126 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



afterwards some of the vines were literally dead, not 

 having a live root, and to save the grapes they had to 

 be cut wholesale. 



In the same range, and adjoining this house, is a 

 Muscat-house, the vines in which ripened a fine crop 

 of grapes to a beautiful golden colour; and on two 

 grafts of Gros Guillaume there were ten bunches, 

 weighing from 6 to 8 lb. each. It was not till October 

 that the presence of the Phylloxera was suspected 

 here, and by the end of November the roots of the 

 whole of these vines were literally covered with it — 

 so much so that, looked at with the naked eye, it 

 imparted its own 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 

 observations 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 yellow- 

 ish-brown colour ; and, examined through a powerful 

 microscope, is so transparent that the eggs can be seen 

 in its inside. The eggs are equally transparent, and 

 both are very easily destroyed. 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, except those in the galls ; and 

 have seen only one of the insects with wings, which 



