178 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE chap. 



nately we cannot make use of it in connection with 

 the aphis-eaters, as they must perish if deprived of 

 their usual food. So that, after all, the wholesale 

 destruction of all insect life, though slightly irrational 

 in that it destroys a few friends among innumerable 

 foes, will do more good than harm to the Eoses ; and 

 I am afraid it is better that a few friends should 

 perish than that any enemies should be allowed to 

 remain. 



To take another analogy from vermin of the farm, 

 there is one rat, most difficult to catch of all, for 

 whose tail the farmer will willingly pay an extra 

 price, and that is the last one. Naturally, perhaps, 

 he is often left, and before long the nuisance is as 

 bad as ever. As aphides are, during the summer, 

 practically sexless in the matter of breeding, it is 

 even more important in their case to get the last one 

 on each shoot, and if finger and thumb or any such 

 means are employed for their destruction the search 

 should be thorough, and the same shoot should again 

 be examined the next day. 



Fungoid Pests. — Garden roses are subject to an 

 unusual number of parasitical fungi, between thirty 

 and forty having been enumerated. Happily two 

 only are sufficiently prevalent among healthily 

 grown plants to be worthy of description and 

 warning, and these are mildew and orange fungus. 



Mildew. — This is a pest indeed. Sometimes it ap- 

 pears in force all of a sudden in several places at 

 once and spreads like a fire : the hoary leprous 

 growth covers the leaves, checks the transpiration 

 or breathing, and lowers more and more, as it 

 increases, the vitality of the plants and the con- 

 sequent spread of the roots. I gather from Mr. 



