596 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



English woods and country-side. A Fellow, who loves our country life and 

 has on his own estate suffered severely from the pest, makes a new 

 suggestion. Every one by this time surely knows that the Cryptococcus 

 fagi is an insect which lives in dense communities on the outside of the 

 bark of Beech trees. (We have never seen it on the foliage.) Its first 

 appearance is scarcely noticeable, there being only a few minute white 

 spots on the trunk, something like small specimens of mealy bug, but later 

 on it increases with astonishing rapidity. Individually the insect is very 

 small and of a dirty dingy colour, requiring a magnifying glass to detect ; 

 but the communities are only too apparent, as the insects throw out from 

 their bodies a mass of white waxy filaments somewhat like cotton wool, 

 which entirely covers them all over, very much as what is called 

 1 American blight ' does on Apple trees, except that, whereas the one occurs 

 only in small patches of square inches at the most, the Cryptococcus may 

 be found continually in communities of square feet, often in square yards, 

 and not infrequently covering the whole tree from top to bottom, giving 

 it the appearance of having been recently whitewashed. After a year or 

 two the bark of the tree dries up and splits and flakes off in sheets, and 

 then of course death soon ensues. On account of the thick covering of 

 waxy substance under which they shield themselves, the insects are very 

 difficult indeed — nay almost impossible — to reach by spraying, unless the 

 sprayer is phenomenally powerful and intrusive. Any wash applied with 

 an ordinary sprayer is simply thrown back by the waxy covering and rolls 

 off like water from a duck's back. Hitherto all we have been able to 

 advise is to cut down and burn the bark of all hopelessly doomed trees, 

 and to scrub others with a hard and penetrating brush by hand with 

 kerosene emulsion, which will kill all the insects it comes in contact with. 

 Another mixture is 1 lb. soft soap, \ pint paraffin to 1 gallon of hot water, 

 mixing all well together, and apply with a stout penetrating brush, taking 

 care to keep the wash weU mixed while using. Another wash which we 

 feel sure would be more valuable than either, if the sprayer is sufficiently 

 powerful, is 1 lb. caustic soda and 1 lb. crude potash, dissolved in 10 

 gallons of water, and applied to the trees in the form of a spray. This 

 should be done in winter, while the trees are dormant, and the user ought 

 to wear strong leather gloves while doing it, and take care the wind does 

 not blow the spray back into his face. We doubt whether there is a 

 sprayer of sufficiently penetrating power, and the scrubbing is, of course, 

 a very slow and tedious process, and can only be applied in the case of a 

 favourite tree here and there, young trees, or trees only just beginning to 

 be attacked. Happy the tree-owner who has an eye to detect the com- 

 mencement of such attacks as these ! Our correspondent's new sugges- 

 tion is to pass a painter's blow-lamp rapidly over the surface of the 

 affected trees. "We should think it would certainly destroy the Crypto- 

 coccus, and if done rapidly enough would possibly not hurt the bark. At 

 all events it is a novel plan, and one worth trying as a first experiment on 

 some tree affected, which the owner would not much miss even if the cure 

 proved fatal ; or it might be tried on some tree hopelessly attacked, in 

 which case it could only hasten the inevitable end by twelve months or 

 so. All we urge is, let it be done carefully and rapidly, so that a reliable 

 trial may be made. 



