JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 16, 1881. ] 
485 
bloomed so well at Cannes in the autumn, ever been tried out of 
doors in the south of England ? 
I have finished all bedding-out. The Geraniums were very 
forward in bloom, as there was so much sun in May. Pearson’s 
strain of Pelargoniums still seem to me to take the lead. Mrs. 
Leavers and Lady Emily among the pinks ; A. F. Barron and The 
Shah amongst the crimsons and scarlets ; also those very good 
old sorts the Rev. F. Atkinson, John Gibbons, and Charles Smith. 
Henry Jacoby, which was recommended by one of your corre¬ 
spondents, will, I fear, burn in the sun, but it is a very dark 
shade of crimson where sufficiently shaded. 
I send you rather a curiosity. I had picked some variegated 
tricolor leaves from Sophia Dumaresque, and they were placed in 
water on my writing table, and to my surprise began to root in 
the water. From mere curiosity I left them there, and though 
the leaves are withering yet the roots are still fresh. I have 
hardly changed the water. I am going to pot one to see whether 
it will push up an eye from the base, as they were merely leaves 
pulled off from cuttings.—C. P. P. 
CHAPTERS ON INSECTS FOR GARDENERS.—No. 24. 
NEW SERIES. 
There is another spinning mite, nearly allied to the red spider, 
that has been described by Boisduval, who found it frequenting 
the Vine ; and it probably occurs sometimes in Britain, though 
observations made upon it here, if any, have not been recorded in 
print. This mite, called Tetranychus vitis, is hardly half the size 
of the red spider, and of a yellowish hue. It occurs in little 
colonies, which spin a number of loose threads upon the leaves of 
the Yine, quite different to the closely woven web of silk under 
which the red spider carries on its destructive proceedings. The 
effect of the presence of T. vitis is first the discoloration, then the 
withering of the leaves ; but as it only shows itself upon the Vine 
towards the end of the season, Boisduval thinks at present there 
is nothing to be apprehended from it—at least in France, the 
yield of Grapes not being diminished thereby nor the Vines them¬ 
selves injured. So good a report cannot be given of the next 
species I mention—T. tiliarum, another minute insect of an orange 
yellow, and which has at times been found in such swarms upon 
the leaves of the Lime in some parts of the Continent as to give 
to the trees, viewed a short distance off, an unhealthy yellow tint, 
displacing their natural green colour. The injury they do is, as 
in the rest of the fraternity, attributable to a sucking apparatus, 
for mites do not nibble the leaves. During some seasons this 
species has also occurred abundantly upon a variety of plants in 
the kitchen garden, French Beans and Cucumbers, for instance, to 
their injury. Fortunately it doe3 not yet come nearer to us than 
France, though we shall be always liable to have these and other 
small pests transferred to our shores. 
We proceed to another spinning mite, too well known because 
painfully known to many inhabitants of Britain. Its history, 
however, has only been made out recently, and its position as a 
mite decided to be amongst the spinning mites in the genus Te¬ 
tranychus. This is popularly called the harvest bug. The scientific 
name, T. autumnalis, also points to the season of the year when it 
is generally noticed. As to localities, it appears to be particularly 
fond of chalky districts and of the coast. Less than the red 
spider, it nearly resembles it in colour, and from its minuteness it 
is scarcely perceptible upon any object unless the eye happens to 
fall upon it in the act of moving. Placed under a magnifier the 
body is seen to be covered with bristles, and upon the head are 
two sharp points above the hollow snout. The notable peculiarity 
of this species is, that although the mite commonly occurs upon 
vegetable substances, doubtless therefore subsists upon them 
during its period of growth, it migrates to the skin of animals 
when it has a chance of so doing. Reputed to haunt cornfields, 
where it is frequently found, the harvest bug is also common in 
meadows and amongst Turnips ; nor is it excluded from gardens, 
where persons have in various instances suffered from its attacks 
after they have been engaged in picking Gooseberries and Rasp¬ 
berries. Where individuals are infested by it, the restlessness and 
irritation in some cases will cause feverish symptoms. As happens 
with similar insects, there are certain persons upon whom the 
harvest bug will not crawl, perhaps because the skin is distasteful 
from its giving forth some peculiar smell; and it has been stated 
that small doses of sulphur taken regularly have such an effect 
upon the skin as to lead the harvest bugs to shun those who may 
have tried this plan of keeping them off. The remedy being both 
safe and simple, it maybe recommended to those who are liable to 
be teased by the species. Possibly it might be useful in preventing 
the approach of other annoying insects. T. autumnalis has this 
peculiarity attaching to its proceedings, that it manages to insinu¬ 
ate itself under the skin, when the result of the mite’s burrowing 
is shown by the appearance of a small pustule. In performing 
this feat it is assisted by the prominences upon the head to which 
allusion has been made. 
The harvest mites proper have only been partially studied, like 
many others in this obscure division, and some species that have 
been named—Trombidium parasiticum, for example, are perhaps 
only the larval stage of species previously recognised. This is a 
very small six-footed mite, brilliant red in colour, which has been 
taken upon the wings of the house fly both in England and in 
America, weakening if not positively killing the larger insect. 
Various species beside this in the above genus are parasitic, 
therefore probably rather to be deemed useful than injurious. 
Curious differences of habit are noticeable in some, depending 
upon their stage of growth or the locality they haunt; thus 
T. holosericeum, while yet a larva, has been taken upon the 
legs of spiders. When older and stronger this mite has been 
observed to feed upon aphides ; and if Mr. Stewart is right 
in his belief that it seizes newly-hatched caterpillars and sucks 
them dry, the species may be welcomed iu gardens. This 
mite does not spin, hence it is thus distinguishable from the 
red spider, which it resembles in colour ; also it is larger, the 
body is silky, legs six in the larva, and eight in the fully 
developed mite. The worthy and indefatigable entomologist 
De Geer has mentioned a species he calls T. aphidis, which takes 
as its prey the familiar black aphis. This is perhaps the T. auran- 
tiacum of recent naturalists, a thick-bodied orange-coloured mite, 
about which we have only “ foreign intelligence ” now, though 
the species may be British. It is to warmer countries than our 
own—to Africa for instance—that we should have to go if we 
wished to see mites in their bulky forms, and where we might find 
them as large, or larger, than a full-sized ladybird. Leaving the 
water mites and sundry species besides that are related to the pre¬ 
ceding, I notice one of the snouted mites, since it has received an 
honorary mention from Curtis in his “ Farm Insects.” This is 
called Scirus insectorum by Hermann ; it had before been incor¬ 
rectly named Leptus phalangas, when only the larval form had 
been discovered. Curtis considers that it checks the increase of 
the wireworm by its attacks upon the beetle producing that. But 
it has been taken not only upon beetles, such as the Elaters ; it 
has also been seen adhering to the limbs of the long-legged crane 
flies. This rather exceeds the Trombidii in size ; it is reddish in 
colour, somewhat “ scraggy ” in figure when young, but plump 
when adult, furnished with a peculiar snout. The Gamasids are 
mites parasitic on various animals, several upon beetles. Uropoda 
vegetans is one of these, remarkable for having a cord by which 
it fixes itself upon the insect, usually upon the under side, where 
these mites are often found by scores, or even by hundreds, so 
densely crowded that individuals are placed above each other, 
though all deriving their nourishment from the beetle infested, 
which probably succumbs to the attack sooner or later. The body 
of U. vegetans is buckler-like and shining brown. As in the 
whole group of the Gamasids, the eyes are absent. Some of these 
mites have been detected upon vegetable substances, seemingly 
waiting for an opportunity of fixing themselves upon insects that 
might approach the leaves or flowers. In the genus Dermanyssus 
are soft-skinned mites, parasites on warm-blooded animals, as in 
the very common D. avium, popularly designated the “tick,” 
though not a true tick, and which annoys poultry and cage birds. 
From the transparency of the skin these mites are seen to change 
colour as the blood they have taken in undergoes the digestive 
process. Scrupulous cleanliness is essential.—J. R. S. C. 
NOTES FROM TASMANIA. 
Having noticed seVeral communications in your valued Journal 
commenting upon vegetable produce and the demand and supply 
existing in London and some of the large towns, I have thought 
that a few remarks upon kindred subjects might be of interest 
to some of your readers, though relating to the distant isle of 
Tasmania. Of course there is a vast difference between the 
demand and supply in this colony to that existing at home, inas¬ 
much as we have only two towns of considerable size, and their 
population will appear small to English readers—Hobart Town, 
22,000 ; Launceston, 11,000. But there is one difference in our 
favour, that the population, rich and poor, all know how to appre¬ 
ciate and use largely quantities of vegetables of all the varieties 
that are produced in this favourable climate. 
“Wiltshire Rector’s” remarks as to the apathy of the 
English labouring classes in their use of vegetables is very notice¬ 
able when compared with the colonies ; for, from the large quantity 
of vegetables consumed, it is apparent that it is not the result of 
other commodities being too dear, as bread and meat are both 
