FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 95 
time experimenting at Medford, Mass., with native worms in 
raising silk. He brought a cluster of gypsy moth eggs from 
France, and accidentally lost them. The larvae did not at¬ 
tract especial attention, so no effort was made to stamp them 
out in the beginning. Whenever noticed they were thought 
to be simply canker worms, tent caterpillars or some other 
native and less destructive moth. It has now spread through 
29 cities and towns of Eastern Massachusetts. The territory 
is bounded by a line beginning a few miles south of Boston, 
running west three counties, then two counties north, and then 
in a northeasterly direction to Manchester. It is more or less 
thickly disseminated throughout this area. In places where 
it is abundant the fields are simply devastated. There is- 
scarcly a plant that is sacred to its abnoimal appetite. In 1890 
the legislature approprioted $50,000 toward its destruction. 
In 1891 $50,000 more was appropriated, and in 1892 the sum 
had to be raised to $75,000. First the work was handed over 
to excellent men who had no entomological training; later it 
it was put in the hands of scientific entomologists, but the 
gypsy moth, she is still there. 
Much good has been done; the pest has been kept from 
spreading by strict laws and patrolmen constantly watching 
the border. Ladies and gentlemen—How very easy would it 
be for some good friend of yours living in the infested dis¬ 
trict to send >ou a few grape cuttings that might have been 
secreted under their loose bark or in the sphagnum about 
them, a half-dozen of these eggs that are about the size of 
mustard seed ? Or perchance be sent in with a few choice 
roses. You see any one might be perfectly innocent and yet 
cause the loss of thousands of dollars worth of property. 
THE FLUTED SCALE. 
Those who were present at the Pensacola meeting, remem¬ 
ber the stereopticon slide illustrating the life history of the 
fluted scale (leery puischasi). This will be found on pages 
149, 150 and 151, Proceedings Sixth Annual Meeting of the 
Florida State Horticultural Society. Let us look at the 
rapidity with which this insect spreads. In 1885 Mr. Cook, 
at Sacramento, noticed that this insect covered a spice of 
about three by four inches on an acacia tree. In less than two 
years it had spread over an area of 12,800 square feet, or more 
than a quarter of an acre; at the same rate in two more years 
it would have spread overmuch more than an entire township. 
Curious as it m>iy seem, this insect was imported on an aca¬ 
cia, a plant belonging to an entirely different family than 
the orange. This pest is such an omniverous feeder that when 
once established it simply permeates all the vegetation, and 
7 
