226 General Notices. 



have been brought to notice since the volume first appeared, 

 the descriptions which were made by him are exceedingly 

 valuable, as they were the result of many years' careful ob- 

 servation. We therefore commend the work to the attention 

 of all who need a manual to aid them in the selection of a few 

 choice fruits for their gardens. 



We have only to regret that the size and form of the Avork 

 have been reduced : if the present edition had been uniform 

 with the last, it would have, we think, been preferable to its 

 present form, in which the pages are so reduced as scarcely to 

 admit of the largest engravings. The title-page is accompa- 

 nied with a colored vignette. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Destruction of Insects ly Hot Water. — Foremost among universally trou- 

 blesome insects, stands the Scale, of various species. This gentleman 

 shelters himself beneath his flat shield so securely, that there is no getting 

 him to move, or if he is dislodged it is only to leave behind a brood yet 

 worse than himself. Hitherto he has baffled everybody. It has been pro- 

 posed to glue him down by a wash of paste or gum water, to grind him to 

 pieces by incessant rubbing, to kill him with poisons more subtile than 

 those provided for her friends by Sir Edward Lytton's " Lucretia;" but 

 somehow he always reappeared, and not unfrequently seemed to be invigor- 

 ated by the applications in question. At last it has been ascertained by 

 Mr. Gordon, the Superintendent of the Ornamental Department, in the 

 Garden of the Horticultural Society, that the Scale may be dealt with 

 effectually by means of — hot water, which seems to dissolve him. Water 

 of the temperature of 140° will annihilate the Scale, and all his young ones, 

 eggs included, and will not injure the bark of trees on which he feeds. It 

 may be applied by a syringe or a sponge ; all that is indispensable is, that 

 it shall come in contact with him. It may be urged, that if water at the 

 temperature of 140° will not injure bark, it will leaves. But, in the first 

 place, it is possible to attack the Scale when plants have no leaves ; in the 

 second place such water will not hurt hard leaves ; and thirdly, if the leaves 

 are killed, they will grow again, so that the worst consequence of this appli- 

 cation to plants is a temporary loss of beauty instead of a permanent and 

 increasing loss of health. 



It is not irapiobable that this method will be found applicable to other in- 



