34 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 8, 1885. 
flower will be seen if we remove the three sepals which compose it. 
We then have left the three petals, which are not, as are the petals of 
most common flowers, all of them similar in shape and colouring. 
The two side petals are alike, but notice how different is the lower 
one. It is larger than the others ; it is curled round so as to be 
tubular, or rather perhaps funnel-shaped. It opens outwards so as to 
form a landing place for flying insects. See how beautifully carpeted 
is this landing place. What a bright patch of velvet for the creature 
to step over as he walks into the shady recess of the flower to sip the 
honey which awaits him within. Let us remove the two side petals ; 
then we will remove the third petal or lip as it is called. And what 
is this which we find enclosed within the lip ? This is called the 
column and is composed of the pistil and stamens combined. 
(To be continued. 
THE INSECT ENEMIES OF OUR GARDEN CROPS. 
THE POTATO. 
(Continued from page 484 last vol.) 
Gardeners, farmers, and also the public at large, one may 
piesume, will admit the necessity of a regulation promulgated 
in 1877, which makes it penal to “sell, keep, or distribute” the 
Coloi ado beetle, or to fail to report its appearance, upon 
Potatoes or any other plants, to .the nearest police establishment, 
this part of the regulation being somewhat singular, perhaps. 
At all events, thus far any harm that might else have arisen 
from the carelessness of some persons or the imprudent curiosity 
of others has been prevented, and we in Britain, happily, know 
nothing by experience of Doryphora decemlineata, concerning 
which such alarming, but not entirely groundless, reports as to 
its ravages in America from west to east have been pub ished, 
some of which tend to make it out almost worse than our Potato 
murrain. For in many instances, owing to the destruction of 
the leaves, the plant dies from exhaustion, the harm being 
intensified by a high temperature. The beetle could not easily 
be mistaken for one of our native species, for it is of an orange 
coloui, with a black marx like a spearhead on the thorax, and 
five black stripes upon each wingcase ; the larva or grub is 
yellow, reddish, or light brown, six-legged, and rather hump 
backed. 1 think we are tolerably safe from the intrusion of this 
beet'e,_but we do have nearly every year some trouble from the 
visitations of the grub of another beetle. This, however, preys 
upon the tubers. ’ * J 
, The wireworm, as we commonly style it—though we might use 
tue plural, for our foes of this sort belong to several species, yet 
are much like each other in appearance and habit—is the larva 
of some click beetle ®r .elater, the insect being remarkable for 
its power of leaping with a clicking noise when in its beetle 
stage. The tough wiry larva, which is of straw colour, is, by its 
possession of six legs and no more, distinguished from other 
larvae which feed upon the Potato tubers, and it is endued with 
longevity beyond many of its brethren; since, though when 
full giown it is not an inch long, it is believed to live for three 
years at least. It is one of those insects that turn up every¬ 
where, both in gardens and fields, but if it has any marked 
preferences these lie in the direction of Cereals and Turnips. 
In some years, as appears from the valuable reports published 
by Miss Ormerod, the grower of Potatoes is a loser by its attacks. 
There is a common agreement as to this circumstance, that the 
crop of later summer is the one that is chiefly the sufferer; still the 
wireworm has been often complained of in April and May. Elater 
lineatus andE. obscurus would be the species generally occurrino 1 
upon the Potato, and what is true of them in other instances 
would apply to them as foes to the Potato, that they thrive 
during a dry season when the growth of the plant is retarded, 
that the application of plenty of manure lessens the proba¬ 
bilities of attack. Rolling is also good, and it being the fact 
that the wireworm seldom occurs in those districts where seaweed 
13 sometimes distributed over the Potato fields, salt is thought 
to be unfavourable to the insect. Land that has previously had 
Clover upon it, or a corn crop, often has the wireworm left as a 
legacy to a succeeding crop of Potatoes. Whenever there is 
suspicion of wireworm, it is recommended to apply gaslime, 
about twenty bushels per acre in the spring, allowing it to remain 
on the surface till after rain, then the ground must be well 
worked previous to planting. Or in autumn we might put thirty 
bushels to the acre, and it may then be ploughed under the soil 
With the growing Potato it is difficult to kill the wireworm when 
it has begun its attacks upon the tubers or roots, because it is in 
the habit of shifting its po-ition frequently, and trapping can 
only be tried on a limited extent. . The rook has been accused of 
uprooting seedling Potatoes in its eager researches after the 
wireworm; but it does less mischief amongst Potatoes than in 
the Turnip fields, where the ordinary agriculturist steadily 
maintains this bird is of no utility as an insect destroyer. 
One of the unwelcome tribe of the bugs, allied to the fly 
(Aphis) and to the scale (Coccus), is a regular visitant to the 
Potato, hence it has been called the Potato frog fly (Eupteryx 
Solani), and its brethren, E. umbellatarum and E. bipunctatus, 
also appear now and then, but seldom in large number. They 
pursue the same course as the frog fly —that is, they pass their 
whole lives upon the plant, either on the stem or leaves, sub¬ 
sisting through all their stages upon the sap. It has not been 
found as yet that the frog fly does any perceptible injury to the 
Potato, this is probably because its generations do not succeed 
each other so rapidly as is the case amongst the aphides. The 
mature fly is only one-tenth of an inch long, green or greenish 
yellow, with brown eyes, and four glossy wings, which are large 
in proportion to the size of the body. Its minute eggs are placed 
on the under side of the leaf. The larvce are very similar to the 
parent, but wingless, and furnished, like it, with the stout sucker 
or rostrum. This is also possessed by the pupa, which feeds 
until it is on the point of entering the winged state. Supposing 
this species were abundant upon the plants the only method of 
dealing with it would be by washing or syringing, if that seemed 
worth the trouble and expense. 
That the Potato is occasionally to be seen swarming with the 
fly is a familiar fact to us, and by no means any proof of remiss¬ 
ness in the cultivator, particularly with crops in fields, for the 
flies make sudden migrations from one species to another very 
different, or travel from their parent locality to a new neighbour¬ 
hood. Hence several species of aphis may be taken off the 
Potato ; and its most usual fly, for that it certainly has, varies 
much in colour. Yet though this species, Rhopalosiphum Dianthi, 
is common upon the Potato, it is reported by Mr. Walker to 
feed upon about sixty plants, wild and garden. Thus, for 
instance, it occurs on fruit trees as well as vegetables, often 
infesting the Peach in autumn, swarming sometimes on such 
plants as Tulips and Crocuses, but particularly prefers the 
Swede Turnip and Potato. This is the Aphis vastator, so styled 
and figured by Smee in his work upon the vegetable, yet only in 
this way to be connected with the Potato disease that the 
punctures and the exudations of a crowd of these insects must 
debilitate the plant, and therefore render it liable to a fungoid 
growth. It has, moreover, been suggested, though not proved, 
that the aphis tribes not only mHict wounds, but also throw an 
irritant liquid or saliva into the tissues of plants. This aphis is 
yellow, green, or brownish, having a broad head and short 
antennae. The abdomen of the wingless female is so transparent 
that by a moderate magnifier it maybe seen crowded with young. 
In the winged form it is occasionally almost black, the head and 
antennae invariably of that colour. There is a belief amongst 
the Belgian farmers that this species flew across from England 
in 1834, arriving on the Continent in such hosts as to obscure 
the light of the sun. Mr. W. G. Smith believed that he had 
discovered the ramifications of Peronospora infestans not only 
amongst the external organs of aphides, but penetrating the 
body of the insect. Other microscopists have, however, ques¬ 
tioned whether the objects seen were mycelial threads, since 
they might have been nerve filaments or tracheal tubes belonging 
to an aphis. Still, it is possible that where this fungus abounds 
it may grow into, and theiefore destroy, some of these insects. 
A species of thrips, very minute, is occasionally abundant 
beneath the leaves of the Potato, and two or three of the mite 
species have been observed also. Some think they feed upon the 
fungus or devour the smaller aphides. When the tubers are 
decaying they are visited by other mites, rove beetles (Staphylini) 
sometimes, and by centipedes, or millepedes, as may happen. 
Gardeners often fancy these latter attack healthy tubers, but I 
believe this is rai-ely the fac:.— Entomologist. 
UNDER GARDENERS. 
The Journal of the 1st insb was more than usually enriched with 
advice which might be reflected upon with advantage. Mr. Bardney at 
page 2 under this head commences the new year with a subject that in my 
opinion is well worthy of careful consideration and discussion, and it is 
penned, too, in a manner and spirit that is equally worthy of notice. 
Mr. Bardoey says, “ I have hitherto avoided these discussions becau e they 
have frequently been directed to prove degeneracy.” Such well-meant 
words I say are to be admired, and in reply to them let me invite fore¬ 
men in good positions and of the middle class, and young men under the 
foremen, to make an opportunity to honestly give us their ideas and 
experiencs. It is a subject on which I might say very much, as it is one 
which I have truly at heart. At the outset we must be convinced that to 
be a gardener requires a quite different training from almost every other 
calling, and as to the mental capacity required there seems no limit. With 
1 such greatly improved productions and gene G tastes it would appear 
