350 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



than cure, and to keep this enemy at bay the following precautions 

 should be taken : The Begonia houses must be kept scrupulously 

 clean. The stages and walls should be thoroughly cleansed and 

 washed during the winter months with a powerful insecticide, and 

 every particle of loose soil should be taken away. The tubers also 

 may be dipped into a good insecticide before starting into 

 growth. If these precautions are taken and the plants grown 

 sturdily without much artificial heat, the mite can be kept under, 

 and this, the most frequent source of disappointment to the grower, 

 will cease to trouble him. Eel-worm is also very troublesome in 

 some districts. Its presence is easily detected by the leaves showing 

 dark patches usually near the outside edges, the older leaves being 

 attacked first. These dark patches gradually get larger, the tissue 

 of the leaf is quite destroyed, and the leaf falls off. There is no known 

 means of curing the plants when once attacked. The usual way of 

 treating soil for eel-worm is to sterilize it by steaming or baking, but 

 the method we practise is to add a 4-inch potful of newly-slaked lime 

 to each eight bushels of soil, well mixing it a few days before using. 

 The lime has a very beneficial effect on the soil if used in moderation, 

 and we find it to be a complete preventive of eel-worm. A rather 

 greater quantity than I have mentioned may be used without any 

 bad effects on the plants, and it may be advisable to use more on 

 soils that are suspected of being badly infested. 



The cultivation of the Begonia is greatly simplified if these much- 

 dreaded pests are kept under. The care of a large collection, whilst 

 very interesting, is also very exacting work. During the twenty-seven 

 years I have been working amongst them I have had many anxious 

 days, but these have been more than compensated for by the amount 

 of pleasure I have derived from them . That a fair amount of success 

 has attended my efforts has been shown by the Awards given to our 

 firm by the R.H.S. during the eleven years of its existence. 



