208 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



der glass we may say that they are entirely under control, 

 and I have alw ays considered that no better evidence of the 

 incompetency of the person in charge of a green-house 

 could be had, than to see the plants covered with insects. 



The most annoying of all insects of the flower garden, 

 is the 



Rose Slngj Sdandria Itosce, a light green, translucent 

 little fellow, varying from 1-16 of an inch to nearly an inch 

 in length. There are evidently two species or varieties, 

 one of which confines its ravages to the lower side of the 

 leaf; the other eats it entire. The first is by far the most 

 destructive here. In a few days after the plants are at- 

 tacked they appear as if they had been burned. 



The only remedy we have found is a preventive one, 

 which, in fact, ought to be used against all insect life. Be- 

 fore the leaves of the roses appear, just as soon as the 

 buds begin to develop, apply whale oil soap, in the pro- 

 portion of one Ib. to eight gallons of water; this, stead- 

 ily applied for ten days, with a syringe or garden engine, 

 has, in my experience, entirely prevented the attacks of 

 the insect. But once let it get a foothold and it can hardly 

 be driven off by this application, unless it be made strong 

 enough to injure the foliage, making the remedy worse 

 than the disease. The species of Rose Slug that eats the 

 entire leaf seems to confine its depredations more to 

 young plants, and later in the season. We have found it 

 quite troublesome in June and July among our young roses, 

 which had been planted out in May and June, and as 

 these were young and tender plants, the whale oil soap 

 remedy could not safely be applied; so we have often 

 had acres of young roses covered by myriads of these slugs, 

 before they were observed, and nothing could be done ex- 

 cept to shake the plants, and kill the insects when they fell 

 to the ground. In the summer of 1866, we had some 

 nine or ten boys shaking the plants and killing the slugs, 

 for upwards of a week, and by this means saved our crop 



