250 THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



handful of grain or bread crumbs amongst the roses. The sparrows 

 ■will soon appreciate your bounty, and having cleared the ground, 

 will next proceed to clear the trees, taking the best care possible to 

 repay your kindness. To render this plan a perfect success, you 

 should keep the sparrows always on the look out, and never supplied 

 very bountifully ; so, as far as possible, institute frequent sprinklings 

 of infinitesimal bounties. 



Make yourself acquainted with the larvae of the ladybird, or 

 coccinella, for these are greedy devourers of aphis, and touch no 

 vegetable food whatever. The larva? of the syrphidce, again, are 

 indefatigable destroyers of the same pest. Still more destructive to 

 aphis than either of the foregoing are the larva? of the lace-winged fly, 

 clirysopa perla, a sort of ephemera,, with golden eyes and green 

 wings. This fly lays its eggs in a manner which causes them to 

 appear like minute fungi, for every egg is on a transparent stalk, 

 the latter being a kind of gluten deposited with the egg, and drawn 

 out by the parent to elevate the egg out of the reach of danger. 

 These stalked eggs may often be seen like microscopic fans fixed on 

 the edges of rose leaves, and on the youngest shoots of the lilac. 

 The ichneumon fly, Opnion luteiwi, is another friend of the rosarian, 

 for its larva? feed on caterpillars, and the more of them we can find 

 amongst the roses the better. 



THE FORMATION OF A HORTUS SICCUS. 



|,0 save individual replies t© the many communications 

 from our readers, asking for further information as to 

 the forming of an herbarium, we now make some 

 general observations which we trust will prove satis- 

 factory to our inquiring friends. 

 First, as to the size of the specimens. Each should have at least 

 two open blossoms, and a few buds; the quantity of foliage must 

 be regulated by the habit of the plant. In some cases it is 

 necessary to exhibit the radical leaves, and even the root. This 

 should always be done in creeping plants, as the buck-bean (Men- 

 yanthes trifollata), and in some others, as Campanula rotundifolia, 

 which has received its specific name from the form of its radical 

 leaves. Coloured blotting-paper must be used to dry the plants in, 

 as the acid employed to bleach the white injures the colour of the 

 flowers. 



Take your specimen, and having laid it in its natural form upon 

 the blotting-paper, proceed to lay out the parts, beginning at the 

 top of the plaut. Penny pieces or halfpence are the most convenient 

 assistants in this operation, as they occupy so little room. Lay 

 some of the leaves with the upper side to the view, some so as to 

 show the under side, and the same as to the flowers. Be careful 

 not to destroy the character of the plant, when laying it out, by 

 distorting the stalks ; although neatly placed, the origin"! manner 



