INSECTS INJURIOUS TO HOUSE PLANTS, ETC. 497 



not remain on farm and garden, will cease to trouble those old veterans in 

 agriculture, who have learned to love well the fields, the meadows, and the 

 farm, even though destitue of those {esthetic elements, whose only usefulness 

 is in the pleasure they afford, and the subtle, though powerful influence which 

 they wield. 



Then, as individuals, and as a society, we should do all in our ^lower to fos- 

 ter this work of home adornment, not deeming, forsooth, that a broad and 

 beautiful lawn about the home is waste acreage, or that money expended for 

 shrubs, and beautiful annuals, or labor devoted to their care and cultivation, 

 or that effort to make the very in-doors smile perpetually, as with the breath 

 of spring, — think not that all of this is as bread cast hopelessly on the waters, 

 for indeed it brings the richest return, immediately, after many days, yes, and 

 forever. As Beecher has most truly remarked, " The home adornment is a 

 true index to the refinement of the home's inmates." Was it he that said, the 

 Devil should not monopolize all the beautiful music? Xo more should the 

 professions monopolize all the beautiful homes. Divorce taste and beauty, and 

 intelligence, which is their fair companion, from any of our homes, and we 

 need not wonder that our youth seeks other fields for life's labor. Make these 

 the invariable concomitants of our former homes, and they will hold out their 

 own inducement for the retention of the wisest and noblest youths of our 

 land. 



That I may add my meed in this good work, I pi'opose at this time to dis- 

 cuss those invidious insect foes which attack our flowers and shrubbery, 

 whether in the garden or conservatory, the latter to include all our house- 

 plants. 



I am sure that iu thus doing I shall confer a benefit on verv mauv. For 

 who of us has not felt vexed at witnessing our choicest roses, pelargoniums, and 

 geriiniums pine away, because of the myriad plant lice ? who has not experi- 

 enced sore disappointment at the coming of the fatal bark or scale lice, and the 

 going out of the vital spark, in their graceful ivies, fuchsias, and stately olean- 

 ders, because of these ruthless enemies? Who has not felt sad and disheart- 

 ened, as they have noted the withering attacks of the rejjulsive slugs, causing 

 the foliage of their javorite roses to turn gray and sear, replacing rarest beauty 

 with deformity and death? The so-called "mealy bug," how often have they 

 brought to naught the most beautiful of our fuchsias and other hard-wood 

 plants. But this destruction of beauty and vexation of spirit would be much 

 harder to bear, and very much more discouraging, except that we have cheap, 

 practical and very effective remedies for all of these ills, which I propose to 

 describe so fully, as also the method of application, that none of you need longer 

 suffer. 



The Plant Lice. — Aphides, or Green and Blach Flies. Siib-order Hernip- 

 tera. Family Aphidw. Perhaps no noxious insects are more destructive 

 than the Aphis, for very few plants, either in our green-houses, windows, 

 or along our borders and pleasure grounds, but have to contribute to the sup- 

 port of some species of plant lice. Not only do the tender geraniums, helio- 

 tropes, and pelargoniums fall a prey to their suctatorial habits, but also our 

 more hardy shrubs, as the willow, cherrj', and rose, are all powerless to resist 

 their attacks. 



A very curious fact as to the reproduction of the insects of this whole family 

 makes their astonishing fecundity and alarming destructiveness the more easily 

 understood. I allude to their increasing by porthenogenesis. Iu the autumn 

 C3 



