CHAPTER XIV 

 OF MANY THINGS 



IF the fittest only survive in Nature and who doubts 

 it? then surely your green-fly is about the fittest 

 thing that ever made glad the glowing bosom of June. 

 Herr Thiele has set it down that the green-fly can be 

 destroyed in eighty different ways ; but the immortal 

 creature laughs at death. You may clean a rose tree 

 absolutely, walk round your garden, and then return, 

 to find grandfather green-flies awaiting you. Their 

 lives are short, but they get an immense deal into 

 them. Passionate love of offspring is their greatest 

 virtue. I suppose that a childless green-fly would be 

 a thing new to science. 



I had hoped to discuss this and other such like 

 plagues at length ; but, after all, how little else 

 matters in a garden if you have children there ! 

 Lesser scourges sink to absolute insignificance when 

 weighed against them. 



Prime of garden pests is the human boy. In the 

 pupa stage this creature evadeth every lure, and 

 causeth much anguish of mind within the confines 

 of cultivated ground. He hath no eye to distinguish 

 between the grass plat and the garden knot, but 

 trampleth indifferently upon either, and loveth best 



