306 



that's it; 



rite flowers from the remotest 

 times. The beauty of the flower, 

 the delicacy of the perfume, the 

 form of the shrub, and of the leaf, 

 are alike calculated to gratify the 

 eye. The colours are red, white, 

 yellow, purple, and striped ; 

 simple, or in numberless shades 



844. 



and mixtures, and in Italy there 

 is a beautiful black variety. They 

 are cultivated everywhere — from 

 the garden of the simple cottager 

 to that of the prince ; and are 

 also grown on a large scale for 

 the manufacture of perfume, rose- 

 water, &c. The various species 

 are derived from wide geogra- 

 phical latitudes : North America, 

 Newfoundland, Siberia, the Cau- 

 casus, Kamtschatka, China, the 

 East Indies, &c. 



At the extremities of the young shoots of 

 the rose-tree are myriads of very small insects, 

 of a reddish green, which entirely cover the 

 branch, and seem motionless ; they are aphides, 

 which are born near to the places where they 

 are found, and never venture to travel an inch 

 in the course of their lives. They have a little 

 proboscis, which they plunge into the epidermis 

 of the branch, and by means of which they 

 suck certain juices which nourish them. They 

 will not eat the rose-tree. There are more 

 than five hundred assembled upon one inch of 

 the branch, and neither foliage nor branch 

 8;ems to sutfer much. Almost every plant is 



inhabited by aphides differing from those of 

 others. Those of the elder are of a velvety 

 black ; those of the oak are of a bronze colour ; 

 those of the apricot are of a glossy black ; those 

 of gooseberry-trees are like mother-of-pearl ; 

 upon the absynthe they are spotted white and 

 brown ; on field sorrel, black and green ; upon 

 the birch, black, and another shade of green ; 

 and upon the pear-tree, coffee-coloured. 



Some of these aphides have wings, but they 

 come only at a ripe age, and are not much 

 employed. The only serious care that seems 

 to occupy the life of the aphis, is the changing 

 of its clothes. It changes its skin four times 

 before it becomes a perfect aphis. 



The aphis produces its young ones while 

 sucking at the stem ; and it never turns round 

 to look at the offspring it has given birth to. 

 If the mother shows but little anxiety for the 

 young one, the latter returns the same amount 

 of love. It descends below the rest, takes its 

 rank, and plunges its little trunk into the green 

 skin of the rose tree. There issue thus about 

 a hundred from a single mother, who all fall in 

 regularly below their predecessors, and begin to 

 eat. In ten or eleven days they change their 

 skin four times; on the twelfth day, in their 

 turn, they begin to produce little ones, who 

 take their rank. 



There would be a superabun- 

 dance of aphides, if lady-birds, 

 and other insects, did not prey 

 upon them : — 



Quite at his ease, on a rose-bud, is a little 

 insect, well known to children : it is shaped like 

 a tortoise, and is about the size of a pea. 

 Naturalists call it a 44 coccinella," and children 

 know it as the lady-bird, 17. Before it became 

 possessed of its pretty 

 form, and its polished 

 shell of orange, yel- 

 low, b?ack, or red, 

 sprinkled with black 

 or brown specks, it 

 was a large flat worm, 

 with six feet, and ©f a 

 dirty gray colour, 

 marked with a few 

 yellowish spots. These 

 worms, which issue 

 from amber-coloured 

 eggs, deposited by the 

 female upon leaves, 

 are no sooner bora 

 than they set out in 

 search of aphides. 

 When they have 

 found a branch co- 

 vered with them, they 

 establish themselves 

 in the midst of the 

 flock, and they have a plentiful supply of food 

 until the time of their transformation arrives.* 



Upon the branches of the rose 

 may frequently be seen little red 

 bun ches of woolly texture. These 



* Alpkonse Karr's "Tour Konnd my Garden." 



845. 



