THE SCALE INSECT OP THE APPLE. 



these naked black stems, projecting from the beetling cliffs or towering above the 

 snow, are in dismal keeping with the surrounding desolation of that season." 



Such is Dr. Hooker's account of this curious Rhubarb, of which the accompanying 

 sketch is taken from his recent work on Himalayan plants. The natives call its 

 stems "chuka," and eat them, their acidity being pleasant. Some of the seeds 

 which were sent to Kew grew, and the seedlings lived two years; but we regret to 

 learn that they have now been lost. Let us hope that the plant will be re- introduced 

 with more success. 



THE SCALE INSECT OF THE APPLE. 



Nearly every person who grows an apple tree, has observed that the branches of the older, 

 and stems of the younger trees, are frequently covered with a minute scale, showing in 

 general no appearance of life, and resembling nothing so much as a miniature oyster 

 shell. Tliis little scale is, however, an insect, and one of the many enemies of the apple, 

 belonging to a family that contains more anomalous forms than any other. It is the 

 Homoptera of Maclay. All this family are supplied with a suctorial mouth arising so 

 far back on the under side of the head as apparently to come from the breast in some 

 species. The present insect is included in the genus Coccus, and has for its near rela- 

 tions, some that have been useful to man from the time of the ancients, producing val- 

 uable dyes, the cochineal being one of them ; and it is calculated that in one pound of 

 this dye there are 70,000 of these little insects. It feeds upon the cactus. 



Our Apple Scale has, however, no qualities to render it useful ; and a short account of 

 its life and habits will be all that is necessary. When first hatched from the egg it pos- 

 sesses considerable ambulatory powers, and can crawl all over a tree and select a situa- 

 tion. It th?n inserts its rostrum into the tender bark and draws the sap, and such a 

 constant drain, by the countless numbers found upon a tree, must be very injurious. 

 The insect remains in this position until death in the female, undergoing its transforma- 

 tions, which, instead of producing a higher state of development, as in most other forms, 

 has a contrary effect, it becoming in fact, a mere inert, fleshy mass, in some allied species 

 losing even the rudiments of limbs and all appearance of articulation. The male, on the 

 contrary, however, who is much smaller, in casting off his pupa skin, obtains pretty large 

 Agings, and well developed limbs, armed with a single claw, and his mouth becomes ob- 

 solete; he then sallies forth in search of his partner, of which he sees nothing but the 

 pupa envelope. The female afterwards becomes distended with eggs. She then gra- 

 dually dries up leaving the shell of her body for a covering to the newly hatched young, 

 of which there are two broods in a year. 



Preventive. — Harris, in his " Tre tise on Insects injurious to Vegetation," recom- 

 mends the following as a preventive : To two parts of soft soap, add eight of water, and 

 mix as much lime with it as will make a stiff white wash, and apply with a brush to the 

 trunk and branches of the infected trees in the month of June when the young insects 

 are newly hatched. K. 



ARKS. — This is a capital description of the Apple Scale, by one of the most promis 

 Entomologists in Ohio. — Ohio Farmer. 



