34 THE CARNATION. 



tonishing rapidity : it deposits its eggs in the ground 

 like the slug, without any particular precaution ; in 

 turning over lately some horse-dung, which had lain 

 in the corner of a kitchen-garden two or three years, 

 I discovered and picked out several of these eggs, 

 which were of various sizes, from a pin's head to that 

 of a small sweet-scented pea just beginning to sprout. 

 I took one of the largest of these bladdery-formed 

 substances, and with a gentle pressure of the finger 

 and thumb, forced through a small aperture at the 

 top of the neck five of these insects, one after another, 

 completely formed, and able to crawl about. The 

 rest,, which were in a less forward state, were collected 

 and put into a saucer, and being exposed to the sun 

 were soon dried up, the external membrane or bladder 

 only remaining. 



TOP DRESSING IN JUNE. 



As frequent watering of the plants in pots, in dry 

 and hot seasons, must tend to exhaust the vegetative 



