THE CABBAGE APHIS. 169 



embedded in the geological formation in wliicli they are 

 found from time immemorial. How such delicate crea- 

 tures as these are could have been thus embedded and 

 their forms preserved is almos-t beyond human ken. 

 It is often imagined that damage done by aphides consists 

 solely in their having sucked or abstracted the juices of 

 the plants which they have attacked. This is partly true ; 

 but in the case of aphides attacking peaches or other 

 trees, it will be noticed that the bark is covered with a 

 sticky substance, alluded to when treating of the peach 

 aphis, &c. This sugary secretion closes up the breathing 

 spores of the plant, and greatly assists in the ultimate 

 destruction of the plant attacked. Similarly is the case 

 of the soot-fungus, which is attendant upon many of the 

 Coccidce or scale insects ; but in the latter case we must 

 get rid of the scale, as the soot-fungus, having lost its 

 host, rapidly disappears. 



Our Fig. 1 shows a flower stalk of cabbage with aphides, 

 which, together with the figures of the insects themselves, 

 have all been drawn from nature. 



Prevention and Remedies. 



Before planting out, every bundle of cabbage plants 

 should be dipped, roots and all, in warm soapsuds, using 

 a little soft-soap with the ordinary kind of yellow soap ; 

 the presence of caustic soda in the soap rendering the 

 suds more deadly to insect life in general, but particularly 

 to those kinds having soft bodies. Tobacco water is also 

 an old and well-tried remedy. 



After the plants have been in the suds for say fifteen 

 minutes or so, take them out and rinse in clean water 

 before planting into permanent positions. When the 

 plant has fairly started into growth, which should, of 

 course, be encouraged by all available means, give an 

 occasional sj^rinkling with tar-water, as recommended for 

 cabbage worms. 



When a cabbage is found to be so badly attacked as to 

 be useless, dig it out, not merely pull it up, and burn it at 

 once. If the plant be pulled up, a large number of the 



