54 DISEASES AND INSECTS. 



RED SPIDER. 



Some bulbs are especially liable to the attacks of this 



pest of greenhouse culture. Those with soft leaves, such as 



* 

 hyacinths and narcissus, are not generally troubled ; but 



those with stiff, gladiate foliage, as most of the Cape bulbs, 

 seldom escape. 



It will be noticed that this is usually a trouble in parlor 

 or greenhouse culture, out-door bulbs being seldom attacked. 

 The presence of the spider is easily known by the foliage 

 of the infested plants assuming a rough, scaly, reddish- 

 brown or white appearance ; or, in severe cases, being 

 covered with minute, hardly visible cobwebs, and inhabited 

 with myriads of small red spiders. 



An examination of any foliage so infested, under a 

 microscope, shows a network of web covering the whole 

 leaf, and the presence of multitudes of insects, and this 

 even before the effect of their presence is perceived by the 

 naked eye. 



These spiders feed upon the juices of the plant, and, by 

 sucking all life from the foliage, weaken, and eventually 

 destroy, the bulb. They also invest the scaly covering 

 and skin of those bulbs (such as amaryllis) which require 

 to be planted one-half above the surface of the ground. 



