HOW TO DESTROY INSECTS. 47 



but then the plants died also ; so I concluded to prepare 

 some strong soap-suds ; then I thoroughly washed the 

 leaves with a cloth and plunged the entire plant under 

 water. At night I again examined my plant, and lo ! 

 it was as thickly covered as before ; indeed, I believe 

 the insects enjoyed a good bath, and perhaps considered 

 it a special preservative treatment administered for their 

 own benefit. I became so much interested in this 

 amphibious creature that I concluded to examine it 

 under the microscope. I gently raised one of them on 

 the end of my finger and placed it under the glass, 

 when oh ! horrible, it changed from an inoffensive green 

 mite to a creature the size of a toad, with two most vil- 

 lanous, opaque-looking eyes prominent on each side of 

 its head, resembling very much the toad's, but its body 

 was beautifully marked with dark rings. On each side 

 were attached three legs, which were jointed and fur- 

 nished at the end with two claws, giving the foot the 

 shape of a hook. From each side of its head appeared 

 two long propellers (thus I term them, for they seemed 

 to be used in guiding the body). In the rear were two 

 more I might say legs, but they were stiff and only 

 half the length of the legs, so I concluded they were in 

 some manner connected with the proper engineering of 

 the body. 



" The creature seemed frightful ; my inclination was 

 to take him up with the tongs and drop him out of the 

 window, but there was my poor plant covered with 



