36 THE GARDENERS NATURAL ENEMIES [CH. 



shears ; with a pressure of the thumb and fingers the 

 brushes are brought together and drawn gently along the 

 stem infected with greenfly. Two or three applications of 

 the brush will remove all the aphides without injuring the 

 shoot. 



Somebody has made the shocking calculation that in 

 five generations an aphis might be the progenitor of nearly 

 six thousand millions of descendants, so that in every Rose 

 garden it is wise to cut him off before his prime. It may 

 nterest my readers to learn the result of another en- 

 tomologist's observations on the greenfly. " Insects in 

 general," he informs us, " 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 quietly sucking 

 away for seven or eight days ; and then, without love, 

 courtship, or matrimony, each individual begins bringing 

 forth young ones, and continues to do so for months, at the 

 rate of from twelve to eighteen daily." 



We have the satisfaction, however, of knowing that 

 the aphis finds no food, and does not look for it, on a 

 Rose which is in good health ; he will not taste the sap 

 which is pure and good. If situation and soil and over- 

 sight have been looked to, it can only be the accident of 

 weather that can favour the fly. 



