IN THE GARDEN. 



or beak which in this case is sharp-point- 

 ed : for they are predaceous bugs and feed 

 on plant lice or blights, as also does the 

 little yellow and black Lady Bird beetle 

 shown on the chrysanthemum stem in 

 the figure. 



Everyone knows the small sap-green 

 Blight of the rose bush, which cluster 

 on the under sides of the leaves and on 

 the green succulent stems through the 

 summer months, and the black blight 

 which infests the upper parts of the stems 

 and flower stalks of chrysanthemums in 

 the autumn. These little insects spend 

 their lives sucking the sap from the 

 plants. The females lay young lice in- 

 stead of eggs, and these latter mature 

 and commence producing young in a 

 week or ten days from birth. They are 

 a dangerous group of insects, so much so 

 that Huxley calculated that the produce 

 of a single blight, or Aphis as it is 

 called, would, in the course of ten gen- 

 erations, supposing all the individuals 



73 



