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NEW VINE SCOURGE. 295 
There is little doubt however that, after making 
•due allowance for the exaggeration common to those 
who make a long study of special subjects, the injury 
done by this insect to vineyards, in certain districts of 
France, and under certain circumstances of vine 
cultivation, has been considerable. 
Phylloxera vastatvix is a small insect of the sub- 
order of Homoptem. The adult female only has, as 
.yet, been discovered ; it is found in the apterous and 
■also in the winged state. The eggs would appear to 
be generally deposited in galls, formed by the insect on 
the leaf of the vine, and the newly-hatched grub finds 
its way to the roots of the plants, upon which it feeds. 
The first symptom of the vine being attacked is the 
reddish-yellow colour of the leaf. No means of checking 
the progress of the insect has yet proved effectual. 
Senhor Oliveira, junior, has quite recently published 
a pamphlet upon the subject, which, though a hasty 
and ill-judged compilation from French authorities, 
may, perhaps, have the effect of arousing observation 
on the part of the vine-growers. This work, however, 
is full of unpardonable exaggeration, tending only 
either to encourage undue alarm, or, as is more 
probable, to excite utter unbelief in the writer's asser- 
tions : e.g., the author begins by stating that a plague 
has fallen upon the vine industry of the country one 
hundred -times more destructive than the old vine 
disease— the Oidium Tuckeri. 
The food of Phylloxera vastatrix being the roots of 
the plant, it is obvious that it is only where the young 
and more tender roots of the vine are near the surface 
of the ground that they can be destructively fed upon 
<by so small and delicate an insect. 
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