THE ENEMIES OF THE VINE. 



53 



just as lief sleep in a clod. Formerly I advised that Ferns and 

 such-like shelter should not be allowed in the vinery ; but since 

 then I have employed them as traps, and found them very use- 

 ful ; only the strict search every morning, and the inversion of the 

 pot over a newspaper, must never be neglected, if anyone is un- 

 lucky enough to suffer as I have suffered. I have never found 

 them nip the fronds of the Fern as they scollop the Vine-leaf, 

 and even gash the tender shoot ; but the eggs are laid also 



Fig. 4. — Red-spider. (From the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle.) 



among the Fern, and the larva? thrive there as well as on the 

 Vine ; of course they do great injury there, but I have never 

 known a Fern destroyed by them, though dozens of Cyclamens 

 have been reduced to a dead skin by a grub suspiciously like my 

 Curculio, but smaller. The time of activity is from the first 

 awakening of the Vine to the maturity of the leaf. I have 

 never seen the weevil in late" summer, though I dare say he 

 might be found somewhere ; but human nature may hardly 

 suffice for one perennial weevil-hunt. 



(b) Concerning the enemies of the shoot and foliage I have 

 nothing to say that every gardener does not know, and mention 

 them chiefly to complete my list, though none of them has failed 

 to visit me. Worst of them probably is the red-spider, Acarus, 

 or, as he now seems to be called, Tetranychus telarius (fig. 4). 



Fig. 4.— (1) Nest of 

 Red-spider reduced ; (2) 

 Insect magnified, show- 

 ing pair of two -jointed 

 feelers (c), and pair of 

 legs (d) developed after 

 change of skin ; (3) a 

 smaller form ; (4) Ros- 

 trum with two lateral 

 valves (a), enclosing two 

 fine bristles (b). 



