186 
A coating of tar will effectually protect timber liable to their attacks. 
- I am informed by Canon d: that T. signatum is only recorded in 
Britain from Sherwood Forest, where it occurs commorly. It probably 
has a far more extended distro, but is liable to be overlooked. 
(Signed) W. F. H. Braxpronp. 
CLXIII.—PRICKLY PEAR IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
In the Kew Bulletin for Jul aes, pp. 165-173, an account is given 
of the spread of the Prickly Pear in South Africa, The term Prickly 
Pear is applied to one or more iie es of Opuntia, natives of the New 
World which have pee increasingly abundant in many warm dry 
— of the Old 
spread of the Prickly Pear in Cape Colony — now to have 
Stem large proportions, and it is proposed, as shown in the following 
Report, to adopt legislative enaetments for keeping it in à eben 
Report of the Select Committee appointed by the c Council 
on the 9th June 1890, to consider the Pi of tke Eradication of the 
Prickly Pear and the Poisonous Melkbo The Committee consisting 
of poe. Botha, Du Plessis, Bowker, I Herholde Meurant, and ot. 
ur Committee find, from evidence which suni been adduced before 
hak pi which is published with this Report 
“i, That in the districts of Graaff-R eia; -Boitiérset East, Cradock, 
Jansenville, Uitenhage, Willowmore, and Aberdeen the plant 
known as Prickly Pear has inereased, and is cn to an 
extent. This is rendered more serious by the fact 
that this plant, after os been for many years in a district 
seems to obtain a complete mastery, although the first 
instance no whatever i is entertained respecting 
“ii, The interest of the bouring divisions, and sr the whole 
country, is involved in this matter because past experience 
shows that unless taken in time ‘the Prickly Pear’ must 
spread over all the adjoining areas, I ore a 
which ought to be extir a merely for the sake 
.of those districts in which it is at prese hurtful, but f 
* ii, We fave it in ird that he. Ea daa i of property i 
certain districts has Already reached at least fifty per cent., 
while all farms contiguous suffer in pro portal: This d 
ciation is going on so rapidly that immediate remedial measures 
are n 
bic 11 a in evidence that the probable loss of stock per annum, in 
co of the spread of the * Prickly Pear,’ is 200,000/. 
from. the fruit of the Pr Prickly Peat, which is 
exercising a Mer deleterious effect upon the natives 
