THE GRAPE VINE. 12/ 



colour to the roots ; and viewed through a microscope, 

 the insects were seen to be clustered on the top of each 

 other like miniature swarms of bees, so rapidly had they 

 spread and multiplied. 



' So much for the destructive ability of Phylloxera. I 

 will now briefly refer to the most important of my ob- 

 servations regarding its habits, &c. In each gall, formed 

 on some of the vines on the under sides of the leaves, there 

 was generally one full-grown insect, and clustered round 

 it, just as described by M. Planchon, eight or nine eggs. 

 The mature insect is of a yellowish-brown colour'; and, ex- 

 amined through a powerful microscope, is so trans- 

 parent that the eggs can be seen in its inside. The eggs 

 are equally transparent, and both are very easily de- 

 stroyed. The full-grown insect appears to be made 

 of a thin transparent skin, easily broken, with a thin 

 transparent viscid matter internally. The way into 

 the breeding-galls is from the upper side of the leaf. I 

 have never been able to discover any above ground, ex- 

 cept those in the galls ; and have seen only one of the 

 insects with wings, which is supposed to be the male, 

 and that was on the under side of a leaf, and appeared 

 in a semi-dormant state. Underground, on the roots, 

 they breed and spread with marvellous rapidity, and 

 cover the roots so densely that they impart to them 

 their own colour. They effect the destruction of the 

 vine by eating all the bark off the roots, and burrowing 

 into the second coating of the young roots ; and after 

 destroying that, they seem to move on to fresh roots, for 

 I have not in one single instance found an insect on a 

 root after it has been peeled and begun to decay. Con- 

 trary to the French theory that it attacks the roots at 

 the neck of the vine, and works downwards towards the 



