The Pests of Garden Plants 



increase. When a few choice plants are found to be eaten through 

 at the 'collar,' that is, where root and stem meet, it is a good 

 practice to scrape the earth away from them, so as to leave a shallow 

 saucer-like hollow round every plant. This should be done gently, 

 with a pointed stick, to avoid injuring the roots, when the black 

 grub will probably be found, and can be killed ; but if not seen by 

 human eye, it will be exposed to the sharper eye of the robin, to 

 whom it will prove a welcome meal, for which the gardener will be 

 doubly paid by the saving of the plants and by the sweet song of this 

 best of feathered gardeners. 



Cucumber Disease. One of the most terrible pests that a 

 Cucumber^grower has to deal with manifests itself by the presence 

 of minute warts or nodosities, chiefly on the rootlets. These warts 

 range from the size of a pin's head to that of a pea, and when they 

 are present in large numbers the total failure of the Cucumber crop 

 is the invariable result. These 

 nodosities are caused by the 

 presence of innumerable small 

 thread - like worms named 

 Anguillula. Each eel-worm 

 is about one-hundredth of an 

 inch in length. At first the 

 worms are coiled up inside 

 transparent eggs ; at maturity 

 the eggs crack open and the 

 worms emerge. Although 

 only one-half the size, this 



Anguillula is closely allied to the well-known Vinegar Eel, and 

 to the minute worms found in what are termed 'purples' or 'ear 

 cockles ' in Wheat. The eel-worms are probably introduced to 

 Cucumber-houses in infected water; when once introduced, they 

 bore into the most tender rootlets, and there lay their eggs. These 

 eggs speedily hatch inside the plant and new eel-worms are produced, 

 which traverse the rootlets in every direction. 



These Anguillulce are by no means peculiar to the Cucumber ; 

 they attack the roots of Melons, and the roots, stems, and foliage 

 of many other plants. They are the cause of ' tulip root ' in Oats, of 

 stem-sickness in Clover, and of Onion-sickness. Our illustration 

 shows some very small Cucumber rootlets, natural size, with the eel- 

 worms in the eggs, and also emerging from and free of the empty 



409 



CUCUMBER EEL-WORMS AND EGGS 

 Anguillulte 



