CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



281 



This is an economical plan, and easily applied, but must be 

 attended to during the whole time that the plants remain outside, 

 after which fumigation is most effectual. 



The leaf-mining grub of the celery fly rarely does much 

 harm, and earwigs, too, though troublesome, can only be trapped 

 or removed by hand. A very much worse pest to deal with is a 

 green insect about the size of a small fly, though more compact 

 in shape, which infests the plants during the latter part of 

 August and September ; this insect lives on the tender leaves at 

 the points, and does more mischief than is generally supposed ; 

 it may be caught by hand, but it is very active, and has been 

 more numerous than usual this past season (1896). 



Ladybirds are amongst our friends. The young larvae of these 

 insects live on aphides, and do no harm whatever to the plants. 



Diseases. — The only troublesome disease is what is known 

 as " damping " of the blooms. This is usually most prevalent 

 after a dull, wet season, and is really the result of badly matured 

 or too gross growth. It is caused by a combination of a too 

 liberal use of manures and the restriction of the number of 

 growths on the plants to obtain specimen flowers. A good proof 

 of this is the fact that bush -grown plants are never affected by 

 the disease, because they have ample outlet for all the food the 

 roots can supply, no matter how much feeding may be given. 

 No remedy will entirely check the disease when once ' it asserts 

 itself ; all that may then be done to mitigate the evil is to pre- 

 serve a dry atmosphere, withhold all manures, and keep the plants 

 as dry at the roots as is consistent with safety. We have turned 

 plants out of their pots and rubbed off a quantity of feeding 

 roots near the outside, and even this did not check the trouble ; 

 neither did half severing the shoot nor scraping the bark round 

 beneath the blossom have any apparent effect. If you take a 

 shoot from a badly affected plant, you will generally find the stem 

 hollow and the pith discoloured ; I believe that this is decay 

 being transmitted to the flowers by the sap, and is the sole cause 

 of the disease. 



Certain varieties are more subject to damping than others, 

 the most susceptible I know being " Colonel Smith," " William 

 Seward," and "Eda Prass." The practical inference to be 

 gleaned from this is that in proportion as they exhibit signs of 

 liability to the disease, so much the less manure does such a 



