CULTIVATION OF THE ORANGE TREE IN SPAIN. 561 



trees of some yoUowisli and concave spots, in which concavities they 

 are found, and should they be allowed to spread much the tree greatly 

 suifers from loss of sap. 



Ooccus oitri (orange cochineal insect).— This is an hemipteroushomop- 

 terous with an oval-oblong body, convex on the top and slightly swollen 

 underneath. The color is an ashy gray approaching a pale yellow, 

 and it is covered with a cottou-white powder ; at the sides are some ap- 

 pendices, and the hind legs are longer than the front ones. The great 

 fecundity of these insects causes the damage occasioned by them to be 

 very considerable, on account of the infinity of their bites, which accel- 

 erates the perspiration of the trees. Amongst the various methods em- 

 ployed for its extermination, the only one which, up to date, has given 

 good results has been the employment of slaked lime squirted over the 

 branches and leaves by means of a gardener's syringe or small hand 

 pump, taking care that all parts infected are touched. This operation 

 is effected when the vegetation commences, which is when the insect 

 takes up its berth. The trees attacked should be immediately pruned 

 and cleared so as to augment the ventilation and allow the sun to pen- 

 etrate in every direction. 



Dipiera. — There is also a dipteran which is an enemy of the orange 

 trees, known by the name of Ceratitis hispanica, or orange fly. This 

 insect in grub state lives in the pulp of the fruit, which it alters pro- 

 foundly, and causes the same to fall off from the tree beforeits maturity. 

 The insect is one-half of a centimeter lougj of a black color in the ground, 

 although with some yellow-whitish spots and lines ; the wings are 

 transparent and crossed by four yellow and black ribbons ; the belly 

 peduncular and round behind. The female possesses a borer with which 

 it pierces the skin of the fruit to place an egg in the hole thus prepared. 

 This egg produces a grub which disorganizes the pulp of the fruit and 

 makes it fall to the ground, where it suffers its last metamorphosis. The 

 female deposits her egg when the oranges are still small. By the time 

 the putrid orange falls down, the grub has already arrived at its com- 

 plete development, and left the same, penetrating in the earth to pro- 

 ceed to its transformation. This winged insect appears in the begin- 

 ning of the spring. The grub does much harm to the orangeries of the 

 South. 



Ants and spiders. — Ants not only injure the fruit but impart to it a 

 somewhat disagreeable smell and flavor ; they frequently establish them- 

 selves at the foot of the trees and form galleries in all directions 

 amongst the roots, causing such trees as are attacked to languish and 

 ofttimes to perish from the formic acid spread around them, which acid 

 burns the young roots. In this case it may occasion damage to the 

 trees. When an ant-hill is found in the neighborhood of a tree, the fol- 

 lowing is recommended as an excellent remedy, viz, to take a flower 

 pot, closing the hole in its bottom, and placing it upside down at the 

 side of the hill. The ground is then well watered, and the ants, finding 



