affecting the Ti/niip- Crops. 
121 
bilobed, fourth slender, longer, and clavato, terminated by two 
simple daws; length, including the rostrum, 1^ line (fig. I'J). 
This beetle is very similar to the turnip-seed weevil (pi. F. 
fig. 32) ; but it is black instead of grey ; the wing-cases are not 
so rough or strongly tuberculated at their extremities, and all the 
thighs have a small tooth beneath. It is not uncommon in hedges 
and waste grounds, from the commencement of May to the end 
of August ; and closely contracts all its members when alarmed, 
at which time it looks like a black seed. It no doubt lives in 
flowers, like its congeners ; but no means could be devised for 
the destruction of this insect, which fortunately is not of much 
consequence, for, excepting the beauty and symmetry of the bulbs 
being affected, the turnips are, I apprehend, in no way injured 
by their presence. We may, however, mention, that partridges 
are very fond of the maggots, and that is undoubtedly one reason 
for the turnips being so attractive to those birds ; they are there 
under cover, and run about in search of the galls, to pick out the 
hidden maggots, and probably others whose history I shall now 
proceed to relate. 
Anbury, or Fingers and Toes. 
That these malformations are occasioned by insects I very 
much doubt ; yet it is unquestionably true that the bulbs of the 
turnips, when thus affected, are inhabited by multitudes of 
maggots, beetles, &c. ; but then they are such as always obtain 
their sustenance from putrid substances, or those beetles which 
are carnivorous, and are attracted to such spots by the abundant 
supply of food which the helpless inhabitants of the diseased 
roots afford them. I therefore consider insects to be not the 
cause but the effect of anbury, although their united efforts con- 
tribute in no small degree to the more speedy dissolution of the 
bulbs. 
The above are, I believe, two distinct diseases : but as it is 
very difficult to distinguish them by the published accounts of 
authors, I am not able to characterise them separately. The 
" fingers and toes" I had always supposed to be the division of 
the root into a number of thick appendages at the expense of the 
bulb; but "anbury," instead of producing radish-like append- 
ages, is characterised by a knotted and irregular growth of the 
fibres. Mr. Dickson says of fingers and toes, — " It occasionally 
happens that turnip-plants, instead of swelling and forming bulbs, 
send off numerous stringy roots, which soon decay, and come to 
no account. It occurs most generally when the crop is sown on 
fresh land, and no remedy is said yet to have been discovered to 
prevent it. More perfect tillage, and the use of such manures 
as have a tendency to render such lands more mellow and friable. 
