416 THE FORCING GARDEN. [AUG. 



smallest hesitation ; made no effort whatever to get 

 rid of them ; and by next shifting time, in two or 

 three months, have seen no more of them. This I 

 have not done once, but often ; and I have known 

 my brother do the same thing. In short, I never 

 but once in my life have tried any remedy for the 

 bug ; and as I was completely successful, I shall 

 here give the recipe, which may safely be applied 

 to pine plants in any state ; but certainly best to 

 crowns and suckers at striking them (as now), or 

 to others in the March shifting, when they are 

 ghaked out of their pots at any rate. 



Take soft soap, one pound ; flowers of sulphur, 

 one pound j tobacco, half a pound ; nux vomica, 

 an ounce ; which boil all together in four English 

 gallons of soft water to three, and set it aside to 

 cool, In this liquor immerse the whole plant, after 

 the roots and leaves are trimmed for potting ; and 

 this is the whole matter. Plants in any other state, 

 and which are placed in the bark-bed, may safely 

 be watered over head with this liquor ; and as the 

 bug harbours most in the angles of the leaves, it 

 stands the better chance of being effectual, on ac- 

 count that it will also there remain longest, and 

 there its sediment will settle. In using it in this 

 latter way, however, if repeated waterings be ne- 

 cessary, the liquor should be reduced in strength 

 by the addition of a third or a fourth part water. 



The brown scaly insect, also a coccus, is often 

 found on pine, and other stove plants ; but I never 

 could perceive that it does any other injury than 

 dirty them, and so is of less importance than the 



