[Book Reviews]

Abstract

THIS report, for the production of which we are mainly indebted to the exertions of Miss E. A. Ormerod, the Rev. T. A. Preston, and Mr. E. A. Fitch, is, this year, one of unusual interest, inasmuch as it reviews the destructive work of the insect world to our garden and field crops during a summer unequalled for its want of sunshine and continued heavy rains. Moreover, owing to the energy displayed by the editor in inducing gardeners, foresters, &c., to record what observations they may have made, we have, as the result, a very full and very varied report. Notwithstanding that the temperature was below and the rainfall above the average, “the returns show insect attack fully up to the usual amount, and insect presence often exceeding it. The unusual cold of the winter and the depth to which the frost penetrated the ground do not appear to have acted prejudicially on larvæ subjected to them, either at the time or in subsequent development, and the only cases in which the weather appears notably to have had effect in ridding us of insect attack is where the persistent rainfall or the tremendous downpour of summer storms have fairly swept the insects from the plants, or in some cases of leaf-feeders, where the plant-growth has (conjecturally) been driven on past the power of the larvæ.”

Notes of Observations on Injurious Insects.

Report, 1879. (London: W. Swan Sonnenschein, and Allen, 1880.)