64 
CHOICE BRITISH FERNS. 
Green fly, thrips, scale, red spider, et hoc genus omne, 
are by-products of uncongenial culture — too much beat or 
draughts, scarcity of light, or some such weakening cause. 
This last alone is a potent source of weakly growth; for, 
barring direct sunshine, the plants cannot have too much 
daylight. If, then, any of these pests make their appearance, 
it will be endless labour merely to examine and clean the 
plants, and a comparatively short task to clear the field of 
the foe by starving them out — a really healthy plant afford- 
ing them no support. 
There is another insect, which mainly affects the Lady 
Fern, and which, apparently, lays its eggs in the crowns, so that 
they rise with, and hatch upon, the new fronds in the spring. 
This is a smallish, semi-transparent, green fly — in its younger 
stages the hinder half of the body being brownish-green ; in 
shape it is flattish, about j^in. long, and nearly as broad — 
“ Norfolk Howard” pattern. It is easily discriminated from the 
aphis, or common green fly, as it runs about swiftly. It 
is a voracious sap feeder, and speedily turns the whole plant 
a whitish-green. About July it is transformed into a shining, 
hard, brown insect, bearing much superficial resemblance to 
a flea, of which, we believe one of the sexes has the power 
of flight. This seems to thrive most where light is somewhat 
scanty — which indicates the remedy. If it makes its appear- 
ance, a careful search for the first spring broods will check the 
evil materially. 
The last insect-pest we shall deal with is, we believe, a 
comparatively new importation. This is a white, or greenish- 
white, fly, about ^^in. long, with a strong resemblance — 
under a lens — to the locust family. It has a peculiarly 
abrupt, erratic, snipe-like flight, darting instantaneously from 
one plant to another when disturbed, and settling almost 
invariably on the under side of the frond, at a point some 
distance from where it seemed to alight. This fly of late 
years has become a great nuisance, since it attacks even 
out-of-door plants of all sorts, healthy or otherwise, and dis- 
figures them by gnawing the outer skin of the frond, or leaves 
and causing unsightly, white patches. 
