INSECTS. 125 



destroyed by fumigation of tobacco, which should always be 

 resorted to when these enemies appear, and care should 

 always be taken that they are not allowed to be too numer- 

 ous before the remedy is applied. It is better to fumigate 

 two or three times than to allow the plants to be injured by 

 the insects, especially as the fumigation does not injure the 

 plants, but destroys thousands of other insects in their infant 

 state. The Green-fly is also very destructive to the Rose 

 in the garden, where it may easily be destroyed by dipping 

 the young shoot in a decoction of tobacco water, or it may 

 be applied with a syringe ; in either case it will be proper to 

 wash off the tobacco water by washing the shoots clean 

 with clear water in the morning. 



The next common insect that infests plants is the Red- 

 spider, a small, minute insect, bred by dry, harsh heat or 

 internal air. Plants that are affected with this insect have a 

 sickly appearance, and their leaves turn yellow and then red; 

 on the back of the leaf a fine web is seen, and the insect is 

 readily seen through a magnifying glass, and sometimes by 

 the naked eye. There is no insect that I am acquainted 

 with so difficult to destroy as the Red-spider. In the green- 

 house steam and moist internal air counteract its ravages, and 

 if the flues are whitewashed over with lime and the sulphur 

 of vivum, it will in a great measure destroy it: but sulphur 

 should in all cases be very cautiously applied, as too great a 

 quantity suffocates and scalds plants. 



Many plants, as Ericas, Acacias, Oleanders, and Camel- 

 lias, are very subject to a white scaly insect, which must be 

 removed by taking it from the leaf either with the point of a 

 knife or brush ; after removing the insect, take a wash made 

 by a decoction of soft soap with a small portion of sulphur 

 and tobacco juice, with which the parts affected are to be 

 sponged over three or four times. Oleanders, Camellias, 

 and many evergreens, are often infested with a large, black, 

 scaly insect, which can be removed in the same manner as 

 the before named. 



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