344 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND aARDEN GUIDE. 



to the surface of the ground, nnd takes flight — generally during the 

 months of July and August, but more or less throughout the 

 summer; and there is no doubt but, like that of the house-fly, a 

 succession of generations is produced through the whole season. 



The insect whose caterpillar mines the chrysanthemum leaves, 

 belongs to the dipterous or two-winged genus, Tephrifis of Fabricius, 

 and is the Tepliritis artemisia of Curtis, and tlie Trypeta artemisia of 

 Walker, in the " Entomological Magazine," No. xi., p. 84. The fly 

 itself is about one-sixth of an inch long, and the expansion of the 

 •wings when fully extended is about one-third of an inch. It is of 

 a pale yellowish bufi" colour, with a few black hairs at the sides of 

 the thorax (breast) ; the wings are limpid, and slightly tinged with 

 a yellowish colour, having several black spots of various shapes and 

 sizes, and three uninterrupted bands across the body ; but the 

 general colour of the body varies in difterent specimens from a rusty 

 brown to a shining black. The head is buff, with lateral hairs, and 

 the wings are marked with several limpid spots of various forms 

 and sizes. In some specimens the dark markings of the wings are 

 varied with a pale copper colour, and these present a still more 

 beautiful appearance — the under side of the body being of a paler 

 yellow, with the abdomen and thorax highly polished. 



To destroy this perfect fly seems impracticable, therefore the 

 extermination of the insect must be looked to from the earliest time 

 of their appearance in the caterpillar state. Picking off" the infested 

 leaves, or the crushing of the larva between the fingers and thumb 

 without destroying the leaf, appears the best and only mode likely to 

 prove successful, if adopted in the beginning of summer, as the 

 destruction of one grub at that period will not only prevent the 

 production of a numerous progeny, but will also ensure the better 

 growth of the yet tender plant. The motions of the fly are also 

 very peculiar, for when seated upon a leaf in the sunshine, their 

 wings are carried partially extended, and at the same time partially 

 elevated ; and they have a sideling kind of motion which is possessed 

 in common with but few other two-winged insects. It is generally 

 found in the perfect state basking on the broad leaves of the laurel 

 and similar-leaved plants, as well as those of the chrysanthemum. 



A SELECTION OF HAEDT HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 



f IVING as I do in a remote part of the world, it was not until glancing 

 over the Septemher number of the Floral World that I learned 

 prizes had been offered in the "Gardener's ]\la.2;azine" for selections of 

 herbaceous plants. What these lists (which were sent in) contained, 

 perhaps I shall never know, but if the list of fifty published in the 

 Flohal World, selected from the O'Shane hundred, really contains the cream of 

 all the lists, 1 must say that the rejected ones must have been a very shim-milTc lot 

 indeed. It is now some years since I wrote anything on floral matters, but having 

 been for a many years an admirer and a cultivator of herbaceous plants, perhaps 

 you will " bear with me in my folly," if I sny a few words about them, all respect 

 for the gentlemen to whom the lists were submitted (one of them is my personal 

 friend), but there must be a standard of cowparison with herbaceous plants as with 

 all other flowers. Most of the larger tribes of plants, such as phloxes and campanu- 



