Mode of destroying the White Bug. Ill 



dener's Magazitie. You know that Mr. J. T. Mackay, of the 

 Botanic Garden, Dublin, was seeing many gardens in Flanders 

 last summer. In his return home he called here; and, when 

 conversing on what he had seen, he said, he " had not learned 

 any thing new : " after a little, however, he said, " One thing I 

 noticed that was new ; I had not seen the white bug, and, after 

 several enquiries, I found that they syringed their plants with 

 lime water." Of course I must try the truth of this prescrip- 

 tion ; but I have been at a loss how to economise the hot lime, 

 knowing how little of it the water carries, and to have it always 

 fresh when wanted. I consulted with the chemical gentlemen 

 at the Hall, where it was proposed to mix a little black sulphur 

 witii the lime before being put into the water. 



Our mode of preparing it is in this way. We have a large 

 garden-pot, or a pail, into which we put half a pint of pulverised 

 Dorking lime, with about half an ounce of black sulphur: after 

 being well mixed, we add four gallons of water, stir it well, 

 then let it settle, and, when clear, we take M'Dougal's syringe, 

 and throw it under the leaves, by syringing from the back 

 path of the house first, then the front ; and, as the lime will take 

 another dose of water, we use this in the second hot-house. 

 We have been using this syringing for the last three months, 

 and there is not a bug, red spider, or thrips to be seen in either 

 house. 



It must also be observed, that although the above is good, yet 

 it is requisite to look to such plants, or parts of plants, as the 

 syringe never reaches; but M'Dougal's inverted syringe, used 

 with care, will do much. We syringe twice a week with this 

 lime water, and once or twice a week with pure water, just 

 about four o'clock, when the fire-heat rises in the houses for 

 the night. We expect soon to leave off this lime water, as we 

 have subdued all our noxious insects for the present. I expect 

 it will also be useful for the American white bug on the apple 

 trees ; and I wish that some of your readers would try it with 

 a syringe. 



Chelsea Botanic Garden, Jan. 20. 1840. 



Art. V. A Method of preventing the Attacks of the Asparagus Fly. 



By M. Kerll. 



(Translated from the German, for the Gardener's Magazine, by J. L.) 



In the Transactions of the Prussian Horticultural Society 

 (vol. ii. p. 296.) there is a notice of the asparagus fly (Tephritis 

 asparagi), that scourge of the asparagus bed, in which it is 

 stated as follows : — " An effective method has never yet been 

 discovered for the destruction of the devastating larvae of this 



14 



