454 



MY GARDEN. 



Of late years I have used with good success open pans of water to 

 evaporate and moisten the air, and by gently syringing the frame with 

 warm water before closing it for the night, water is also supplied to 

 the air. Plants cannot be cultivated if plant mites are not destroyed. 



The different species of mite demand the attention of naturalists. 

 Not only do they attack the plants in our glass-houses, but I have 

 seen an extensive plantation of gooseberry-trees belonging to a market 

 gardener at Fulham attacked by them, and the last year or two the 

 plants of the British Queen strawberry have been destroyed at my 

 garden by a visitation of plant mites. The common Red Spider 

 is called Gamasus telarius (fig. 1011). 



One acarus delights to live amongst microscopic fungi, and under 

 the microscope looks like a rhinoceros trotting about in a jungle. 



FIG. ion. Red Spider, 

 magnified. 



FIG. 1012. Harvest Bug, magnified. 



Koch has published a work upon these creatures, with a vast number 

 of illustrations, but very few persons in this country are acquainted 

 with the specific differences of the plant acari. 



Kiikenmeister considers the Harvest Bug (Lepttis autumualis, fig. 

 1012) to be one of the grass mites. He states that it lives in dry 

 grass, in corn, and upon the gooseberry bushes, and also upon man in 

 July and the beginning of August. It is very troublesome to reapers. 

 I have not myself verified the species, but have engraved the figure 

 from Kiikenmeister. On my own gooseberry-bushes the acari have not 

 appeared, or at any rate have never been observed, although the trees 

 have been examined for that purpose. 



