32 BOOK OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 



spraying with a weak solution of one of the various 

 forms of Insecticide now on the market. I have always 

 found Bentley's first-rate if applied according to direc- 

 tions supplied with the can or drum. The solution or 

 wash may be put on with a syringe or garden engine, 

 the evening being the best part of the day for the 

 operation. This should be followed by a good syring- 

 ing with plenty of clean, soft water next morning. 



For washing fly out of the points of the growths 

 or crevices, I think there is nothing better than one of 

 the little pneumatic hand spray-dirTusers. These little 

 engines hold about a quart of liquid and can be held 

 with one hand, whilst the other can be employed in 

 steadying the growth or foliage that is being acted upon. 

 Once the plants are housed in the autumn we can revert 

 again to the easier and less troublesome system of fumi- 

 gating, or to use a more correct term, vaporising. This 

 should take place once or twice every week before the 

 blooms become fully expanded. 



Large blooms badly infected with green-fly are not a 

 wholesome sight, nor is it so to see the insects travelling 

 about on a white table-cloth, having dropped out of some 

 blossoms maybe that have been used to decorate the 

 lunch or dinner table. It is marvellous how quickly 

 they seem to breed and fill a large bloom with their 

 progeny. 



BLACK-FLY 



This insect is not perhaps quite so troublesome as his 

 fellow the green-fly. He does not keep up a continued 

 attack all through the season like the latter, but is more 

 in evidence during the summer and early autumn. He 

 comes at the summer period in swarms or myriads, cover- 

 ing fruit-trees, bushes, and plants in general. Not quite 

 so severe on Chrysanthemums, but still precautions must 



