WINTER-FLOWERING PLANTS. 89 



grown in a high temperature is the " mealy bug." The 

 insect is flat, and whitish brown, usually nestling at the 

 axils of the leaves, where it is covered with a white pow- 

 der, making it easily distinguishable. This is one of the 

 most annoying of all insects that attack plants, and until 

 a few years ago no certain remedy was known ; but we 

 have now in " Fir Tree Oil," mixed in the proportion of 

 one pint to ten gallons of water, and syringed on once a 

 week, a certain remedy against mealy bug, scale, red 

 spider, and, in fact, nearly all insect life. The use of it 

 must be continued once each week, or the remedy will not 

 be effectual. Where only a few plants are grown the 

 same remedy can be applied with a soft brush or sponge 

 on the leaves. Another pest, not an insect, but a vege- 

 table parasitic growth known as mildew, affects but few 

 plants in-doors except the Kose. (For remedies see chap- 

 ter on Insects and Mildew.) 



The amateur is warned against the common practice 

 of placing plants in too large pots. As a general thing, 

 when plants are received from the florist they are with- 

 out pots, and are usually in a condition requiring them 

 to be shifted into a pot larger than they have been grow- 

 ing in. For example, if they have been grown in a 

 pot of three inches diameter, place them in one a size 

 larger, or four inches in diameter ; if they were in four- 

 inch pots, give them one five or six inches across, and so 

 on. Florists, as a rule, do not practice crocking or drain- 

 ing pots until the pots get to a size over four inches, and 

 often not then, because, having pots of all sizes on hand, 

 they do not need to give plants any larger shift than nec- 

 essary, and hence there is less need for drainage ; but 

 often the amateur has to change a plant that has been 

 grown in a pot of three inches diameter into one of six 

 inches, and then it is necessary to fill up one-third of this 

 too large pot with broken pots, charcoal, or some such ma- 

 terial, to drain off the surplus moisture that would other- 



