44 OPERATIONS OF GARDENING. PART T. 



in halves and laid near the seeds ; the ants flocked to it, and 

 Avhen it was full of them it was immersed in hot water. The 

 nuts were watched during the day, and in three days no 

 more made their appearance. A few days after they made 

 their appearance again, when they were treated in the same 

 way, and again similarly disposed of. My plan, when I find 

 a nest of red ants in the road, or any part of the compound, 

 is to bund the spot round with chiy and pour in boiling 

 water, and I have found it efficient in the destruction of the 

 red ants." * 



WHITE-ANTS. No vermin has a worse reputation for mischief 

 than the white-ant ; yet I believe it is almost exclusively for 

 the injury it does within the house that it deserves it. In gardens 

 ihat white-ants infest they certainly are exceedingly troublesome 

 for the unsightly mounds of earth they cast up ; but all other 

 harm they do is confined to the consuming of posts and stakes, 

 or anything made of dead wood. Living plants are altogether 

 secure from their attack. Complaints, it is true, are often made 

 of cuttings having been destroyed by them ; but I make no 

 doubt but that in all cases the cuttings have died first, and 

 the white-ants have only devoured them afterwards. Moreover 

 sometimes when a dead plant is taken up, it is found to have 

 its roots preyed upon by these insects, and the charge is laid 

 against them forthwith of having caused its death ; whereas its 

 death had occurred from some other cause before they attacked 

 it. Mr. Gosse observes : " Smeathman, who has very minutely 

 described and illustrated the tribes of Termites, says they do 

 not usually attack trees in a sound state ;"f and so likewise 

 Sir E. Tennant states, what any one in this country must have 

 noticed, that " Termites rarely attack a living tree ; and although 

 their nests may be built against it, it continues to flourish not 

 the less for their presence.''^: 



THE GREAT CRICKET CARPENTER-INSECT Jheengoor 

 Sehizodactyla monstrosa. Westwood, in his edition of * Donovan's 

 Insects of India/ says this is a scarce insect in Bengal. Well, 

 indeed, would it be for some of the gardens there if it were so. 

 This most destructive insect is about an inch and a half long, 



* ' Journal of the Agri-Hort. Society/ vol. x. p. 81. 



f P. H. Gosse's 'Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica,' p. 461. 



J Sir E. Tennant' s ' Ceylon,' vol. i. p. 254. 



