6 
times also the occasion of considerable injury to other trees; and quite 
recently the writer received information of injurious attacks on pecan, 
chestnut, and walnut trees at Augusta, Ga. They also cause loss in 
conservatories, attacking cuttings and the roots of plants. Such injuries 
have been brought to our notice several times by florists, and Mr. 
Chittenden, of this office, informs me that white ants are apt to attack 
the large stems of herbaceous plants like geraniums. In greenhouses 
the termites usually originate in the more or less decayed woodwork of 
the building itself or the plant benches, and they have even been found 

Fia. 4.—Termes flavipes: a, Queen; b, nymph of winged female; ec, worker; d, soldier. All 
enlarged (original). 
working in label sticks, the removal of which gave relief from the dam- 
age done to plants. In one instance, also, the termites, coming from 
the wooden benches, entered potted plants through the drain hole of 
the pots. In prairie regions their work is necessarily on the roots and 
tubers of plants or the stems of grasses or other low-growing plants. 
A very common form of injury to potatoes growing in rich soil or 
where there is a considerable quantity of decaying vegetable matter has 
often been noted, and the cause for it has been obscure or assigned to 
insects innocent of the damage. That the white ant is the culprit in 
this case was discovered by Mr. F. A. Marlatt, who describes the injury 
A6 12 

