BOTAXICAE I1VDEX 
S3 
ately removed to prevent the earth from souring. Hanging baskets should be show- 
ered once a week in the sink, and then allowed to become rather dry. More plants 
are killed by kindness than neglect, and the kindness usually consists in continually 
giving the plant a little water, which causes the earth to become sour and pack so 
hard that it is almost impervious to water. This kills the young fibrous roots that 
feed the plant, causing it to drop its leaves and die. A very common mistake is using 
too large pots or boxes to grow plants in, as during winter plants require very little 
food. 
Insects are a very serious drawback to healthy and vigorous plants, and a most 
vigilant watch should at all times be set for them; but in spite of all our care, they 
will appear and increase with such rapidity that no time should be lost in destroying 
them. No plants, however, should be taken into the house until thoroughly cleansed. 
Cultivated plants seem to furnish food for several different species of insects, and the 
treatment necessary to destroy one form will not answer for another. The black and 
green fly, or Aphis,* are always the most numerous, and are first seen on the new 
growth of house plants, but in an amazingly short time spread to the older leaves, 
especially to the soft wooded ones, as well as flowers, absorbing the juice and vitality 
of the plant. It is easy enough to fumigate a green-house to destroy insects, which 
of course could not be done in our dwellings, and many plans have been recommend- 
ed. One says, sprinkle Scotch snuff on the foliage and let it remain two or three 
days; another says, a weak solution of carbolic acid, applied with a swab or feather; 
and still another says, take a little coal oil — just enough to make a colored scum on the 
surface of a tub of water — and dip the inverted plant in it, not allowing the pot to 
touch it. Others recommend hot water, and we have found that to be the least objec- 
tionable. Our plan is to dip the plant in a tub of water that will register 120° with 
a thermometer, repeating it the following day; of course the plant must not remain 
in the hot water, as it would be soon cooked. To destroy the green fiy in green- 
houses or conservatories, the most approved method is fumigating, which is done by 
placing on a pan of live coals a quantity of damp tobacco stems, filling the house with 
a dense smoke and keeping it closed until morning; but as Heliotropes, etc., are liable 
to be injured by smoke, spread paper over the plants while fumigating. It is better, 
however, to fumigate two or three nights in succession than to risk too dense smoke. 
But the most destructive and least known insect is the red spider, Lettigoniadce. It is 
too small to be readily seen, but its presence is easily detected by grey or yellowish 
spots on the apparently dying leaves. The little insect lives upon the underside of 
the leaf, and not only absorbs its vitality but weaves a fine web which closes the 
pores through which the plant breathes. They delight in a hot, dry atmosphere — 
just such a one as our sitting room afl'ords — but are readily destroyed by syringing 
the plant often with clear warm water, or a good bath in the tub, and then sprinkle 
with sulphur ; but if small plates of bright tin or glass, with a little sulphur on them, 
are placed under the plants, in the full rays of the sun, no red spiders will trouble 
them, as the sulphur fumes kill them. A weak solution of whale oil soap is excel- 
lent, but it must be very weak, or it would not only kill the foliage but the plant also. 
The mealy bug, Coccus Adonideun, is also very destructive to liot-house plants, but is 
really the easiest to exterminate of any in this list. They are a large white, woolly 
looking lump in the axil of the leaf, and are easily kept down by frequent syringing 
with warm, greasy water, to which a little sulphur should be added ; but if full grown, 
they should be picked off by hand or a small sharp pointed stick. 
For worms at the roots of plants, an application of a weak solution of carbolic 
acid, applied quite frequently to the earth, is said to be a sure cure. Another good 
plan to kill them is to use water with lime dissolved in it for watering the plants; it 
also aids the soil in stimulating the growth. But probably the safest plan is to care- 
fully shake all the earth from the roots, and after a thorough watering with warm 
water, repot in fresh earth ; but for fear of a like trouble again in a short time, a good 
plan is to subject the required amount of earth to a strong heat by placing it in an 
old pan in a stove oven, until all insects as well as eggs are destroyed. 
And now we come to the least known, least understood, and apparently the most 
insignificant insect, but which in reality is the greatest scourge in the whole list; they 
are the scales, Coccidce , various species, and infest Cactus, Oleanders, Camelias, Ficus, 
and Tropical Ferns. Like all other insects, they increase and spread with great rapid- 
ity, covering the woody stem and leaves in a short time, and as they are so small and 
so near the color of the plant on which they feed, they usually get a good start before 
being seen. A weak solution of whale oil soap is the usual remedy, but the best 
remedy we ever tried is a boy with a pan of warm water and a stiff tooth brush. 
If we go to the green-house or conservatory, as well as ferneries in the house, we 
shall find the slug or snail are eating large holes or notches in the leaves of all suc- 
'■Reaumur has proved that one individual, in five generations, may become the progenitor of nearly six hun- 
dred millions of descendants. — Harris. Duval, in his experiments, obtained eleven generations of Aphis in 
seven months, being curtailed at this stage by the approach of winter. — Packard. 
