FIELD AND FOREST. 



131 



and as fragments of the pupa skins were 

 found where they emerged from the wood 

 these excavations of four inches each 

 must have been made by the imago. The 

 excavations behind them were filled with 

 the fine granular debris, or cuttings of the 

 cloth, which fell out as the cloth was un- 

 wrapped, leaving a hole as smooth around 

 the edges as if it had been perforated by 

 a hot iron rod. The insects were Uroce- 

 rus cyaneus, generically allied to Tremex. 

 This may not be extraordinary, but when 

 we consider the difficulty of penetrating 

 woolen textile material, as compared with 

 the softer kinds of wood, we think it a lit- 

 tle more than ordinary, and especially 

 now, when the ability of bees to cut the 

 skins of grapes is becoming a subject of 

 discussion between Apiarians and P'ruit- 

 growers. We are most prepared to say 

 that it is a general characteristic of bees 

 to depredate in this manner upon grapes, 

 and other tender skinned fruits, but from 

 this and other experiences we think that 

 under a stress of circumstances, they could 

 do so, and perhaps would. — S. S. R. 



Scale Insects of the Peach. — The 



editor of this journal was lately shown a 

 twig eul from a peach tree growing in this 

 city, which was completely covered with 

 these scales. Subsequently the locality was 

 visited, and seven trees were found so 

 badly infested with these insects that not 

 a twig could be found or a space of an 

 inch on twigs or branches that was not 

 occupied. Altogether, it was about as bad 

 a case as an entomologist could meet with- 

 Of course, the trees were partially dead, 

 and presented the sickly, diseased ap- 

 pearance usual in such cases. Singularly, 

 no other peach trees in the immediate 

 neighborhood had been attacked, although 

 the insects have, seemingly, from: appear- 



ances, held high carnival in this one en- 

 closure for a number of years. 



The insect is known as Lecanium per~ 

 sicos, * and is not very destructive or even 

 common in this country. The eggs de- 

 posited by the females are said to hatch in 

 July, and the males, which are minute two 

 winged flies, to emerge in August, though 

 an European authority states that the 

 males emerge from the scale in May and 

 pair with the females, which deposit their 

 eggs "in the commencement of summer." 



Scirpus Supinus, L., var. Hallii 



Gray.-— This plant has recently been 

 found for the first time in Massachusetts, 

 on the borders of Winter Pond, Woburn. 

 While it differs somewhat from the form 

 described in Gray's Manual — having a 

 three cleft style instead of a two cleft, and 

 most of the upper leaves being sheath 

 bearing — it presents one peculiarity which 

 is extraordinary, and which, so far as I 

 know, has never been noticed in any 

 number of the genus, viz : It bears radi- 

 cal fruit as well as normal spikes. An 

 unusually large achenium, lying under the 

 lower sheath at the very base of the culm, 

 sends up a style sometimes half an inch 

 long, until it reaches the extremity of the 

 sheath, where it projects its three cleft 

 summit into the air. Quite a fair number 

 of these basal achenia, I find, are fertilized 

 by the pollen which must drop down from 

 the spikes above. 



There does not appear to be any special 

 use for this abnormal fruit, for the spikes 

 ripen their fruit perfectly and in abun- 

 dance. 



I have collected a hundred specimens, 



* In a letter received from Mr. Uhler since the 

 above was in type, he says the insect " probably 

 belongs to the genus Aspidiotus. It has some of 

 the characters of the European A. Persica-ablon- 

 gus, Reaumur, but differs in most respects." 



