60 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



Indiana, Iowa, and Northern Illinois. During a recent botan- 

 izing trip to Starved Rock, some ninety miles southwest of Chi- 

 cago, the editor of this magazine found the form fairly com- 

 mon. It grows inter-mixed' with the more familiar form and is 

 locally known as the pansy violet. Apparently it is a mere color 

 variation similar to those which are likely to occur in many oth- 

 er species of plants, and is no^ more worthy of inclusion in a bot- 

 anical manual than many another that is never mentioned. The 

 botanists are certainly a conservative brotherhood. Let one of 

 their number describe any plant in sonorous Latin and its place 

 in the Manuals is secure. If anybody is inclined to doubt this, 

 let him remember that Pyrola axypetala and Aspleniiirn fonta- 

 num are still listed as members of our flora. 



Plant Lice. — Certain tiny black, white, green, or red in- 

 sects, called plant lice, or aphids, often occur on plants in such 

 large numbers that if they do not kill them outright, their at- 

 tacks are sufficient to check the plants' growth and render them 

 unsightly. The plants most frequently attacked are sweet peas, 

 dahlias, asters, golden glow and the like, but almost any plant 

 may harbor them. The insects suck the juices from the interior 

 of leaves, young stems, and flower stalks, but do not eat the 

 leaves and are therefore not reached by the poisons used to 

 combat chewing insects. When the insects occur in such large 

 numbers as to be objectionable, they may be extirpated by 

 spraying with kerosene emulsion, strong soapsuds or tobacco 

 water, or they may be dusted with ordinary insect powder 

 which can be procured at the nearest drug store. When the 

 owner of lice-infested plants is too indolent to come to their 

 rescue. Nature, herself, helps him out of the difficulty by send- 

 ing him a few colonies of lady bugs. These familiar, red, 

 hemispherical insects, variously polka-dotted with black, are in- 

 ordinately fond of plant lice. When they start in to feed on the 

 plant lice on a leaf they usually make a clean job of it. The 

 young lady bugs are worm-like creatures of a general lilac col- 



