NOTES AND ABSTEACTS. 



651 



of this moth {Ennomus suhsignarius Hiibn.) the Enghsh sparrow was 

 introduced from Europe, and so well did it do its work that for many 

 years 'almost nothing was heard about it as a shade-tree pest. In 1907 

 it again appeared, and in 1910 was as prevalent as ever, and it is quite 

 possible that it may become a serious pest of fruit trees. 



Spraying with arsenite of lead, 3 lb. to fifty gallons of water, 

 while the caterpillars are small, would seem to be the best remedy. 



V. G. J. 



Lychnis and Shirley Poppy, Colour Factors in. By George 

 Harrison Shull (Bot. Gaz. vol. liv. pp. 120-135; Aug. 1912).— When 

 a colour character is inhibited, the result is a " dominant white," at 

 least if inhibition is complete, but there are also recessive whites, and 

 dominant whites are not necessarily due to the above reason. Thus, 

 for example, indigo blue (OigH^oN202) may become in alkaline solutions 

 indigo white (O^eHi 2^202)* and anti-enzymes may exist which will 

 prevent the action of such colour formers as tyrosin. 



The author has grown 660 families of Lychnis diocia, and has 

 always found hitherto that white is recessive to colours; all crosses of 

 white-flowered individuals have given white descendants. But a cross 

 between a white (male) Melandrium album Garcke from Baden and a 

 Gold Harbour (Americaii) form yielded seventy-seven offspring, all of 

 which were reddish-purple. A cross between Melandrium ruhrum 

 Garcke (male) and M. album yielded twenty -three white and three 

 purple flowers. 



In Shirley poppies, the white margin is found to be dominant over 

 its absence, but a red-violet margined plant produced three families 

 with no margin. The dark red-orange body-colour of the wild Papaver 

 Rhoeas is epistatic to all the body-colours of the many garden forms. 

 Doubleness is also dominant. 



The white colour of Shirley poppy (with yellow stamens) seems 

 to be nearly always dominant, only twenty-five out of 559 descendants 

 being neither pure white nor white with traces of red. A cross of two 

 dark red plants yielded sixty-eight white and seventy pigmented (less 

 dark than their parents), and similar results were found in other cases 

 of striated-petal parents or striated-petal and plain red parents. 



This ' dominant white " has hitherto not appeared from red-orange 

 or light violet-red parents, only from red or striated parents. The in- 

 hibiting factor seems to affect only pure spectrum red. 



The author discusses the supposed inhibiting factors by which he 

 j explains the above results. — G. F. S. E. 



I Mang-O Weevil, The. By G. L. Marlatt {U.S.A. Dep. Agr. Bur. 

 Entom., Circ. 141, June 1911; 2 figs.). — The most serious insect 

 pest in Oriental countries is the mango weevil (Cryptorhynchm 

 i mmgiferae Fab.), a relation O'f the boll, and chestnut weevils. It is 

 \' likely to be introduced into Florida in mango seeds. These are 

 ' liargely infested with it, and the prospective mango industry of that 

 I country is threatened. Inasmuch as this insect passes its entire 



