40 



MOW TO BE STB or mSECTS. 



till eveiy joint looked swollen. I immediately thought 

 of the scale-louse I had read of, so I concluded this was 

 the pest and went to wwk. I put the pot on a paper, 

 and with a dull penknife carefully scraped eyery stem 

 and leaf till they fell down thick on the paper, which I 

 burned ; then, with an old tooth-brush, I scrubbed the 

 entire plant with soapsuds with ammonia in it, and have 

 repeated this operation three times within as many 

 weeks, and my myrtle, even in this short time, shows 

 a change ; it is putting out tiny shoots all over, and 

 every little glossy leaf looks bright and healthy now. I 

 know it thanked me for those scrubbings. 



" In many places one Avould scarcely detect the scale- 

 louse, it looks so much like the bark, but a toucli with 

 the point of your penknife will soon tell you if it is 

 there. My pink bouvardia I treated t!ie same way, 

 and it is also flourishing. The white bouvardia (Jas- 

 min oides) had the mealy-bug on it, and before I had 

 observed it they had infested my Vinca Harrisonia, but 

 constant watching has freed them both from this pest. 

 One day you will see some white powdery-looking stulf, 

 and the next, perliaps, a snug nest of young mealy- 

 bugs; thev increase rapidly, as it seems to me all ene- 

 mies of plant-life do. I find it best to look over all 

 plants from the greenhouse, for there is almost always 

 some enemy hiding around, and one infested plant will 

 soon spread through a collection, and give more work 

 of the kind than one cares to perform." 



