AND ITS INTRODUCTION INTO BRITAIN. 
173 
Somewhat later I received a communication from Prof. Riley, 
who had devoted two days whilst in England to comparison of 
British specimens with those of which Dr. Lindeman and I had 
sent him a small collection, with the result that his (Prof. Riley’s) 
views were quite confirmed as to the visitation being of European 
origin, as every one of Dr. Lindeman’s forms had been reared in 
England. As I have already, by permission of my kind friends and 
helpers, published the names of these species, I will not trouble 
you with a mere list of names. 
But looking now at what had to be done practically, for we had 
learnt whence the trouble had apparently come, the next question 
was How did it come ? The first thing that suggested itself was that 
it came, in flaxseed form, on imported wheat or barley straw, and 
the only way to get to a knowledge of this matter was by careful 
examination. The management of this was intrusted to me, and 
for weeks or rather months I had careful watch kept and exami¬ 
nation made by qualified observers at Dundee, Leith, Hull, Goole, 
and other places. Bales of straw were opened, sweepings of straw¬ 
laden ships examined, and my co-operators also obtained permission 
to have a watch kept at stables and other places to which straw 
was conveyed for use. 
Thousands of bales of straw were examined at Hull, and a steve¬ 
dore there who was well acquainted with the appearance of the 
flaxseeds took great pains in having the sweepings of the vessels 
carefully examined. That my co-operators were well acquainted 
with the appearance of what they were searching for was proved 
by the successive consignments to me of various things (such as real 
flaxseed) for verification, which much resembled the object of in¬ 
vestigation, but which never turned out to be it. 
¥e only once met with a specimen, in all the months of our 
search, and that was a single puparium. still adhering to a barley 
straw, grown in Belgium, thus, curiously enough, showing at last 
the presence of attack in a country which has not yet been on the 
infested lists. 
It is not of course all kinds of straw, or all conditions of straw, 
that are liable to be carriers of infestation. Oat straw is con¬ 
sidered safe, and wheat or barley straw is not likely to carry much 
evil, if it is cut high,—much above the second knot from the 
ground, which is the spot apparently most preferred for attack. 
Sometimes also the straw has gone through such treatment as to 
ensure its being a safe import. In the course of our investigations 
Mr. Edmund Riley, who was superintending investigations for me 
at Hull, wrote to me that in the week ending JSTov. 5, 1887, it was 
stated that there was the largest importation of eggs in one week 
which had ever been reported, and chiefly from Russian ports. 
One vessel had 60 tons; another 46 tons; and the “ Gato ” had 
823 cases each containing some thousands. These eggs came in 
long cases with a layer of straw at top and bottom and between 
each layer of eggs. At first sight this would appear to be the 
exact place to supply a plentiful coming crop of the Hessian fly, 
