4178 Entomological Society. 



dily adopted to check the evil, he would venture to say that in sixty or seventy years 

 there would not be an elm-tree in or about London. The damage caused by Cossus 

 ligniperda was very great, and he also attributed a poisonous quality to the excre- 

 ment of the larvas ; but he found that if the larvae were followed up and cut out, the 

 trees soon recovered. He said that in the Royal Botanic Society's Gardens, Regent's 

 Park, out of two hundred and forty trees, only ninety had escaped being attacked, and 

 out of eighteen operated upon, all had done well except one. 



Mr. Westwood said his late lamented friend, Audouin, who had paid great atten- 

 tion to this subject, had once when he was visiting Paris, pointed out to him that a 

 female Scolytus first attacked a tree for food, and then other females followed to lay 

 their eggs on the perforated and exposed place. 



Mr. Edward Sheppard said that he had found the insects alive in old elm rails. 



Mr. Curtis had never known young trees attacked ; but at St. John's Wood his 

 attention had been called to some old elms, which had completely lost their bark from 

 the attacks of Scolytus ; and he thought that only trees in an unhealthy state, which 

 frequently happened from many causes, or old trees decaying, became the prey of this 

 beetle. 



Captain Cox replied to these objections : — J. That he was sure, from observation, 

 that the females laid their eggs on sound trees, to which they went for that purpose. 

 2. That he had known the insects eat down into the solid wood, but only when they 

 had deprived the bark and alburnum of their nutriment. And, 3. That the majority of 

 the trees in the Regent's Park were growing vigorously, even to the terminal shoots, 

 when attacked. He added that the efficacy of the plan he recommended as a cure, 

 was proved by the fact, that trees rapidly in process of destruction by Scolytus and 

 Cossus had, after the operation, become quite healthy. 



The President, in concluding the discussion, said that the Society was greatly in- 

 debted to Captain Cox for his lucid explanations on a subject of such great importance 

 and general interest. Without wishing in the slightest degree to undervalue those 

 exhibitions of rarities, or those descriptions of genera and species which formed the 

 staple of the Society's proceedings, he considered that carefully prepared observations 

 on the habits of insects possessed a still higher value and interest, more especially when 

 such habits exercised an important economical influence, whether beneficial or inju- 

 rious. He also wished to observe, that in discussions like that which had just taken 

 place, and to which he had listened throughout with the utmost attention and plea- 

 sure, it would be a great advantage if a month's notice could be given, in order 

 that members might have the opportunity of refreshing their memories by referring to 

 what had been previously written on the subject, in fact, of " reading up," so to 

 speak, for the occasion, for we really came as it were unprepared, and treated almost as 

 new, a subject to which our best entomologists had already given their earnest atten- 

 tion. With regard to the opinions advanced and ably advocated by Captain Cox, he 

 inclined to offer two remarks. First, in reference to the Scolytus attacking young and 

 sound trees, he thought the Captain's views were fully borne out by the sound and 

 healthy wood of a young tree which was exhibited, and in which the ravages of the in- 

 sect had been closely watched from their very commencement) until they caused the 

 death of the trees : this view was also in accordance with his (the President's) own ob- 

 servations on the trees in Camberwell Grove, where he had for years watched the pro- 

 gress of the pest, and found it extended indifferently to old and young, sound 

 and unsound trees. The other remark he wished to make was, that he dissented from 



