The Black Spruce. 



301 



A brief extract from the Entomology of Kirby and 

 Spence will show that the ravages of insects upon forest 

 trees in Europe have sometimes been serious, and that it 

 is none too soon for us to note well what is transpiring in 

 our own forests. 



" The bark-borer of the oak is a small beetle of an allied 

 genus, Scolytus pygmmns, which with us does no great 

 harm, but so abounded of late years in the Bois-de-Vin- 

 cennes near Paris that 40,000 trees were killed by it ; and 

 many of the finest elms in St. James' Park and Kensington 

 Gardens as well as in the promenades of various cities in 

 the north of France, have fallen victims to another of this 

 tribe, Scolytus destructor, whose trivial name well character- 

 izes the frequency and severity of its ravages. The ravages 

 of Tomicus typographies in the pine forests of Germany have 

 long been known under the name Wurmtrokniss (decay 

 caused by worms), and they sometimes attack the inner 

 bark in such numbers, 80,000 being sometimes found in a 

 single tree, that they are infinitely more noxious than 

 those insects that bore into the wood. About the year 

 1668 this pest was particularly prevalent and caused in- 

 calculable mischief and in 1783 it is estimated that a million 

 and a half of trees were destroyed by it in the Hartz forests 

 alone. At this period, when arrived at their perfect state, 

 they migrated in swarms like bees into Suabia and Fran- 

 conia. At length between 1784 and 1789 in consequence 

 of a succession of cold moist seasons the numbers of this 

 scourge were sensibly diminished, but they appeared again 

 in 1790 and so late as 1796 there was great reason to fear 

 for the few fir trees that were left." Westwood states 

 that occasion all} 7 the evil was so great that prayers were 

 offered in the churches against its extension. While we 

 hope that our spruce-tree bark-borer may never prove to 

 be such a pest as this Tomicus we certainly think that he 

 deserves some special attention. 



