756 
[Assembly 
every crevice of the bark, in many places piled up and filling the 
cracks, and others were irregularly dropped among the lichens 
and moss growing upon the bark—every unevenness of the sur¬ 
face, or wherever a roughness afforded a support for them, being 
stocked with as many as could be made to cling to it. The eggs 
were then of a light yellow or green color, and wer» so slightly 
glued in their places that it was evident by far the largest, part of 
them would be washed away by rains or brushed off by the driv¬ 
ing snows of winter. But I by no meaus anticipated such a great 
diminution in their numbers as actually occurred. I should judge 
that in the spring several hundreds had disappeared for every one 
that then remained. 
The present year (1855) the apple plant-louse, as well as species 
infesting willows and some other trees, appears to be unusually 
prolific, and has excited much alarm among many owners of young 
orchards, for it is young thrifty-g-owing trees which are most in¬ 
fested by it. In one instance a gentleman came to me a distance 
of twenty five miles, bringing specimens of this insect, to learn its 
name and what measures he could resort to for destroying it, and 
in the Country Gentleman of July 19, (vol. vi. p. 48,) is a letter 
from William Gilchrist, of Hebron, Washington county, giving an 
account of its depredations upon his trees, many of which were in 
danger of perishing unless they were relieved from these vermin. 
Norman Briggs, Esq., of Schaghticoke Point, informs me that par¬ 
ticular varieties of the apple appear to be much more infested by 
this insect than other varieties; thus the Sour Bough, wherever it 
was growing in his grounds, was overrun with lice, whilst among 
the kinds least affected were the Northern Spy and Red Astrakhan. 
As already stated, this insect locates itself upon the green suc¬ 
culent shoots at the end of the twigs, upon the under surface of 
the leaves, and upon the leaf-stalks. The leaves being of a com¬ 
paratively stiff, leathery texture, do not become wrinkled and 
plaited like those of the peach, the snowball, and many other 
shiubs and trees; they, however, curve backwards, often to such 
an extent that the point of the leaf touches the stalk on which it 
grows, thus furnishing to the insect a comparatively secure covert 
