THE WOODLANDS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



PLANT BUGS, APHIDES, AND SCALE. 



SHOULD any of our readers cherish a favourite rose in 

 his garden or greenhouse, he will be well enough 

 acquainted with the " green-fly." Not that this insect, 

 or its congeners, is confined to roses, but if one kind 

 of them should be known, it will be easy to recognize 

 others. The most prolific, and in some points extra- 

 ordinary, of all the insect tribe are the Aphides, or 

 " green flies." When they are seen at all, it is in very 

 large numbers, and we pity the poorest observer of 

 nature who has not seen them. Little, juicy-looking 

 insects, not larger than the head of a pin, often green, 

 with long, thin, wiry legs, clustering about the young 

 and juicy parts of growing plants. Some call them 

 "blight," gardeners know them as "green-fly," and 

 entomologists as aphides , or " plant lice." 



They usually show a preference to the sunny side 

 of a wood, writes Mr. Buckton, rather than to its 

 northern or eastern aspects. A secluded valley, a 

 ravine with its brook of water, a light thicket on a 

 hanging hill, or the warm side of a hillock, with its 

 rank herbage, may be advantageously sought as being 

 the favourite haunts of these insects. The number 



