NOTES. 
[101] 
with the points extending beyond it, but which in action bend back at right angles 
therefrom. (See also Note 23.) 
Note 9 (p. 10). — See the article, Xectar : what it is and some of its use*, by William 
Trelease, published in the Report upon Cotton Insects, Department of Agriculture, 
1810, pp. 319-343. In this article the author discusses especially the extra-ilorai 
nectar glands of the cotton plant and their relation to Aletia. Ho concludes that the 
glands of the cotton plant seem to have been produced to secure the protection of the 
leaves and flowers of the plant from leaf and petal eating insects, like ants, but at the 
MOM time, since the introduction of the Cotton Worm, the glands have become inju- 
rious to the plant by attractiug the moths at night, which alternately sip nectar and 
oviposit upou the leaves. The tendency now would nat urally be to remove the glands 
by natural selection, but this la opposed by the methodical selection of mau, who in his 
desire to produce a good staple and a vigorous growth pays no attention to ihe power 
for secreting nectar, and as this function does not cause any drain on the energy of 
the plant, it stands no chance of being removed. 
Note 10 (p. 12). — Referring to the extreme rapidity with which the broods follow 
one another in midsummer, we made use of the followiug paragraph in our address 
before the Atlanta Cotton Convent ion, November -1, 1 — 1 (>•••• Ui!di<>grapl:ical list): 
•"The first worms appear much earlier than was formerly supposed, viz., from the 
middle of April till the middle of May, in the southern portion of the cotton belt. 
The fact that these early worms generally attract no attention, and that the species 
seldom acquires disastrous force till the third generation, has given rise to the erro- 
neous notion of later first appearance. There are also many more generations than 
has been supposed, 6even or more being produced toward the Gulf, the last enduring 
till frost cuts it off. When I teU you that in addition to this rapid succession of 
broods the moth is one of the most prolific with which I am acquainted, capable, 
in fact, under favorable circumstances, of laving six or seven hundred eggs, you will 
no longer wonder at its destructive eapaeity. The progeny of a single female may, 
in less than two months, under the influence of midsummer temperature, reach 
twenty billions", while you all know that half a dozen worms to a plant are sufficient 
to jeopardize the crop. Why, were it not for the various natural checks upou the 
increase of the species in geometrical ratio, successful cotton-culture, with all our im- 
proved methods for destroying the pest, would be utterly impossible. Remove the 
barriers and the flood comes. The occasional impotence of thenatural checks, through 
one cause or another, very quickly gives the Cotton Worm the mastery in the struggle 
for existence, and precipitates it upon us in multitudes almost as if by magic." 
Note 11 (p. 12). — This is well illustrated by a fact communicated by Dr. D. L. 
l'hares, of Wood villa, Miss., viz., that the worm usually begins its work of destruc- 
tion in Madison County from three to six weeks earlier than in Wilkinson ; the former 
on latitude 33°, and the latter resting on 31°. At Madison station, in the southern 
part of Madison County, the thermometer marked the extreme low temperature of — 4° 
F. during the winter of 187S-'79, while at Woodville, only about two degrees farther 
south, the lowest temperature noted was 14° F., or a difference of 16°. 
Note 12 (p. 12). — In this connection we quo^o the following note on hibernation 
from the American Naturalist for April, 1883. It is a brief abstract of a paper rea^l by us 
before the American- Association for the Advancement of Science at the Montreal 
meeting in 1382 : 
"The Hibernation of Aletia xylina, Say, in the United States a settled 
fact. — I have already shown in previous remarks before the association that there 
were various theories held by competent men — both entomologists and planters — as 
to the hibernation of this Aletia (the common Cotton-W orm of the South) j some be- 
lieving that it hibernated in the chrysalis state, some that it survived in the moth 
■late, while still others contended that it did not hibernate at all in the United States. 
I have always contended that the moth survived within the limits of the United 
