May 14, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
885 
“ queens,” or mothers of the next season may be detected clinging 
to the buds by long hairs or bristles proceeding from the head. In 
colour they are dark brown, ringed, and spotted with grey. Rousing 
about April from their sleep, they feed upon the sap and increase 
their size, then in June they deposit eggs, each of which is mounted 
on a footstalk, also wrapped well round by cottony down. The 
young Psyllae, or Chermes, are likely to make good progress before 
the mischief they are doing is apparent to the eye. 
The species which infests the Rose has received the name of 
the rosehopper. This is named in science Typblocvba Rosie, and it 
has occasionally been abundant, but generally gives mu'di less 
trouble than do the aphides to the grower of Roses, and I think it 
is held in check by some natural enemies. Then upon the 
Camellia another Psylla holds its revels. This is P. Cratasgi, by no 
means, however, confined to the Camellia, nor to the group irom 
which it takes its Latin specific name, but visits Fuchsias and other 
choice flowers. It is small, of a delicate green, and active in habit. 
If we pluck a Sycamore leaf just about the time the foliage is 
matured we may possibly find upon the under side a number of tiny 
specks, mostly in some angle formed by two veins. At first we 
may doubt if the objects have life, but should we breathe upon 
these brown points they will be seen to move. It is, in fact, a 
small insect between the Psyllidae and the Cocci or scale tribe 
called Phyllophorus testudinatus. Only by the microscope can we 
discover that it is a tortoise-shaped creature remarkable for having 
upon its head a sort of crown composed of minute appendages, 
resembling green leaves, and similar adornments are visible along 
the sides of the body. We may frequently see upon the flowers 
gathered for bouquets and buttonholes specimens of another insect 
akin to the scale tribe. One species of the sort is plentiful enough 
to be injurious to Cabbages—viz., Aleyrodes proletella. Small 
white powdery creatures these, four-eyed, and having wings with 
bat one nervure. They are like moths of minute size ; some call 
them snowflies. A summer breeze will waft partifs of them over 
our flower beds, but I do not think they do any particular harm to 
bud or blossom. 
The mealy bugs, scale insects, or cocci are, as all gardeners 
know, chiefly troublesome in houses, but some of them occur out 
of doors and upon plants, beds, or borders. Their history is im¬ 
perfectly known, but had they been more mischievous to fruit or 
vegetables than they at present appear to be, probably a more care¬ 
ful study of them would have been made. True we have a serious 
enemy to the Vine in the mealy bug, and species of scale also infest 
the Apple and Pear, though not to a serious extent. Undoubtedly 
many of the scale insects found in our conservatories and stoves are 
visitors from other lands, having travelled with plants. Some of 
these die out, to be succeeded by others. One reason for this may 
be that females arrive here, and in our climate produce only female 
offspring, so in a few generations they become locally extinct. 
Much mystery attaches to the ma’e individuals of some species ; 
they must exist, but no one sees them, or knows anything about 
them. Whole generations, as with aphides, do consist certainly 
of females, but of the cocci the’^e is not, in the usual way, more 
than one brood eaeh year. Should you particularly wish to 
see a male coccus, I can direct you to some, reader. You may find on 
the Maple or Sycamore in June flat white cocoons on twig or 
branch, which opened carefully reveal a coccus, adorned, as the males 
mostly are, with long slender tails, like those of the May fly. 
These males are also distinguished by a pair of overlapping feeble 
wings, and a mouth destitute of a rostrum or sucker. Some of the 
males are bright green, others of purple and white ; most of the 
females are either dull green or brown, befitting the places where 
they generally pass their lives. Professor Westwood has justly 
remarked that, strange though it may seem, the female cocci 
approach in habit the barnacles of the crustaceous division of 
animals, and as they near the completion of their life, instead of 
advancing, they become less perfect. The limbs disappear, even 
the articulations of the body ; they are simply masses of animal 
matter, both motionless and senseless. Quite a contrast this to 
the activity which marks their proceedings while young, and so 
small are many of them at first that thousands of them might be 
covered by a florin, but as they grow they spread themselves over 
leaves or branches, continuing to feed through the summer and 
autumn. No doubt the shelter afforded by the dead body of the 
parent in their earliest period is a protection from enemies, also 
from the effects of beat or too much moisture. It has been 
said in some species each mother produces 1200 eggs, or more ; 
undoubtedly they are very prolific. It is during the winter that 
a change creeps over the scale insects, bringing the males into the 
pupal state, and the females into that strange condition which ends 
in the body being enlarged and flattened, assuming a shieldbke 
aspect, its interior developing, besides the eggs, a mass of down 
amid which they are hidden. 
It is impossible to say how many of these scale insects are truly 
natives of Britain. Some of tho-e we find in gardens are hard}’, too 
much so for us ; some kinds seem to thrive only ivhere the tem¬ 
perature is high. Upon outdoor Roses a peculiar scale occurs, it is 
called, I think, Diaspes Rosm, and produces films of white on the 
stems and branches which might be mistaken for a lichen. The 
Camellia has its scale. Aspidiotes Camelliae and A. Xerii infest 
Oleanders and Acacias, while A. Bromelias, known best as the 
enemy to the Pine Apple, breeds also upon various garden plants— 
the Hibiscus, for instance. Though named in allusion to the Orange, 
Lecamium hesperidum attacks not the Orange alone, but various 
exotics in houses, preferring succulent spec'es. Very familiar is 
the kind called the Turtle scale, L. Testudo, which looks really like 
a miniature shell upon the leaves to which it clings. It is easily 
removed by hand-picking when the females are adult, but it is better 
to destroy it earlier if possible. Some Ferns are much troubled 
with scale ,of more than one kind, I think ; a wash of softsoap, 
2 ozs. to a gallon of water, has been effective in killing these, 
applied at a heat of 100°, or even 120°. Other much used remedies 
for scale are washes of sulphur or petroleum, Gishurst compound 
kills it, and also nicotine soap. —Entomologist. 
Events op the Week. —The chief horticultural gathering prior 
to the Temple Show will be at Manchester on Friday next. May 15th, 
when the annual Show opens in the Old Trafford Botanic Garden. 
Upon the following Wednesday and Thursday, May 20th and 21st, a 
Show will also be held in the Westminster Aquarium. Meetings will be 
held by the Royal Society to-day (Thursday) at 4.30 P.M., by the Quekett 
Club on Friday at 8 P.M., and the Society of Arts on Wednesday 
at 8 P.M. 
- The Weather in the South.—F ollowing the cold, dull, 
unseasonable weather of Saturday and Sunday last, we have had several 
hot, sunny days, quite summer-like in temperature. The early morningis 
have been misty and cool, but we have not observed frost in the 
metropolitan district. Gardens and orchards are now in charming 
condition, and the fruit blossom appears to be setting satisfactorily. 
- Much interest is being awakened in the approaching Temple 
Show of the Royal Horticultural Society, which will be 
opened on Thursday, May 23th, and it is thought that more tent 
space will be required than last year. The exhibits are expected to 
be of a varied character, but no doubt Orchids will predominate, as 
the time of year is just suitable if a period of hot weather does not 
unduly shorten the duration of the flovers. There will be a large 
gathering of horticulturists, and it is to be hoped fine weatlier wid 
favour the Society. 
- Spinach Victoria.—F or summer culture this is undoibtedly 
greatly superior to the old or round-seeded Spinach, and as a winter 
crop it is even more pre-eminently superior to either the round or 
prickly seeded forms. With us the latter are just giving signs of 
running to .seed, but the Victoria is not, and the rows of it are 
conspicuously superior both as regards weight, quantity, and colour of 
the leaves that can be gathered from it. When the seed becomes 
cheaper it is certain to be very extensively sown ; in fact, there will be 
no necessity or wisdom in growing any other variety for either the 
summer or winter crops. The seed ought to be sown more thinly than 
is usually done in the case of the ordinary forms, and the plants will 
then develop extra fine succulent leaves, and the plants be slow to run 
to seed.—I. 
- A Large Mushroom. —The Mushroom I am sending is one of 
a crop from a scries of beds that were made up and spawned last 
September and October, in our unheated house. We gathered but few 
from them at the usual lime from six to eight weeks after spawning, as 
the severe weather set in. The beds were well covered and kept dry 
during the winter, and as soon as considered safe we gave sufficient 
water to moisten the soil, u.sing a teaspoonful of nitrate of soda to two 
gallons of water. The result is we have had splendid Mushrooms 
for weeks past, and are still gathering, though the beds, as stated 
before, were spawned six or seven months ago.— Thomas Crosswell, 
Homewood (uinletw, E'en Earli. [The IMushroom received was 
8 inches in diameter and very heavy.] 
