454 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
BARBERRY^-APHIS. ACCOUNT OP THE BARBERRY SHRUB. 
Washing and syringing the plants with strong soap suds has been often 
recommended for destroying the aphis upon them. I have recently been 
experimenting with this remedy, upon the plant lice which so bady infest 
the beautiful verbenas of our Flower Gardens, and I find it to be of but 
partial efficacy. It only kills the young, tender lice; those which are ma¬ 
ture are so robust that they are not destroyed, even though the infested 
stems and leaves are immersed in a strong solution of soap. 
There is one remedy, and one only, which we know to be efficacious and 
perfectly sure for destroying the different species of plant-lice. This is the 
smoke of tobacco. It operates like a charm. It never fails. But to apply 
it, it is necessary to place a box or barrel over the plant, burning the 
tobacco in a cup underneath, until its smoke has filled the inclosed space 
and penetrated all the interstices between the leaves. Hereby the rose 
bushes and other shrubs and plants in our gardens are with ease wholly 
cleansed from these vermin. To render it available for destroying these 
insects upon the hops, probably a piece of canvass or other large cloth can 
be thrown over them or some other apparatus devised whereby they can be 
fumigated for a few moments in the same thorough manner. 
17 . Barberry-aphis, Aphis Berberidis, Kalt. (Homoptera. Aphid®.) 
On the underside of the leares of the barberry, through the summer, clusters of pale yellow 
and green plant-lice, each marked on its back with a black or dark green elliptie ring. 
The barberry shrub (Berberis vulgaris, Linn.) is currently regarded as a 
native of the northern hemisphere in both the eastern and western conti¬ 
nents. In Europe DeCandolle remarks of it that while in northern lati¬ 
tudes it is a valley plant, at the south it becomes exclusively a mountaineer, 
being on Mt. Etna the most alpine shrub of the sterile belt of that moun¬ 
tain, at the height of 1,500 feet. Here in America it appears under 
analogous circumstances, growing wild in the neighborhood of the sea 
coast in New England and New York, and upon the Alleghany range of 
mountains in Virginia and onwards south, although by some botanists the 
mountain shrub has been regarded as a species distinct from that of the 
sea coast. Spontaneously springing up so abundantly as it does in waste 
grounds of the maritime districts here at the north, it iB rather remarkable 
that we do not meet with it growing wild in the interior of the country 
also, since at the south it occurs at a distance from the sea shore. But in 
all the inland portion of our State we only see a bush of it here and there, 
where it has been planted by the hand of man. Although it is justly 
esteemed as an ornamental, and is of some account also as a useful shrub, 
it is but little cultivated with us, the old prejudice that it blasts any grain 
which is growing near it, causing it to be distrusted and shunned. We 
therefore only meet with examples of it sparsely scattered at intervals 
usually several miles apart. Under these circumstances it is little liable 
to be discovered and preyed upon by any insect enemy. It accordingly is 
one of the most thrifty and cleanly shrubs which we have. During the 
extended period of my observations only one insect has made its appear¬ 
ance upon this shrub. Of this insect I here present the account. 
A bush of the barberry planted in my yard before the commencement 
