August 18, 1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
143 
breadth, but starry ; paste sufficient, starry ; eye orange ; foliage mealed 
and serrated. 
Taylor's Favourite. —Pip pointed, very flat ; edge good white, not 
equal to Glory ; colour very even, almost to tameness, dark velvety 
maroon ; paste circular ; eye orange. Foliage silvery green, deeply 
serrated, slightly mealed. Good trusser. Handsome both in habit and 
flower. 
Taylor's Glory. —The best of Taylor’s three, and perhaps of all white 
edged Auriculas. Pip a circle, flat; edge pure white ; colour light- 
purplish plum, of good proportion : paste circular, substantial ; °eye 
light yellow, bleaches ; anthers hidden. Foliage smooth, handsome, 
evenly mealed. First-rate trusser. 
Taylor's Incomparable. —Fine handsome' plant with a good flower, 
though the least so of Taylor’s three. Petal pointed, but pip flat; edge 
hardly white enough ; colour dark plum, with a dash of slate in it, 
running into the edge ; paste of good shape, defined, too narrow ; eye 
lemon, with anthers quite visible enough ; good trusser. Foliage scantily 
mealed, serrated, robust, 
(To be continued.) 
THE INSECT ENEMIES OF OUR GARDEN 
CROPS. 
THE GFiAPE. 
(.Continued from page 316, last rol.) 
■. JULY appears to be a month in which that deadly foe of the 
Tine, Phylloxera vastatrix, comes forth winged, and therefore it is 
a suitable time to notice the species, since some authors have laid 
stress upon the fact, believing that it may largely extend itself in 
this fashion. Stories, more or less coloured, are told of these 
insects being seen, flying in clouds, about the Grape-yielding districts 
of the Continent. A little consideration, however, of the pro¬ 
babilities of the case, and the known history of this Phylloxera, 
will lead us to the opinion, I think, that the insect does not, by this 
means, reach new localities, and that it has travelled from one 
country to another by means of the root-feeding imperfect females. 
Aphides, as I have had occasion to point out in this Journal, do 
now and then journey greater distances than i 3 commonly supposed, 
but I doubt if a winged Phylloxera can travel a mile, or anything 
near that. It may be added here that the period of flight is 
uncertain, lying between July and September, or even October. 
Several of my friends own to being much perplexed by what 
they have read about the Phylloxera ; “ they can’t make head or 
tail of it.” . Literally, it is frequently difficult to discern head or 
tail on the insects when we take them out for examination, many 
being in a nymph-like condition, when no organs or parts are 
readily discernible. It is true, the literature of the subject, English 
and foreign, is voluminous, but this does not imply extensive 
knowledge ; a great deal of what has been penned is of that theo¬ 
retical nature which is a cover for ignorance. The habits of this 
pest are exceedingly singular, and also obscure even yet, but I hope 
I can make some points clear which are at present cloudy to some. 
Condensing as much as possible, we note first, that it is occasionally 
spoken of as the ^ ine aphis, but is distinguished from the aphides 
proper by the three-jointed antennre, though in its life history it 
nearly resembles that tribe, with certain differences that sever it and 
the other Phylloxeras from both the aphides and the cocci, or scale 
insects. With these it belongs to the Hemipterous order, and is 
perhaps take it altogether—one of the most destructive insects of 
that group. Fortunately, only two species have occurred in Britain, 
the Vine Phylloxera and P. Quercus, which is not uncommon about 
the south during some seasons, and has been known here since 1834 
at least. Several continental entomologists maintain that this, and 
several species beside, are migratory from trees to low-growing 
plants, and vice versa, and this may be the case, but P. vastatrix 
only transfers itself from the leaves to the roots of the Vine. 
Assuredly Phylloxera vastatrix must have existed for a very 
long and unknown period in those North American countries which 
are its habitat, but during the reign of Victoria it has, to quote 
Mr. Buckton, “ crossed the Atlantic, spread itself over the greater 
part of southern Europe, touched at Cape Colony in Africa, and 
brought its baneful influence to bear on the vineyards of Australia.” 
Prof. Westwood received examples of it from English houses in 
1863, and he named the species Peritymbia vitisana, in allusion to 
the tomb-like gall which encloses the mother insect. The leaf- 
haunting insects, were the first to be observed, as was likely, after¬ 
wards the insidious feeders upon the Vine rootlets were detected. 
With us, at least, this enemy flourishes most in graperies and hot¬ 
houses, but in warmer climates it is very prolific on outdoor Vines. 
How dubious is its history appears from the warm debates whether 
the Phylloxera chiefly attacks strong or weak Vines, one party 
contending that it is the weakly or decayed which are selected, and 
the other maintaining that healthy Vines, as having the purest sap, 
are preferred by the insect. 
When the leaves of the Vine are covered thickly with Phylloxera 
galls (generally noticeable during May and June), they turn yellow 
or brown, the stocks become enfeebled, and there arises an un¬ 
pleasant odour suggestive of decay. Still, the greater amount of 
harm is done by severe attacks upon the roots, the fibrils of which 
swell into knobs or tubercles, the vitality of the plant being en¬ 
dangered, while sometimes generation after generation succeeds 
before the insects are detected and dealt with. For, like the family 
of the aphides, generations to the number of five or six may follow 
each other during the summer season, apterous larvfe, or imperfect 
females, as they may be considered, producing young on a plan 
which has been compared to the budding of plants. Indeed Mr. 
Lichtenstein thinks this might go on, if the Vines can bear it, 
fiom year to year, without any winged forms intervening; he has 
noticed a succession for four seasons. 
Ordinarily, however, on the best authorities, the order of life in 
the Phylloxera of the Vine is as follows i —AVinged insects emerge 
in the course of the summer and autumn, but at first only of one 
sex By the females are deposited egg-like bodies. The number 
each produces varies from one to eight, which are not eggs, but 
nymphs 01 pupas, and these develope into true males and females 
which continue the race, but eat nothing. Then the female cfives 
biith to a roundish body, usually one, rarely two, which some 
naturalists regard as an egg, some as a pupa, and which is hidden 
under the bark of the Vine. This lies dormant through the winter 
and hatches in the spring. The progeny of this is a creature which 
has been called the queen or foundress, and which has a certain 
resemblance in habit to the queen wasp. Her business is to form 
galls upon the leaves ; each it is thought, makes but one, correspond¬ 
ing to the nest of the wasp, in which she becomes entombed, sur¬ 
rounded by her progeny. Or it may be she makes several, becoming 
a prisoner only in the last, otherwise there must be a succession of 
the flies, since galls appear at various stages through the summer ; 
fifty and more have been counted upon one leaf. On opening a 
gall,.we find hundreds, or even thousands, of minute yellow creatures, 
the juvenile Phylloxeras, but these do not complete their career 
upon the leaves. At some period during the summer they quit the 
galls, and dropping to the soil begin a subterranean life upon the 
roots of the Vine. For the sake of experiment, the attempt has 
been made to induce Phylloxeras from the roots to settle upon the 
leaves, but they decidedly object to be thus transferred. When 
arrived at the roots, the Phylloxeras increase, as remarked, after 
the manner of aphides, the apterous females depositing a number 
of partially developed individuals like themselves, probably from 
six to twenty, which pursue the like course later on. Out of these 
come the winged examples of summer or autumn, but all the while 
some Phylloxeras remain at the roots through the winter in a semi- 
torpid state, rousing about April, which is the time when chemical 
ag;ents tell most effectually upon them. It is noticeable that the 
Vines of Europe do not seem, taken generally, to favour the growth 
of galls upon their leaves, for which reason the foundresses, or 
queens of the early summer, seek the roots at times, and insinuating 
themselves into the earth, make their galls where their wingless 
kinsfolk are feeding. 
Several writers upon this insect have attributed its increase in 
some French districts to the known destruction of small birds, 
which has been going on in our sister country for many years past! 
A careful observer, the late Edward Newman, does not attach any 
importance to this. It is very unlikely that such birds seek out the 
Phylloxeras at the Vine rootlets, and they have never been seen to 
open the galls in order to eat their living contents. But it does 
seem as if those have some truth on their side who maintain that 
new varieties of the Grape are freest from attacks. Difficult as it 
is to deal with, the ravages of the insect may be checked, and it has 
even been effectually exterminated in some localities by perse¬ 
verance in the methods which have repeatedly been pointed out in 
these columns. There is no question that flooding the Vine roots 
during winter is a capital plan, but one of limited application. 
Arseniate of copper, phenic acid, and other chemicals that have 
been recommended, have the objection of costliness, and also an 
amount of risk. Growers abroad have of late freely employed the 
sulpho-carbonate of potassium, which is not at all dangerous, and 
serves also the purpose of a manure.— Entomologist. 
RUXLEY LODGE, ESHER. 
Probably few gardeners find it an easy task to banish gardens and 
gardening from their minds when “ out for a holiday,” and if they are 
in the neighbourhood of a garden noted for something specially good, or 
within reasonable distance of a gardener famous as a good all-round 
cultivator, they feel that their duty requires that they should “ call in ” 
and “ look round and I admit that I belong to that class of gardeners. 
But while passing through the “ gate ” of another garden, we should 
take care to close the gate of our own garden behind us, and, if possible, 
banish it from our minds. One of the chief objects in visiting gardens’ 
is, or should be, to store the mind with useful information, no 'matter 
