THE CANADIAN H0BTICDLTDRI8T. 



171 



of a sickly whitish hue. It is only by 

 the contact of the liquid with their 

 bodies that they can be destroyed, hence 

 it is necessary that it be thrown with 

 a garden syringe upon the underside of 

 the leaves. The late Geo. B. Ellwanger, 

 in his most excellent treatise on the 

 rose, says that he has found syringing 

 the rose plants with pure water so as 

 to wet the underside of the leaves, and 

 then dusting on powdered white helle- 

 bore, will destroy or disperse them. 

 We are at a loss to understand the rea- 

 son of this, unless it be that, like some 

 other creatures we wot of, they have a 

 great aversion to pure cold water. The 

 hellebore would not be likely to harm 

 them. In preparing the tobacco-water 

 some care must be used not to make 

 the decoction so strong as to injure the 

 leaves of the rose trees. If applied as 

 soon as the young leaf hoppers appear, 

 it need not be very strong of the 

 tobacco. Senator Plumb, of Niagara, 

 uses a light frame covered with cotton 

 of sufficiont size to enclose the rose bed, 

 under which he burns tobacco slowly, 

 so as to smoke out this troublesome 

 leaf hopper and all other pests of every 

 kind that prey upon the leaves. 



The Green-fly or Aphis is sometimes 

 very troublesome even upon rose bushes 

 in the open air. They have been ex- 

 ceedingly abundant during the present 

 summer. We presume that our readers 

 are all familiar with this little green 

 plant louse, which gives birth to living 

 young lice, which in turn give birth to 

 othei's, which thus go on multiplying 

 in more than geometrical ratio all 

 through the season. In the autumn 



males are produced, and after pairing 

 the females lay eggs, which remain over 

 winter, and on the return of spring 

 hatch only females. The natural enemy 

 of these plant lice are the Lady-birds, 

 which in the larva and imago state feed 

 upon them. But they are not always 

 on hand with suflficient promptitude,- 

 hence we are obliged to have recourse 

 to tobacco-water or a solution of whale' 

 oil soap to get rid of them. An occa' 

 sional sprinkling with either will usually 

 suffice to keep them in check. 



The Rose Beetle, fortunately is not 

 very generally diffused over the country. 

 It seldom appears upon plants growing 

 in clay soil, but seems to prefer light 

 sandy soils. When they do appear it 

 is usually in swarms, about the time 

 the roses are in bloom, feeding not only 

 upon the leaves, but also upon the 

 flowers. The name given to this beetle 

 by Entomologists is Afacrodactylus 

 suhspinosus. It is a little more than a 

 third of an inch in length, with long 

 sprawling legs, and the joints of the 

 feet armed with long claws. The 

 general color is a yellowish grey. After 

 they have been feeding about a month 

 the males perish and the females enter 

 the ground, lay their eggs, about thirty 

 in number, which hatch in about three 

 weeks, and feed upon such roots as they 

 can find. Late in the autumn the 

 larvae descend to a considerable depth, 

 it is supposed to be beyond reach of 

 frost, but return towards the surface in 

 the spring, and forming a little cell 

 pass into the pupa state, from which, 

 in June, the perfect beetle, or imago, 

 emerges into the open air. 



