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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



such most carefully, as the mealy-bug may be there — the most 

 troublesome of all insects, and the one mostly to be feared. 

 Whenever you see a small speck of white matter, like a particle 

 of chalk, you may be certain that mealy-bug is not far off. 

 Search should at once be made until you find it, and watch 

 should be kept over the plant continually, as this insect breeds 

 most freely. 



Mealy-bug is one of our greatest difficulties, and the means 

 used for getting rid of it are very different in various countries. 

 Mr. Blanc, of Philadelphia, advises shaking out the plant from 

 the pot, removing all the soil, and giving the plant a good 

 syringing with fir-tree oil, much diluted with hot water, or a 

 tea-spoon of coal-oil (petroleum) with a pint of milk ; but these 

 remedies require great care, and he prefers to spray the plant 

 with pure alcohol through an atomiser, which can be purchased 

 of most chemists. The English plan, as recommended by Mr. 

 Watson, is to take a wineglass of paraffin added to a gallon of 

 water, with two ounces of black soap, well mixed together, 

 syringing the plant with it, and shortly afterwards syringing 

 with water to remove the paraffin. The Belgian method is to 

 take a gallon of rain-water, and add to it about 100 grammes of 

 brown soap, mixing with it 100 grammes of flower of sulphur, 

 stirring it well up, and then dipping the plant in the mixture, 

 being careful that every part of the plant (except the roots) shall 

 be thoroughly washed ; then lay the plant down, so that nothing 

 touches the roots, and repeat this treatment a day or two after- 

 wards. M. L. Smet says that he has thus saved thousands of 

 plants from this pest. M. P. Rebut only recommends the use 

 of freshly ground pepper, to be sprinkled over the plant, but it 

 must be very strong pepper. I have found insect-powder, of the 

 kind that is stated not to injure any plant, to be very useful, as 

 all liquid remedies are dangerous, and often worse than the 

 disease, especially for any delicate Mamillaria, unless used with 

 the greatest care, as too much paraffin will soon kill a plant. 



The mealy-bug is a sad pest, being so difficult to get rid of,, 

 for it gets under the soil during the winter, seeming to prefer the 

 pots with the Echinopsis varieties ; thus it will be well to turn 

 out and examine the pots with plants of multiplex, oxygona, or 

 spiralis in them early in the spring, as I find these varieties to 

 be more infested than all the other plants put together. Wash 



