14G 
JOURNAL OF H0RTICUL1URE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 16, 1883. 
land ; but it has been observed in several districts that a largish green 
species of aphis, the same as the Pea species, or perhaps a near 
relative to that and to the Rose aphis, occasionally infests Beans. Of 
all the varieties of Bean the Broad Bean suffers most, and, both in 
fields and gardens, the plants are during some seasons so severely 
attacked (should the first appearance of the insects have been 
unnoticed) that it is needful to pull them up ere they are turned into 
a festering mass, with scarcely a sound shoot or leaf discoverable. 
Dry summers are believed to be particularly conducive to the multi¬ 
plication of the Bean aphis, and to an extent it is the case with all 
varieties of the fly. Rains, especially if heavy, wash them off the 
plants, to which many of them cannot afterwards return. 
The Bean aphis, A. Rumicis, also called the “Collier” or Black 
Dolphin, often swarms upon the Curled Dock—hence its Latin name 
—and upon Thistles. As Beans cannot, like other plants or trees 
that are infested with aphides, furnish a suitable place for the eggs 
of the species to winter, it is plain these creatures must arrive upon 
the plants in the early summer. Wingless females of A. Rumicis 
have also been observed clustering upon Furze about April or May ; 
and the foundation of the colonies that try to smother our Beans is 
laid by winged females, descended from these, I believe, though it 
may occasionally happen some wingless aphides are carried by the 
winds and effect the same end. Now and then the plants escape 
attack until July, only to suffer more severely if left to themselves. 
When they are in “ full play ” we see upon the Beans a mixed multi¬ 
tude, made up of the greyish young, the black wingless females, and 
other females also black, but with yellowish-brown wings. Towards 
the end of the season there appears a sprinkling of male flies, winged, 
and slimmer in the body than their female companions. 
Since the first indication of an attack of the fly is shown by the 
dropping of the tops, a good remedy is the prompt cutting-off these, 
which must be at once destroyed with the insects on them. Later 
on a dry dressing—say of soot—is sometimes used, but most gardeners 
prefer to drench the Beans with some one of the numerous solutions 
recommended and approved for killing aphides. Miss Ormerod 
advises the application of a little liquid manure wherever an irruption 
of the “ Collier " is imminent, because strong-growing Beans suffer 
much less from them than stunted feeble plants. One of the corre¬ 
spondents of the Journal advocates mixed cropping in fields, as is 
often done, in gardens, his experience being that when Beans and 
Peas are drilled together, if one plant is attacked by the fly the other 
generally escapes. 
With the Pea it is seldom of advantage to cut away the tops, 
although in this case, as in that of the Bean, the aphides quarter 
themselves amongst these at first; and if it happens to be just at the 
period of flowering, neither syringing nor any other method can be 
relied upon to save the crop. What one might designate the middle¬ 
flowering Peas receive most damage from the fly. Early kinds may in. 
a good season have advanced beyond this stage before the aphides 
arrive, and late kinds have been noticed to be seldom affected. Several 
species of “green fly” may visit the Pea, that which is believed to 
be its particular foe is A. ulmaria, the “ Green Dolphin ” of some, 
which to the unassisted eye looks similar to those attacking the Rose or 
Hop, and in habit is kindred to them. Some have recommended the 
application of quassia water to Peas troubled by this “ fly,” but 
others prefer compounds of soft soap and ‘tobacco. ‘ What¬ 
ever applications are selected it is inevitable that they should 
kill both our friends and foes. This cannot be helped, but all 
encouragement possible should be given to the various insects 
which make aphides their prey. Our Peas in the summer months will 
be found to have “ ladybirds upon them. These insects, the Coccinellm, 
are great devourers of “flies,” firstly while they are in the grub or 
larval state, and then as mature beetles. About May Hemerobius 
perla, a pretty fly, with golden green eyes and netted wings, settles 
upon the Peas to deposit its eggs, and the larvae subsequently hatched 
help to thin out the aphides. Many of the “ Colliers,” or black flies 
upon Beans, may be seen to have a tiny hole in their bodies ; from 
these has emerged a small ichneumon fly, which makes their plump 
carcases the abiding place of its eggs, and the maggot dwells within 
until ready to appear as a winged insect. 
In addition to those beetles of the genus Bruchus that destroy 
I eas while in the pod, the plant is liable to the attacks of the cater- 
pillar of a .small moth which has been called the Pea Moth, or Gra- 
pholitha pisana. The expansion of the wings is about half an inch • 
these are shiny, of a greyish brown, with white streaks along the 
upper edge, and near the hind margin of the fore wings is a silvery 
ring enclosing some black lines. When full fed the maggots quit the 
pods and descend to the earth, upon which, or just beneath, they form 
silken cocoons, from which the moths issue in June, perhaps earlier if 
the season is .forward. Some continental entomologists have watched 
these moths in the act of egg-laying. They enter upon this work 
atter sunset, one to three eggs being put upon each young pod visited 
by the moths. A portion of them might be easily captured by a 
small gauze net used with a lantern ; and it has been suggested that 
the Peas might be sprinkled with an insect-deterrent, dry or wet, so 
as to repel the moths just at the time when they are led by instinct 
to the deposition of eggs upon the Pea bloom. The maggot, which 
we not unfrequently eat without intention, is rather stout, slightly 
hairy ; head brown or black, and body yellowish, having a few brown 
dots. I fancy this species seldom visits field Peas, in most districts 
seeming to prefer those under cultivation within gardens, where, the 
crop being gathered green, excepting the pods left for seed, only a 
few of the caterpillars can live to become moths. Turning up the 
soil w'ell during winter brings to the surface many of the grubs, and 
it is probable they will then be eaten by birds. Of course to sow the 
crop each year on new ground is advantageous, because the moths 
that may emerge will not have the Peas handy to them. 
Although we propose to give the full history of the troublesome 
grub of the Tipuhe in connection with other plants, it may be fittingly 
mentioned here that they will sometimes seriously injure Peas and 
Beans. As a specimen of what they can do I note that in November, 
1879, a gentleman resident at Maldon, Essex, sowed about twenty 
acres of Peas for early podding, which went on very well till April. 
In that month a number were killed and all weakened by a severe 
visitation of a Tipula, presumably T. oleracea. The grubs gnawed 
round the young stem just below the surface, four often occurring at 
a single plant. And to add one more foe, both vegetables are liable 
to be attacked by millipedes in autumn or spring, which eat the seeds 
while they are germinating. —Entomologist. 
THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 
[A paper read before the Sheffield Floral and Horticultural Society, June 6th, 1883, 
by Mr. J. Udale, gardener to J. Watson, Esq., Shirecliffe Hall, Sheffield.] 
( Concluded from page 101.) 
STECIMEN BLOOMS. 
The plants to produce these should be potted in the same way as 
detailed for specimen plants ; but they should not be pinched more than 
once, after which they should be encouraged to make solid and sturdy 
growth, leaving as many shoots as the number of blooms required. Some 
varieties can only develope two or three first-class blooms : others may 
be able to bring four, five, or six to perfection. Therefore in this matter 
it is not possible, nor would it be judicious, to lay dow r n a hard-and-fast 
rule, so much does it depend upon the varieties and the strength of the 
individual plants ; but a safe average is from three to five, although I have 
occasionally cut good exhibition blooms from plants carrying considerably 
more than that number. 
Assuming, then, that the plants have been potted as required and placed 
out of doors at the end of May, they will make rapid progress through the 
months of June and July, when we arrive at the critical time of bud- 
formation. Some varieties will produce buds about the end of July ; but 
these as a rule are worthless, and when attended by a ligulate leaf are 
termed “ strap ” buds. Occasionally a first-class flower is obtained, but it 
is the safest plan to allow the three shoots at its base to grow, and these 
will produce well-formed flowers. It is a good plan to stop them or shorten 
them back in the month of June, provided they have not been pinched 
previously. As soon as the centre bud is well formed those around it 
should T5e carefully removed, along with all incipient and lateral growths, 
so that the whole strength of the plant may be concentrated in developing 
and perfecting the buds that remain. Watering must be carefully attended 
to and liquid manure administered three or four times a week. Look 
carefully after caterpillars, aphides, and leaf-borers, or the season’s labour 
will be partly or entirely lost. Nor must vigilance be relaxed after the 
plants are placed in their winter quarters at the beginning of October. A 
light and well-ventilated structure heated by hot water is the best place 
for them, with a temperature between 40° and 50°, the flowers being brighter 
and the petals finer if expanded in a warm and buoyant atmosphere. 
Should it be necessary to cut flowers that are required for exhibition some 
time previously, they may be kept in a dark cellar until required. They 
keep very well for six or seven days. 
PLANTING OUT. 
This effects a great saving of time and labour, and where extra fine 
blooms and specimen plants are not required it may be practised with 
advantage. In such cases it is a good plan to excavate trenches, as fol¬ 
iate Celery, fork in some well-decayed manure, then spread 2 or 3 inches 
of the surface soil on the top. . Plant the Chrysanthemums about 20 inches 
apart and give them a thorough watering. An occasional drenching in hot 
dry weather is all the watering they will require. The points of the shoots 
should be pinched out to keep them bushy, as in the case of those grown 
in pots. Ten days or a fortnight before it is desired to lift them for placing 
into pots or boxes it is advisable to run a sharp spade down each side of 
the plants at distances from the stem according to the size of the pots, &c. 
They will then bear transplanting with a smaller sacrifice of foliage. A 
dewing with the syringe or watering pot several times a day will be bene¬ 
ficial until the roots have taken to the new soil, after w'hich time it may be 
discontinued. Useful plants and cut flowers may be grown in this way 
with little trouble, and should cut flowers only be required valuable space 
may be saved by planting them moderately closely together in deep brick 
pits, such as are sometimes used for Pine-growing. 
INSECTS. 
Chrysanthemums are frequently infested by aphides, caterpillars, and 
leaf-mining insects, which latter is the pupae of a fly called Phytomyza 
nigricornis. This little pest eats the interior green portion of the leaves, 
thus not only disfiguring but actually eating away the very life of the plant. 
This insect in embryo should be carefully wmtehed for and crushed between 
finger and thumb; but should it get a firm foothold before it is observed 
