THE PEA BUG AND ITS ALLIES. 



In the Aloe House, there is much to see and wonder at, especially the two lofty 

 specimens of the Old Man's Head Cactus (or Cereus senilis), 14 feet high ; it is 

 called Senilis from the quantity of old wiry gray hair which crowns the summit. 

 There is reason to believe, from its slowness of growth, and the reports of Mexi- 

 cans, that these old fellows are hundreds, probably a thousand years old. No 

 perceptible increase of size has taken place in the long period of their residence 

 at Kew ; there they stand, two sturdy pillars, and there they may stand for 

 centuries. 



Our English lady friend now exhil)ited marks of extreme fatigue. We made 

 an effort, however, to reach the Victoria Ilegia House; but nature could no longer 

 support her frame, and down on her knees she fell, a curious figure, with her 

 parasol expanded. Sir William was truly polite, waited for her to rest ; and we 

 then proceeded, saw a lily Ijloom, and somewhere in a tropical fern-house we 

 gazed at other things ; pencil, however, could no longer do its duty, and we only 

 remember the Great Stag's Horn Fern. It grows in Australia on the trunks 

 of trees, but here, from the surface of a i)lank against the wall ; the young stage 

 of it is a small green leaf or frond, lying flat against the wood. It thickens with 

 every succeeding growth of leaf; and this addition is alternately right and left 

 over the older leaves, which die and contribute to the nourishment of the plant. 

 A second plant was purchased for twenty-five guineas for Syon House. 



Though our notes are not exhausted, we must here close our " Day at Kew" 

 with a mere allusion to the great extent and value of the newly planted Arbore- 

 tum, which promises to be the finest the world ever saw. We shall be \nnd for 

 our labor if we have imbued one reader with an impression of the vastness, of the 

 variety, and the value of the products of the vegetable kingdom, every possible 

 specimen of which may be here examined. 



THE PEA BUG AND ITS ALLIES. 



BY \VM. N. WHITE, ATHENS, GA. 



Seed peas raised in the United States are found, on opening, more or less in- 

 fested with this insect, and especially is this the case with the garden pea at the 

 South. Another species of the same genus (Bruchus) attacks the kidney bean 

 and the cow pea, and is still more destructive. The Pea Bug seldom attacks 

 the germ, but the bean is all eaten except the outer coat. The insect found in 

 the bean is much smaller than the Pea Bug, but several occupying one seed. 

 Clover seed I believe is sometimes rendered worthless by an insect similar to 

 these 



With the pea and bean bugs I have little trouble ; when gathered and (horo 



