912 
Annual Report of New York 
CUBBAHT-WOBM. HB. COnTIS’S VALUABLE ACCOUST Off IT. 
pillars. K. Lymburn states that he has for some years used helle¬ 
bore and found it very effectual. In his district it is quite gene¬ 
rally used. lie says, he some years ago had a valuable lot of 
plants which were like to be altogether destroyed. He kept a 
man picking off the caterpillars eight days, with great expense and 
little execution. He had tried quicklime, potash and soda without 
effect; and tobacco juice is apt to kill the foliage. He then tried 
hellebore, and a half pound of the powder completely cured all his 
bushes. A man held up the branches to expose the underside of 
the leaves, whilst he dusted them with the forefinger and thumb, 
wherever a caterpillar was to be seen. The powder must be dry, 
and if it is not it should be toasted before the fire. It disperses 
into a cloud, and wherever a particle reaches a caterpillar it col¬ 
lapses as if stabbed, and in an hour or two nothing but the skin is 
left. Some dust it up from below with a puff, sending it upon all 
the bushes, which is less trouble but a waste of the powder. Some 
dust it from above with a dredge box, but it does not reach the 
caterpillars so readily in this way. A great many prefer an infu¬ 
sion of the powder in water, which is said to be very efficient. 
Disappointments have arisen from the powder having lost its pun¬ 
gency by being long kept and damp, which may be known by its 
making only a faint impression on the nostrils. It will then do no 
good. 
The editors thank several others for communications to the same 
effect. The following year other attestations of the value of tins 
remedy appear, and the editors say (page 381), “There is no 
longer any doubt respecting the efficacy of genuine hellebore 
powder in destroying this pest.” 
In 1841 also appears in the Gardener's Chronicle , page 548, a most 
valuable paper upon this Gooseberry and Currant Saw-fly from 
the able pen of Mr. Curtis, it forming No. 14 of the “Kuricola” 
series of Entomological articles which lie communicated to the 
public through that periodical. It is accompanied with an excel¬ 
lent wood cut illustration showing the eggs along the veins of the 
leaves, the larva feeding, the cocoon, and the fly magnified. And 
we cannot do the reader a better service than to here extract a 
portion of this important paper. 
Mr. Curtis introduces the subject by observing that “ Most of 
the Ilymenoptera or Flies with four transparent wings are benefi¬ 
cial to man, the immense family of Ichneumons, the minute Diplo- 
