I02 



HA RDWICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



a dozen different species of leaf- feeders are known as 

 British, and about half that number are sufficiently 

 common to do considerable damage, some seasons, to 

 the rose leaves. Some of these sawfly larvae are 

 slug-like in shape, and somewhat slimy, while others 

 are more like caterpillars, but with a larger number 

 of legs. Generally they feed exposed, eating the 

 cuticle of the leaf, or holes quite through, but a few 

 kinds conceal themselves by curling over the edge of 

 a leaf, and living in the fold. These two diiiferent 

 modes of feeding will require two separate kinds of 

 treatment. Those which feed exposed may be dealt 

 with by dusting the bushes with powdered hellebore, 

 Paris green, or sulphur ; but this is best done in a 

 morning when the leaves are wet with dew, which 

 causes the powder to adhere. Any distasteful powder 

 which will not injure the foliage, even riddled ashes 

 will, to some extent, answer the same purpose, but 

 for those which feed under the folds of the leaves, 

 looking for the infested leaflets and picking them 

 off is the surest way, faking care to destroy the 

 inmates. 



It is important that gardeners should know 

 something of the life-history of insects, otherwise 

 they seldom think of applying a remedy, except when 

 they see the damage being done, but in the case of 

 many insects, and especially with sawflies, a winter 

 remedy is very practicable. Most of the sawfly grubs 

 descend in the autumn among the withered leaves on 

 the ground, or just beneath the surface of the soil, 

 and there spin cocoons in which they remain through 

 the winter months, changing to chrysalids in spring. 

 Now after a bad attack of sawfly, if the withered 

 leaves and about two inches of surface soil be raked 

 away from under the trees and burnt, or a hole dug 

 and buried deep, many of the grubs will be destroyed 

 or buried so far down that they cannot emerge, and 

 much future damage thereby prevented ; and if the 

 new soil, dry from the hole, be mixed with lime or 

 some fertiliser, and spread under the trees, they will 

 greatly benefit thereby. 



Many of the wild roses are subject to berry-like 

 galls, and especially to the mossy or bedeguar gall, 

 which grow on the stems or leaves, but as these 

 seldom, and some never grow on the cultivated roses, 

 it will not be necessary to enumerate them here. A 

 list of all rose-insects will be given at the end of this 

 article. 



Lepidoptera. 



Of moths which do injury to garden-roses the 

 principal are the several species of Tortricina, whose 

 larvje eat their way into the unopened bud or feed in 

 the curled leaves. One of these {Pardia triptinctana), 

 a small moth, with the basal portion of the front wings 

 sooty and the outer half whitish, and with two yellow 

 feelers (palpi) sticking out in front of the face, is a 

 general pest, and several similar ones, as Spilonota 

 roborana and .,9. rosacolana, are only too widely 



distributed. Cnrsia Berg}na7iniana is an exceedingly 

 pretty moth, the front wings, yellow marked with 

 orange. It is abundant everywhere where roses grow, 

 on which the larvae feed in May. The best way of 

 dealing with these little pests is to look for the 

 caterpillars when at work, pick off the infested leaves 

 or buds and destroy them, keeping a look-out at the 

 proper time for any moths whose larvse have escaped 

 treatment. Shaking a tree will sometimes cause the 

 caterpillars to leave their domiciles and hang down 

 by a silken thread, when they may the more readily 

 be perceived and destroyed. The moths should be 

 looked for, at the proper season, towards evening, 

 when they begin to fly, or they may be dislodged 

 during the day by shaking the bushes. The larvae 

 of several species of very minute moths (Tineina) may 

 often be found mining in the leaves, but these very 

 seldom occur in such quantities as to be injurious, 

 and when they do, hand-picking is the surest remedy, 



COLEOPTERA. 



The only beetles I know of as doing damage to 

 roses are the rosechafer ( Ceionia aiirata) , a pretty large 

 glossy-green insect which injures the flowers by 

 eating the petals, and the lesser may-bug (Phyllopey 

 tha horticola), which is also guilty of the same offence. 

 When such attacks occur, shake the beetles into 

 inverted umbrellas, or upon tarred boards and destroy 

 thena. The first is more frequently met with in the 

 south, and the latter in the north of England. 



Mildews. 



These are very small parasitic fungi which grow 

 upon the leaves of different kinds of plants, and are 

 sometimes quite as troublesome as the insects. Roses 

 are not exempt from their attacks, and some half-dozen 

 kinds are known as frequenting these plants. Flowers 

 of sulphur seem to be the easiest-applied and most 

 effectual remedy, and it is alike destructive to fungi^ 

 and insects. It may be dusted over the plants while 

 the dew is on, or mixed with the water with which 

 they are syringed. Some gardeners prefer a mixture 

 made by boiling one part of sulphur and one of quick- 

 lime in five parts of soft water, diluting this with lOO 

 times its bulk of water when required for use. 



It is only necessary for the gardener to make him- 

 self acquainted with a few of the common insects, tO' 

 enable him to apply remedies against many other 

 kinds which from time to time may attack his plant : 

 if, for instance, he knows the life- history of one of the 

 rose tortrices, he will have a clue to the whole group, 

 for to him, except in a little variation in the time of 

 appearance, they may all be treated as one. But the 

 naturalist should delve deeper into the subject, and 

 should be ableTto discriminate between closely allied 

 species, and should be able to advise when species 

 which are not habitually injurious become so, as they 

 do sometimes in certain years. \Yith a view of fur- 



