scriptions in the British Museum, vols. i, iii, iv, 1 (Oxford, 1874 et seq.); Olympia, vol. v, Die Inschriften (Berlin, 1890); Die Inschriften von Pergamon (2 vols., ib., 1890, 1895). Consult also Le Bas and Waddington, Voyage archéologique en Grèce et en Asie Mineure pendant 1843-44 (Paris, 1847-76), and Cauer, Delectus Inscriptionum Græcarum propter Dialectum Memorabilium (2d ed., Leipzig, 1882). For dialectic inscriptions, consult Collitz, Sammlung der griechischen Dialektinschriften (Göttingen, 1884-1905). For the archaic alphabets, the standard collection is Roehl, Inscriptiones Græcæ Antiquissimæ præter Atticas in Attica Repertas (Berlin, 1882), and a volume of facsimiles only, Imagines Inscriptionum Græcarum Antiquissimarum (2d ed., ib., 1894). Dareste, Haussoullier, and Reinach, Recueil des inscriptions juridiques grecques, i, ii, 1 (Paris, 1890-98), is important for Greek legal inscriptions. Useful collections for the student are: Michel, Recueil d'inscriptions grecques (ib., 1900); Hicks and Hill, Manual of Greek Historical Inscriptions (2d ed., Oxford, 1901); and, above all, Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Græcarum (2d ed., 3 vols., Leipzig, 1898-1901). The metrical inscriptions have been collected by Kaibel, Epigrammata Græca ex Lapidibus Conlecta (Berlin, 1878), and (for the period before 250 B.C.) by Hoffman, Sylloge Epigrammatum Græcorum (Halle, 1893). A collection of the Greek Christian inscriptions has been begun by the French Academy.

Latin. The earliest Latin inscriptions cannot rival the antiquity of the Greek. The gold fibula, or brooch, of Præneste is probably of the sixth century B.C., and some have claimed an even greater antiquity for the broken column of the Roman Forum, though the best authorities consider it scarcely older than the middle of the fifth century. Another early example, the so-called "Duenos inscription" on a curious triple-bodied vase from the Esquiline, is very probably of the fourth century, but is still a puzzle to scholars. With very few exceptions, however, the Latin inscriptions are not older than 300 B.C. In its earliest forms the alphabet shows strongly its connection with the Greek, which reached the Romans from the Chalcidians of Cuma and, like other early attempts at writing, is marked by crude and variable forms for the letters. Later were developed the large square and handsome monumental characters (scriptura quadrata or lapidaria), which were carefully carved after preliminary tracing and then colored, usually with red. Painted inscriptions, not carved, naturally show freer forms, and these were later often imitated in stone, as were sometimes the common cursive hands, which are found in wax tablets in graffiti and often on domestic utensils of various kinds. The inscriptions are usually divided into two great classes: 1. Tituli, employed to designate some definite object, giving the needed information to distinguish it from similar objects; such are mortuary, dedicatory, and honorary inscriptions. 2. Acta, or documents, which are engraved for purposes of publication. The former are far more numerous and show naturally a more stereotyped form. Among the mortuary inscriptions are noteworthy the many metrical epitaphs, often crude in metre and cold in expression, but also not infrequently showing tenderness and deep family affection. In general the classes of inscriptions are the same as recur

in Greece, but one or two Roman customs may be mentioned. The person who erected a temple or any other public building was usually allowed to engrave his name upon it, and these tituli are a much more important class of monuments than in Greece, where this was not a usual habit. Such inscriptions are valuable sources of information as to the date and circumstances under which these works were constructed. The numerous milestones not only mark the course of the ancient roads, but show the distances and names of the chief towns and the dates when the roads were built or repaired and by whom the work was directed. For the acta, bronze seems to have been the favorite material before the time of Augustus, but later the Greek use of marble was commonly adopted. They include treaties (rare), laws, decrees of the Senate and, in great numbers, of various town councils and corporations, the edicts and letters of Roman magistrates and especially of the emperors, and the numberless documents relating to the service of the gods. Among the Imperial edicts belong the military diplomas, or formal discharges which conferred on the retiring veterans special privileges. In connection with the service of the gods belong the calendars which were prepared during the early Empire. Here may also be mentioned the fasti, or lists of consuls and other important magistrates, of which there are many remains. Among these religious inscriptions an important place is taken by the records of the Arval Brothers (q.v.), and the account of the great secular games of 17 B.C., with its mention of Horace's Carmen Sæculare. A special place is occupied by the great Monumentum Ancyranum, the account by Augustus of his deeds (index rerum a se gestarum), engraved in Greek and Latin on the walls of the temple of Augustus and Rome at Ancyra in Asia Minor, after the original bronze tablets on the mausoleum of the Emperor in Rome. (Consult Mommsen, Res Gesta Divi Augusti, 2d ed., Berlin, 1883, and Fairley, Monumentum Ancyranum, Philadelphia, 1898.) The Romans do not seem to have collected inscriptions as did the Greeks, though references to them are not infrequent in the histories, as Livy or Suetonius, and in other writers, from whom no complete collection has yet been made. At the very end of the ancient time and the beginning of the Middle Ages, when Rome became a place of pilgrimage, during the eighth and ninth centuries, many of the inscriptions were copied by visitors, and several of these compilations have been preserved wholly or in part, the most celebrated being the Anonymus Einsiedelensis. After the ninth century came. a long period of neglect of the classical remains, and one of the first to revive these studies was the celebrated tribune of Rome, Cola di Rienzi, who about 1344 prepared a description of Rome in which he used the epigraphic material at his hand. Another collection was prepared in the early fifteenth century by the enthusiastic student of the past, Poggio Bracciolini, and from that time collectors of inscriptions are numerous and at times decidedly unscrupulous. Latin epigraphy in the sixteenth century suffered from forgers, at whose head stands Pirro Ligorio, of Naples, and their work deceived many until its character was disclosed by the exact scientific criticism of the nineteenth century. The earliest printed collection seems to have been that of the inscriptions of Ravenna (1489). Gruter's great collec

of controlling the injurious species, the economic loss from insects seems to be increasing.

The most destructive species are usually those which have been introduced from some other country, because it usually happens that parasites which kept these pests from multiplying to an excessive extent in their native land were not imported with them.

The Hessian fly (q.v.) is the most important enemy with which the wheat, rye, and barley growers must contend. It destroys from 10 to 50 per cent of the sowings. This damage amounts to about $75,000,000 annually in the United States alone. Aphids (see APHID) cause a further loss to the same crops of more than $15,000,000.

The Mexican chinch bug (q.v.) has cost the corn growers of America at least $400,000,000 in the last 50 years. It now levies an annual tax of more than $30,000,000. The Western corn rootworm, the ear worm, and other enemies doubtless make the total loss at least three times this amount.

Hay and forage crops are subject to the attacks of many insect enemies. The best known of these is the army worm (q.v.), which often costs the United States several million dollars

in a single season. It is estimated that 10 per cent (worth about $65,000,000) of American hay crops is destroyed by insects every year.

In 1904 the Central American cotton boll weevil (see COTTON INSECTS) cost Texas, alone, $25,000,000. It has spread throughout much of the cotton district; but fortunately it is yielding to control measures, so that the annual damage done by it in America is only about $20,000,000. The cotton worm and minor pests bring the total annual tax levied by insects on the cotton industry up to about $85,000,000. The same sort of tax on tobacco amounts to about $10,000,000.

Insects decrease the profits of the truck farmer about 20 per cent; but, since there are no figures to show the total value of truck crops, it is difficult to say what the total damage is. It is probably about $60,000,000.

The fruit growers suffer greatly from insects. If a continual warfare were not waged against it, the European codling moth (q.v.), or apple worm, would entirely prevent the growing of marketable apples. The loss and cost of treatment come to about $20,000,000 annually in the United States. Another introduced pest, the San José scale (q.v.), has destroyed millions of trees. It costs, each year, from 10 to 25 cents per tree to keep it under control. There are, in all, about 300 species of insects which are more or less injurious to American fruit trees. With much difficulty and expense only about 80 per cent of fruit in the United States is saved from insects. It may be remarked in this connection that Phylloxera (q.v.), an American insect which is mildly injurious to grapes in the United States, found its way to France, where it destroyed the vineyards of whole districts.

In addition to eating the leaves of forest trees and sapping their vitality in other ways, insects bore into the standing timber and reduce its market value, sometimes even killing large numbers of trees. They also damage lumber after it has been made ready for the market. One hundred million dollars a year would not pay for these depredations. The introduced gypsy moth (q.v.) and brown-tailed moth, although

still confined to New England, have become such a pest that fully $1,000,000 are spent in their control. This does not include the damage they do. The latter has recently shown itself capable not only of great damage to trees, but also of direct harm to human beings, actually causing serious illness in some cases. This brown-tailed moth (Euproctis chrysorrhea Linnæus, family Liparida) was accidentally brought from Europe to Massachusetts about 1890. It became established there and has since spread throughout much of New England. There is still a possibility of its reaching new districts, chiefly by being carried on nursery stock; but it is now so well known that there is no likelihood of its becoming a serious pest elsewhere.

The adult moth measures about 1 inch or 11⁄2 inches across the white wings. The end of the abdomen is conspicuously brown, hence the common name. The adults appear in July, congregating in great numbers about lights. Each female lays a mass of 300 or 400 eggs, which she covers with brown hairs from the tip of her abdomen. These eggs are laid on the terminal leaves of almost any sort of deciduous tree. Caterpillars hatch in about three weeks and feed until cold weather, when they fasten a number of leaves together and to a twig with strong silk. Several hundred caterpillars, usually those which hatched from a single egg mass, gather in each hibernaculum thus formed and pass the winter. They emerge as the buds burst in the spring, and after feeding for a month or six weeks they spin thin cocoons of white silk, inside of which they pupate and complete the life cycle by appearing as adults in July.

The larvæ are very dark brown marked with patches of orange. They have numerous tubercles, which bear so many short brown hairs as to give the creature a velvety appearance. These hairs are barbed, and when they touch the human skin they enter it, causing a rash much like that produced by poison ivy. The larvæ are frequently so abundant that the air is filled with their hairs, and whole communities become affected by the rash. In addition to this they are one of the most destructive of the insect enemies of deciduous trees, frequently defoliating large

areas.

Besides the damage done by insects to forest trees and other wild plant growths, neither harvested crops nor manufactured articles are free from insect attack. Various kinds of beetles and caterpillars feed on dried vegetable products as well as eat woolens. This damage probably amounts to about $200,000,000 annually.

Furthermore the dairymen and cattle raisers have important enemies among insects and nearly related creatures. The ox warble (see BoT), an immature fly which causes "grubby" cattle hides, causes an annual loss in the United States of about $25,000,000. Other species of bots attack horses and sheep. It is impossible to say how greatly the milk supply is decreased by the numerous flies which at first thought seem to be merely annoying to cows. It is estimated that the annual injury inflicted upon American live stock by insects and ticks amounts to the enormous total of $420,000,000.

All the estimates given above are very conservative. They are based upon most careful estimates and the best obtainable statistics. The total damage done every year in the United States by a few species of insects amounts to more than $1,250,000,000.