APPENDIX. 299 



way to make a fresh growth, you may obtain a second 

 supply of buds in the autumn, when you will know more 

 as to their merits. 



If May has been genial, June will be glorious. If 

 not, we shall have the aphis, honey-dew, mildew, rust^ 

 larva of saw-fly, swarming like voracious ravens to peck 

 at the wounded stag, until the poor Rosarian is nearly 

 driven out of his wits, as Mons. Vibert was driven from 

 his nursery near Paris to St. Denis, by the ver blanc 

 (grub of the cockchafer), which destroyed all before it. 

 Reaumur made a calculation that, in five generations, 

 an aphis might be the progenitor of 5,904,900,000 de- 

 scendants ; and a writer in the Entomological Magazine 

 (No. iii. p. 217) communicates the result of much care- 

 ful observation as follows : " Insects in general come 

 from an egg; then turn to a caterpillar, which does 

 nothing but eat ; then to a chrysalis, which does nothing 

 but sleep ; then to a perfect butterfly, which does nothing 

 but increase its kind. But the aphis proceeds altogether 

 on another system. The young ones are born exactly 

 like the old ones, but less. They stick their beak 

 through the rind, and begin drawing up sap when only 

 a day old, and go on quiedy sucking away for seven or 

 eight days ; and then, without love, courtship, or matri- 

 mony, each individual begins bringing forth young ones, 

 and continues to do so for months, at the rate of from 

 twelve to eighteen daily." 



What is the cure ? There is none. You may brush ; 

 you may powder ; you may syringe ; you may dip ; you 

 may mix your tobacco-water — your decoction of 



