Feb.] the HOT-HOUSE. 167 
decline, add a fresh lining of hot dung, as directed for cucumber and 
melon beds. Or these seeds may be sowed in pots, and plunged 
into the bark-bed in the stove. 
Plant cuttings of Geraniums, Fuschias, Myrtles, Hydrangeas, 
and other green-house plants in small pots, one or more in each, 
and plunge them into a hot-bed; they will now freely strike root 
and be fine early plants; these when they begin to grow must have 
plenty of air occasionally, and be carefully protected at night and 
in severe weather. 
THE HOT-HOUSE. 
As most hot-houses are frequently infested with various kinds 
of insects, which do very considerable injury to the plants, it may 
be of some importance to give a description of these, and also the 
most effectual methods of destroying them. 
Of the Species o/" Insects that infest the Pine- Apple Plants. 
1. The Brown Turtle Insect. Coccus hesperidum, of Linn. 
This species is not only found upon the pines and most other plants 
which grow in hot-houses, but also upon many plants which are in 
green-houses. These insects, after they are arrived at a certain age, 
fix themselves immovably to the leaves of the plant; but, before 
that time, though they generally appear motionless, yet on a close 
inspection, in a very warm day, many of them, and especially the 
smaller ones, may be perceived to move to different parts of the 
plant, being in appearance much like a turtle in miniature. 
A sweet glutinous matter issues from these insects, this soon turns 
mouldy, and in time becomes quite black, which causes the plants 
to appear very unsightly. But as these insects do not, in any other 
respect, injure the pine plants, I shall pass over them, and proceed 
to those of a more pernicious nature. 
2. The White Scaly Insect. This insect, as far as I can learn, 
has hitherto remained undescribed; neither Linnseus, Geoffrey, or 
Schtfffer, seem to have known it. 
This species is very nearly allied to the former, both of them 
being Cocci, and of the oviparous kind: it seems to be exactly simi- 
lar to it in its manner of breeding, the process of which, curious 
naturalists have observed to be nearly as follows: The eggs which 
are discharged from the female, are pushed forward between the 
skin of the belly and the leaf of the plant, to which the insect 
adheres; in consequence of this, the skin of the belly becomes less 
distended, which enables the insect to afford a large covering to the 
eggs already excluded. When the eggs are all discharged, the 
skin of the belly retreats close to the back of the parent insect, 
which then appears like a mere scale. If the insect in this state be 
