WIl^TER-FLOWERING PLANTS. 89 



grown in a high temperature is the *' mealy bug." The 

 insect is flat, and whitish brown, usually nestling at the 

 axils of the leaves, where it is covered with a white pow- 

 der, making it easily distinguishable. This is one of the 

 most annoying of all insects that attack plants, and until 

 a few years ago no certain remedy was known ; but we 

 have now in ** Fir Tree Oil,'' mixed in the proportion of 

 one pint to ten gallons of water, and syringed on once a 

 week, a certain remedy against mealy bug, scale, red 

 spider, and, in fact, nearly all insect life. The use of it 

 must be continued once each v/eek, or the remedy will not 

 be effectual. Where only a few plants are grown the 

 same remedy can be applied with a soft brush or sponge 

 on the leaves. Another pest, not an insect, but a vege- 

 table parasitic growth known as mildew, affects but few 

 plants in-doors except the Rose. (For remedies see chap- 

 ter on Insects and Mildew.) 



The amateur is warned against the common practice 

 of placing plants in too large pots. As a general thing, 

 when plants are received from the florist they are with- 

 out pots, and are usually in a condition requiring them 

 to be shifted into a pot larger than they have been grow- 

 ing in. For example, if they have been grown in a 

 pot of three inches diameter, place them in one a size 

 larger, or four inches in diameter ; if they were in four- 

 inch pots, give them one five or six inches across, and so 

 on. Florists, as a rule, do not practice crocking or drain- 

 ing pots until the pots get to a size over four inches, and 

 often not then, because, having pots of all sizes on hand, 

 they do not need to give plants any larger shift than nec- 

 essary, and hence there is less need for drainage ; but 

 often the amateur has to change a plant that has been 

 grown in a pot of three inches diameter into one of six 

 inches, and then it is necessary to fill up one-third of this 

 too large pot with broken pots, charcoal, or some such ma- 

 terial, to drain off the surplus moisture that would other- 



