DISEASES AND I^s'SECTS. 



47 



roundish, shiny, and dark brown in colour, giving out a 

 red dye when crushed. They attack the tree under- 

 ground as well as above, and crowd about the trunk and 

 branches. Scrape and scrub the branches thoroughly 

 clean with soft soap and water, or ammoniacal liquor, 

 bare the roots and use ammoniacal liquor to them also. 

 Turpentine destroys them, but it must be sparingly 

 appHed, as it injures foliage it happens to touch. 



The apple-bark beetle, JBostrichus dispar, is very in- 

 jurious to the apple on the Continent, but is not very 

 common in England. The female bores into the bark 

 of the tree to deposit her eggs, with numerous and ex- 

 tensive perforations. The alburnum is the seat of its 

 depredations. 



Insects which live upon and destroy the leaves are 

 about as destructive as those that eat into the wood, 

 since they are more numerous, and destroy the vital 

 energy of the tree by rendering the leaves which carry 

 on its living functions useless for that purpose. 



The whole extensive family of scale insects. Coccus, 

 rob the leaves and stems of their juices, and will kill 

 what they attack, if they are left undisturbed. They 

 stick close to leaves and stems like oblong scales ; the 

 females are stationary, but the male insect has- wings, 

 and is almost too minute to see with the unaided eye. 

 I believe there is no remedy but hand-picking, washing, 

 and scrubbing. In greenhouses they are most trouble- 

 some pests. Turpentine brushed over the plant, or 

 conveyed to it in fumes, destroys them ; but whatever 

 plan is followed, the all-important thing is to attack them 

 directly they appear, before they get ahead at all. 



Coccus adoniclum, or the mealyrbug, is soft-bodied, in 

 shape a little like a wood-louse, covered with a white 

 appearance, like meal, and giving out a crimson dye 

 when crushed. Some persons get rid of them when 

 they abound by the use of the washes given above for 

 mildew. It attacks vines, pine apples, and any plants 

 it can get at, being very destructive to myrtles, fuchsias, 

 and such like. Coccus vitis, or the vine-scale, attacks 

 vines indoors and out of doors, peaches, nectarines, and 



