88 beeck's new book of flowers. 



"The Thrips, often called the Vine-Fretter, — a small, light-colored or 

 spotted fly, quick iu motion, which, in some places, are making the rose, 

 bush nearl}' as bad in appearance as the effects of the Slug. Aphis^ or 

 Plant Louse, under the name of Green or Brown Fly ; an insect not 

 quick in motion, very abundant on, and destructive to, the young shoots 

 of the Rose, the Peach Tree, and many other plants. The Black Fly, a 

 very troublesome and destructive insect, that infests the young shoots 

 of the Cherry and the Snowball Tree. I have never known any positive 

 cure for the effects of this insect, until this time. Two varieties of in- 

 sects that are destructive to, and very much disfigure, Evergreens, the 

 Balsam or Balm of Gilead Fir in particular, one an Aphis, the other very 

 much like the Rose Slug. The Acarus, or Red Spider, that well-known 

 pest to gardeners, 



"The disease 3Iildcw, on the Gooseberry, Peach, Grape Vine, etc., etc., 

 is checked and entirely destroyed by a weak dressing of the solution. 



"The above insects are generally all destroyed by one application, if 

 properly applied to all parts of the foliage. The eggs of most insects 

 continue to hatch in rotation, during their season. To keep the plants 

 perfectly clean, it will be necessary to dress them two or three times. 

 " I remain, Sir, 



"Your most obedient Servant, 



" DAVID HAGGERSTON. 



" Watertown, June 19th, 1841." 



The Rose Bug. — " The Rose-chafer, or Rose-bug, as it 

 is more commonly and incorrectly called, is also a diurnal 

 insect. It is the Melolontlia suhspinosa of Fabricius, by 

 whom it was first described, and belongs to the modern 

 genus Macrodactylus of Latreille. Common as this in- 

 sect is in the vicinity of Boston, it is, or was a few years 

 ago, unknown in the northern and western parts of Mas- 

 sachusetts, in New Hampshire, and in Maine. It may, 

 therefore, be well to give a brief description of it. This 

 beetle measures seven-twentieths of an inch in length. 

 Its body is slender, tapers before and behind, and is en- 

 tirely covered with very short and close ashen-yellow 

 down. The thorax is long and narrow, angularly widened 

 in the middle of each side, which suggested the name 

 subsjyinosa, or somewhat spined ; the legs are slender, 

 and of a pale-red color; the joints of the feet are tipped 

 with black, and arc very long, which caused Latreille to 



