136 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



attacks are generally confined to hard-wooded plants, and should it- 

 be on those of a softer texture, it is not until a want of moisture or 

 a hot dry atmosphere have prevailed ; so that in most cases tobacco 

 smoke may be used in stronger doses for thrips than would be advi- 

 sable for green-fly. 



Mealy Bug and Scale. — For the destruction of mealy bug and 

 the white and brown scale, much may be done with just the same 

 treatment as advised for killing the thrip ; but when opei'ating for 

 these insects in whatever way you may, always increase the tem- 

 perature of the house which you ate cleansing. This causes a 

 greater activity amongst the insects, and gives the operator a better 

 chance of i>eeing and destroying them. None of them like moisture, 

 especially when diligently applied with the syringe. 1 have known 

 a very badly affected stock of pines perfectly cleansed in a few weeka 

 from the white scale with nothing but clean water frequently applied 

 with the syringe. To destroy either of these insects upon the stems 

 of trees or on the branches of plants, use a mixture of soft soap, 

 tobacco water, and clay, in the consistency of a paint, and apply with 

 a small brush, and take care to remove all the insects visible and 

 within reach. In many instances where plants are badly infested 

 with either of these insects, it will be much better to burn them 

 root and stock, than to incur the labour and worry of attempting to 

 clean them. 



FINE OLD-FASHIONED FLOWEES. 



BY J. E. SAUNDERS, ESQ. 



^HE cultivation of the choicer kinds of our old-fashioned 

 hardy flowers is no doubt extending rapidly, and to those 

 like myself who have remained faithful to them through 

 good and evil report, it is highly satisfactory to see 

 amateurs and others filling borders with them that have 

 for many summers past been occupied with bedding plants. I have 

 not a word to say against the bedding system where it is not over- 

 done, but I think the amateurs may save themselves much labour 

 and anxiety by confining the bedding out to the beds only, and re- 

 serving the borders for the grand old-fashioned flowers, to which I 

 shall proceed to direct attention. Not only would the labour of 

 providing the stock of bedders be reduced materially, but flowers 

 would be had in abundance early in the summer and at other times 

 in much greater variety. By planting the most attractive of the 

 old-fashioned flowers, there will be an abundance of colour, and the 

 ladies will have no difBculty^ in obtaining a sufficiency of cut flowers 

 for the drawing-room and other vases. 



Cut flowers are now so much in request for in-door decoration 

 that where all the beds and borders are filled, as is very frequently 

 the case, with bedders, there is a considerable difficulty in obtaining 

 supplies, because so few of the flowers are suitable for vases, and 

 there is of necessity too much sameness in tliose available. 



In commencing the cultivation of old-fashioned flowers, it is not 



