which are injurious to vegetation. 231 



foot of the tree, a vespae-form, gauze-winged and parti-col- 

 ored insect, in the ^geria exitiosa ? While vile caterpil- 

 lars, covering our apple-trees with silken canopies, and 

 indicating, by their presence, a want of thrift and industry, 

 convert themselves, by the magic of nature, into sundry 

 trim moths, very much improved by the change, and with 

 difficulty recognizable in their proper garb as really identi- 

 cal with the pests of the orchard. And cut-worms, biting 

 off young cauliflowers, and tender cabbages, and canker- 

 worms, yes, and a long array of others, which, reader, we 

 advise you to become acquainted with, for your own com- 

 fort, and whose entertaining history we invite you to peruse 

 in the work before us, are traced to forms of elegance and 

 beauty, by the patience of the Entomologist, and by his 

 practical skill. 



Belonging to the order Hymenoptera, our choice Roses, 

 delicious cherries and fine pears are subject to slugs, the 

 larva of saw-flies. These disgusting creatures quite disfig- 

 ure an entire plant, even before the mischief is apprehended, 

 eating away the cuticle, and leaving the foliage of a dead 

 brown, as if scorched with fire. We have used with suc- 

 cess ashes, lime, and even dry dirt or dust, which, cleav- 

 ing to their soft bodies, seems to speedily extirpate them, 

 if the experiment is often repeated. Lately anew substi- 

 tute has been found in soap-suds, a strong decoction of 

 whale-oil soap, which can be applied to the highest trees 

 with a proper engine, or by a syringe. 



To the DiPTERA belongs the Hessian fly and wheat fly, so 

 destructive to grain crops. The minuteness of these little 

 creatures, and their singular habits, render accurate and 

 detailed information very difiicult to be procured. Many 

 and various expedients are resorted to, for their destruction, 

 or to escape from the evils attendant on their presence, and 

 all with more or less success. Much knowledge may be 

 gained on this topic from the pages of the work before us, 

 and many valuable hints suggested. We renewedly and 

 confidently recommend its perusal to all our readers. To 

 the culturist it will serve as an instructive companion : to 

 the general reader as an entertaining book : to the student 

 in nature as an expanded leaf in her great volume, and to 

 every one as an instance of the result of industry and re- 

 search into the hidden mysteries of some of the most curi- 

 ous forms of organic life. X. 



