JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
411 
planted in a small garden about 400 yards to the north-west of the 
main one. When visiting the gardens eight years after I found 
these bushes quite free from mites, while those in the main garden 
had almost ceased to grow. “ T. W.” said he saw the mite so far 
bick as 1838. Would he say was it anything abundant at that time 
or only in a few localities ? because I know that twenty years later it 
was to be found in almost all gardens from Bothwell to G-reenock. 
It has slowly but surely found its way northward and eastward 
until now it is almost as abundant about Stirling as it was about 
Bothwell thirty years ago. “ T. W.” mentions insects as an agent 
in spreading the phytopti, which I do not doubt ; but I consider 
wind to be the most powerful agent we have in spreading these 
creatures, which are so minute that when migrating from the old 
and dry buds to the young buds a very gentle breeze will carry 
them a long distance. My reason for considering the wind an 
agent is observing how they have spread from the west to the 
east. The first I saw in this locality was at the west side of the 
town, about fifteen years ago. I found them some miles farther 
west a few years before that, and as the wind is generally from the 
west at the time of their migration it accounts for their eastward 
spread. The exact time the mites leave the old buds to take 
possession of the new I cannot say, but I have found mature mites 
and eggs in buds in October, also a ■week ago I found them both 
very abundant. 
I have tried Mr. Walter Kruse’s method—picking off affected 
buds, also pruning out shoots when badly diseased, but all to no 
purpose. Although for a time I kept the mites in check they 
ultimately proved victors, when the bushes had to be grubbed out. 
Buds containing nothing but eggs will not be swollen beyond the 
normal size, therefore will escape detection in disbudding, and will 
be ample to produce the parents of numerous colonies that will 
de'yastate the bushes the next season. There is no remedy equal 
to the rooting out and burning every bush, however slightly 
affected. But instead of a wholesale rooting out, if the bushes 
were cut down and the stumps dressed with a good insecticide the 
young shoots might remain free of mites. The syringing with an 
insecticide is impracticable, because the foe we have to contend 
against is very minute, and is also well protected by the over¬ 
lapping scales of the bud. 
This troublesome little pest is so minute, even in its perfect 
state, that it requires a powerful microscope to render it visible, 
and a very high power indeed to show its parts distinctly, and is 
one of those pests that become formidable to man more by their 
extreme minuteness than by their power. They are very sociable, 
and may be found in the buds in all stages of development. The 
egg resembles in form that of the birds of prey, being broadly oval 
or nearly round, smooth and shining. This in due time gives rise to 
the grub, which is white, almost transparent, and gradually develops 
into the perfect insect without undergoing the insect metamorphosis. 
So far as I have observed its form undergoes but little change, but 
its extreme minuteness renders it very difficult to trace its develop¬ 
ment. In what appears to be the perfect state it is presented to us 
in the form of a minute grub of a somewhat elliptical shape, tapering 
more rapidly at each extremity ; divided throughout its whole 
length, excepting the head, into narrow rings, which gives it great j 
facility of motion, although in all its movements it is extremely j 
four feet of the usual insect form, and these are supplied with 
claws, and apparently a sucker at the extremity for locomotion and 
security. The head terminates in front in a proboscis, which seems 
to be also furnished with a sucker for extracting the juices of the 
FIG. 75.—CARPET BED. 
Referekces. —1, Altemanthera magniflca ; 2, Meutha Pulegium gibraltaricum; 
3, Altemanthera amoeua ; 4, Leucophyton Browni; 5, Sedum acre elegans. Double 
lines, Pyrethrum Golden Feather. 
bud, as well as with masticating jaws for cutting and grinding the 
young and tender leaves; but these parts are so minute that their 
structure is extremely difficult to determine. Once when exhibiting 
some phytopti at our monthly meetings one was observed to be 
more active in its movements than the others, with a very bright- 
looking ocellus on the top of its head sparkling like a diamond in 
the sun.—G. McD., Ravenna Cottage, Stirling. 
CARPET BEDS. 
Furnishing beds in appropriate positions with low growing plants 
still finds favour with many persons, and especially those who desire 
to have distinct and varied features in their gardens. Every year 
inquiries come at this season for designs for carpet beds and methods 
of planting them. To meet the wants of those seekers for information 
FIG. 76,—CARPET BED. 
References.— 1, Blue Lobelia; 2, Altoruauthera maguiflca ; 3, Mentha Pulegium gibraltaricum; 4, Altemanthera paronychioides; 5, Echeveria secunda glauoa. 
Double lines, Golden Feather. 
sluggish and inactive. These rings are here and there ornamented 
with long slender hairs, and these are, like all the other parts of the 
creature, almost transparent. 
Confined, as its perambulations are, to the little bud in which 
the numerous colony live and die, it is, nevertheless, provided with 
and others, Mr. A. Graham, the competent superintendent of the gardens 
at Hampton Court, has obligingly supplied what he thinks will be 
useful. The diagrams fig. 75 and fig, 76 are not intricate, and the 
method of planting is given as suggestive, and may be varied according 
to taste and the plants at disposal. 
