182 THE CARNATION MANUAL. 



and, no doubt, this is tlie best plan with already 

 ruined plants." The soil round the plants should 

 also be removed. 



No remedy has yet been found to destroy the 

 worms when once they have effected a lodgment 

 in the plant; but in the soil they are readily 

 destroyed (as seen under the microscope) by the 

 application of some caustic material. 



The following remarks have been sent to us by 

 Mr. Martin R. Smith, upon the subject of the 

 Carnation Maggot, which is the larva of a dipterous 

 fly called Hyleinia nigrescens. 



THE CARNATION MAGGOT. 



Hylemia nigrescens. 



This is certainly one of the most troublesome 

 and destructive foes of the Carnation, inasmuch as 

 no precautions at present known to gardeners will 

 prevent its attacks, and nothing but patient and 

 persevering attention will avail to get rid of it. 



It attacks all Carnations indiscriminately, 

 though certainly some varieties are fi'eer from 

 it than others, and layers from plants cultivated in 

 the greenhouse are, as a rule, less infested with it 

 than those from the open border. 



It is a small yellowish-white maggot, varying in 

 size from a twentieth to one-third of an inch in 

 length. It appears to spring from an egg laid on 

 or in the leaf, generally towards the upper end, 



