Nothing lousy about this Peringuey at all

REVISIONISTS seeking another statue to rant about or deface will be disappointed to discover that the memorial to Louis Albert Peringuey was removed some time ago.

As far as I can tell it was not packed up for any reasons relating to his politics, his attitude to the locals (of whatever hue) or feelings about his homeland (in this case France). There was also a brass plaque placed by the Historical Monuments Commission in 1962 at Bosman’s Crossing in Stellenbosch but that was stolen.

Phylloxera vastatrix (phylloxera the destroyer) — the vineyard bug which obliterated almost all the European vineyards from the early 1860s onwards — came late to SA. It was only positively identified in 1886, when it had reached Mowbray in Cape Town. The man who made the discovery was none other than Monsieur Peringuey. In addition to his being an entomologist of considerable renown, a paleontologist credited with determining that the stone age implements discovered in the Cape were of far greater antiquity than had originally been thought, he was also the inspector-general of vineyards.


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