188 



sprinkled, which will kill them as readily as it will 

 the maggots in nuts ; strong infusions of tobacco- 

 water, aloes, and quassia, are also recommended. 

 Where the blood of animals can be obtained, it might 

 be beneficially applied, as it would coagulate over the 

 tender larvae and pupse, and set them fast in the 

 earth. {GarcL Chron, 1841, 292.) 



In Xorth America the peach constitutes an impor- 

 tant part of the general produce, serving both as food 

 for swine, and famishing by distillation a useful 

 spirit. The ravages committed upon them there by 

 insects are so serious, that premiums have been 

 offered for extirpating them. A species of weevil, 

 perhaps a BijncJiites, enters the fruit when unripe, 

 probably laying its egg within the stone, and so de- 

 stroys them. And two kinds of Zygcena^ by attack- 

 ing the roots, do a still greater injury to the trees. 

 A Coccusy as it should seem from the description, 

 imported about thirty years ago from the Mauritius, 

 or else with the Constantia vine from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, has destroyed nearly nine-tenths of the 

 peach trees in the island of St. Helena, where for- 

 merly they were so abundant that, as in North Ame- 

 rica, the swine were fed with them. Various means 

 have been employed to destroy this plague, but 

 hitherto without success. {Kirby and Spence, i. 

 202.) 



JVas^ps ars great ravagers of the fruit of the peach 



