82 



A DESCRIPTION OF SOME OF THE INSECTS THAT 



ARE INJURIOUS TO PLANTS IN THE 



FLOWER-GARDEN. 



To give a description of all the insects that infest the 

 plants of the flower-garden, it would be necessary to 

 write a volume, so numerous are the voracious tribe that 

 prey upon the roots, stems, foliage, and flowers of the 

 floral kingdom. The depredation of insects is one of the 

 greatest ofl*sets to the pleasures of the garden. To nurse 

 some favorite plant, watching over it from day to day, 

 anticipating its opening beauties, and then, just as one's 

 hopes are upon the point of being realized, to see the 

 plant suddenly smitten with some mysterious disease, or 

 as suddenly destroyed by some noxious vermin, — perhaps 

 dying in a night, like Jonah's gourd, — who can help feel- 

 ing a little ruflled, or even like justifying good old Jonah, 

 who thought it " well to be angry for his gourd ? " 



The knowledge we j^ossess of the habits of the various 

 insects is very scanty. We are indebted, mainly, to that 

 excellent work, " A Treatise on some of the Insects of 

 New England, which are injurious to Vegetation," by 

 Dr. T. W. Harris, of Cambridge, Mass., for all that is im- 

 portant in relation to them, and have freely quoted from 

 it in the following pages. Dr. Harris' Treatise should be 

 accessible to every one who has anything to do with the 

 cultivation of tlic form or garden. His descriptions are 

 so plain, that almost any person may get all the desirable 

 information of all those insects of which he treats. 



Some of the most annoying insects of the flower-gar- 

 den, are the Rose Saw-fly, or Rose Slug, and the Rose 

 Bug. 



