170 THK BOOK OP THE ROSE chap. 



destroy aphides at least : for they are easily killed, 

 and are only formidable by their astonishing powers 

 of increase. For pot plants under glass smoking 

 with tobacco is the usual remedy, but the too much 

 despised finger and thumb should check the pest at 

 its first appearance. 



Occasionally there is a visitation of winged swarms 

 late in the season in such abundance as to be 

 formidable from sheer multitude. Such an invasion 

 occurred in Suffolk one autumn some years ago ; it 

 was like a miniature plague of locusts, for they 

 literally covered the whole of the plants on which 

 they alighted till it seemed as if there was not room 

 for one more. "With me they alighted principally 

 on green peas, but at Colchester a good many Roses 

 were injured and even killed outright. Syringing on 

 a large scale with a powerful garden engine is the 

 remedy in such a case. 



It is pretty well known that ants frequent the 

 shoots which are attacked by aphides for the purpose 

 of feeding on the sweet juice which they secrete, 

 called honey-dew. Entomologists tell us that the 

 ants treat the aphides as their milch cows, and even 

 convey them about to fresh shoots ; and I once 

 found a singular instance of this. Some poor briar 

 cuttings had been planted in an odd corner of my 

 garden, on the chance of their doing well enough to 

 be worth budding. They did not turn out well 

 enough and in consequence were neglected, but I 

 noticed in the summer a few aphides on the shoots 

 and that there were ants in the ground. The stocks 

 were dug up to be thrown away in mid-winter, and 

 I then found the aphides quite underground feeding 

 on the roots, and attended by ants. It seems a fair 



