



ready to do by its continued want of growth, when 

 they escape by cracks in the skin, and enter the 

 earth, being fully grown by the middle of May ; it is 

 not, however, until the middle of December and 

 January that they assume the winged state from the 

 pupa, and it is only in the following spring that they 

 creep out of the ground and propagate their species 

 in the open air." 



For many years past we have received communi- 

 cations from our correspondents concerning this 

 Pear midge. In 1855, and again in 1883, it was 

 very abundant, the larva; remaining in that state 

 even until the end of June. With the view of 

 clearing up the question of its history and nomen- 

 clature, as well as that of another Pear insect de- 

 scribed by Nordlinger, in Die Kleiiicn Fcinde, in 1869, 

 under the name of Cecidomyia pyricola, the natural 

 history of the true Pear midge has formed the subject 

 of investigation by Professor Mik, of Vienna; Dr. 

 Riley, the celebrated American State entomologist, 

 (whose description with figures appears in the 



American Eeport of Ike Entomologist, published at 

 at Washington in 1886); Miss Ormerod (Report of 

 Observations of Injurious Insects for 1884), Mr. 

 Inchbald, whose memoir appeared in the Entomolo- 

 gist for February, 1887, to whom the present writer 

 is indebted for specimens of the perfect insect, and 

 especially to Dr. R. II. Meade, who has just pub- 

 lished a careful and elaborate article in the last- 

 named periodical. 



The insect belongs to the subgenus Diplosis of 

 Loew (one of the sections of the extensive genus 

 Cecidomyia) ; it measures from 2 to 3 millimetres in 

 length, the female being rather larger than the male. 

 It is of a dark ashy-black colour, with pale hairs, 

 the thorax with three broad black lines, and rows of 

 yellowish hairs. The antenna; of the males are 

 twenty-six jointed, and those of the female are four- 

 teen-jointed, including two very short basal joints 

 closely soldered together. The abdomen is blackish, 

 with narrow paler cross-bands. The wings are pale 

 ashy, with long fringe of fine hairs ; and the legs 

 are brown, witli paler-coloured hairs. 



Our woodcut (fig. 5) represents— 1, a young Pear 

 cut open, showing the hollow made by the five en- 

 closed larvx ; 2, the larva of the natural size ; 3, 

 the same magnified ; 4, the same preparing to 

 leap ; 5, the male midge, the Datural size indi- 

 cated by the small crossed lines, the jointed process 

 at the right side of the antenna;, representing one of 

 the palpi ; 6, five of the terminal joints of the 

 male antenna; 7, apex of the wing, showing the 

 thickened margin continued into the extremity of 

 the main vein of the wing ; 8, three of the 

 middle joints of the female antenna; ; 9, the elon- 

 gated telescope-like ovipositor of the female. /. 0. 

 Wcstwood. 



Scotland. 



THE SEED AND NURSERY TRADE ASSO- 

 CIATION AND NON-WARRANTY. 



About twenty-five of the members of the above 

 Association met in the Waterloo Hotel on the 4th 

 inst., as was arranged at the annual meeting held 

 last month to further consider the attitude that 

 should be adopted by the trade towards the non- 

 warranty clause, and towards those who use it in 

 transacting their business. Mr. Watt (of Messrs. 

 Little & Ballantyne, Carlisle), presided, and in reply 

 to Mr. Mather, Kelso, said that his firm had never used 

 the non-warranty clause in their retail business but 

 gave a special guarantee. They used a non-warranty 

 clause in their wholesale business, but having no 

 sympathy with the principle it was their intention to 

 withdraw or regulate it according to the resolution of 

 that or some future meeting. The large London 

 firms seemed determined to stand by the clause, and 

 he suggested that subscriptions should be raised 

 throughout the trade to carry the case of Messrs. 

 Smith & Son, Aberdeen, to the House of Lords, and 

 endeavour to obtain a reversal of the decision of the 

 First Division of the Court of Session. The retail 

 merchants were placed in an awkward position in 

 being obliged to buy without any warranty while 

 they were held responsible to the farmers for the 

 kind and quality of the seeds they sold. The fact 

 that he presided at the former meeting of the 

 trade and again that day showed that he 

 did not approve of the clause as adopted 

 by the London wholesale merchants. Having read 

 a letter from Mr. Tait, of Manchester, President of 

 the Seed and Nursery Trade Association, in which 

 he offered a subscription of £10 towards the expense 

 of an appeal in Messrs. Smith's case, the Chairman 

 said his firm would contribute a similar amount. 



Mr. James Elder, Haddington, inquired what 

 position they would be in as a trade in the event of 

 the case being lost in the House of Lords ? 



In reply, the Chairman said there was an impres- 

 sion abroad that the decision of the Court of Session 

 was not in accordance with moral law, and that a 

 different judgment might be given in the House of 

 Lords. Most of those in the trade with whom he 



