January 18, 1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
57 
country, and has been elaborately described by Professor Slingerland of 
the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station at Ithaca, in 
the State of New York. 
Life Histoey. 
Many persons have, there is no doubt, noticed quantities of little 
yellowish, or greenish-yellow, fly-like insects upon the leaves of Apple 
trees in September and October, which upon being approached give a 
leap before using their wings to carry them to another leaf. These, in a 
certain degree, resemble some of the “ frog-hoppers”—species of Cercopidte 
—and, in fact, they have been mistaken for them, but upon close 
examination they are very different. 
The winged Psylla, the perfect insect, is seen first about the second 
week in June. Its colour is green, for the most part, with slight tinges 
or shades of yellow. The colour, however, is rather variable, differing 
according to the sex and the stages of growth. At some periods there 
are shades of yellow, green, red, or brownish red, noticeable upon the 
body. These are more pronounced at pairing time. The female is more 
brightly coloured than the male. The wings are transparent, or slightly 
testaceous, and the legs and antennm are yellow, the latter having two 
and sometimes four dark coloured joints at the ends. The male is 
about one line, the twelfth of an inch, in length ; the female is slightly 
larger. Pairing takes place in September, and the eggs are laid in some 
seasons even up to November. In the autumn of the abnormal year 
1893 females were seen laying eggs as late as the 3rd of November. In 
this case the eggs were laid upon the youngest shoots, and this appears 
to be the usual place where they are deposited. They may also be put 
upon older shoots and upon branches, but it would be difficult to discover 
them there on account of the deeper furrows, cracks, mossy and lichenous 
growths. 
As a rule, the eggs are laid singly and imbedded in the fine hairs 
upon the epidermis of the shoots. Occasionally there are two or three 
together in a row. The eggs are white, or slightly yellow, pointed at 
each end. Taschenberg says they become red, or yellowish red, in the 
.spring, just before the larvae come from them. 
The eggs remain until the weather becomes springlike, when tiny 
flat larvm emerge from them, and at once get into the nearest buds. 
When the buds expand, the larvm are found within them feeding upon 
their juices. The formation of fruit is prevented by their continuous 
suckings, and the blossoms shrivel up and fall off. The buds become 
filled after a while with a dirty glutinous fluid, termed “ honeydew,” 
which escapes from the larvte, like the fluid secreted by several species 
of aphides, and is mixed with the excretions of the larvm. 
At first the larvm are very small, having flat dirty yellow bodies, 
with brown or dark spots upon them, and but little trace of rudimentary 
wings or wing cases. Their eyes are red, and their feet brown. 
The first change, or moult, soon occurs, but there is then no very 
material difference in the larva. After a few days, when the second 
moult is accomplished, the larva becomes light green, and its rudi¬ 
mentary wings are clearly defined. 
After about another week, with the third moult, the rudimentary 
wings are more developed, as seen in the fig. 1 a, and the eyes and tips of 
the antennm become dark. 
From the first appearance of the larva up to about a month there are 
continuous changes in its form. At the end of this time what may be 
termed pupation takes place, the larva is quiescent for aUew hours, the 
skin is cast off, and the winged Psylla comes forth. 
When the first moult is over, the larva is seen to be covered with fine 
down or hairs, apparently to protect it from wet and injury when the 
buds have expanded. 
The perfect Psylla passfs a somewhat long and monotonous existence, 
as it seems, from June until pairing time in September. Taschenberg 
inclines to the belief that there may be another generation during the 
summer, and it certainly is strange that the insect should pass so many 
weeks in apparent inactivity. Schmidberger however, who is still the 
chief authority upon the subject, does not hint at a second generation. 
Prevention and Remedies. 
It has been found impossible to affect the eggs of the Psylla upon 
the twigs. Like the eggs of many other insects, they are protected by 
hard shells. Professor Slingerland tried many washes of turpentine, 
Lerosene, carbolic acid and potash, &c., which injured the buds, but did 
not have the slightest effect upon the eggs of Psylla pyri. 
In the case of the early sorts of Apples, infested trees might be 
sprayed with disagreeable washes of softsoap and quassia, or softsoap 
and paraffin, directly the Apples were picked, to prevent the Psyllre 
laying eggs upon the shoots. The formulm for these washes would be : — 
I. 
fi lbs. of softsoip. 
8 lbs. of extract of quassia chips. 
100 gallons of water. 
II. 
6 lbs. of softsoap. 
4 gallons of paraffin. 
100 gallons of water. 
In mixing the latter the soap should be boiled in a small quantity of 
water, and the paraffin put into it while hot, and then stirred togeiher 
rapidly, or passed through a syringe or force pump. This may be 
diluted afterwards in the proper proportion. 
Carbolic arid might be used instead of paraffin, at the rate of 
'3 gallons to 100 gallons of water. 
Seme small amount of prevention would ensue from pruning trees on 
which eggs had been laid. On young small trees this might be useful, 
and it would prob.ably be advantageous to prune such tress, if infested, 
more closely than usual. But in the case of large orchard trees, it 
would be impossible to rely upon this mode of prevention. 
Spraying when the buds are open and the larvae exposed would be 
efficacious to some extent. The wash would run down into the bases of 
the open flower buds and of the expanded leaf buds, and make the 
quarters of the insects unpleasant, or destroy some of them. The quassia 
wash, as formulated above, would act as it does in the case of hop 
aphides, by making the food bitter and unpleasant. The paraffin and 
the carbolic washes would also effect this, and kill the larvm probably 
with which they came in contact. Spraying should be done as early as 
possible lin the course of the attack, before much “ honeydew ” has 
been exuded, which would hinder the action of the washes .—(^Board oj 
Agriculture^ 
BROWALLIA JAMESONI. 
Althougu introduced some years ago from Peru this handsome 
plant does not appear to be generally cultivated in greenhouses. When 
well grown it forms a beautiful object, and to be seen at its best the 
FIG, 9.— BROWALLIA JAMESONI. 
plant requires training to a few stakes, allowing the heads of the flowers 
to hang slightly downwards, as shown in the engraving (fig. 9), The 
corollas are about an inch across the mouth, very bright orange in 
colour, slightly lighter in the centre, and are borne in close heads at the 
extremity of the branches. Any light, rich soil suits the plant, which 
thrives in a greenhouse temperature with very little care. 
MARGUERITE CARNATIONS. 
I QUITE agree with alt that has been said in favour of the Carnations, 
and there are other points in their favour, the first being in my opinion 
exemption from insect pests. My first sowing was early in Feb. 1892. 
The plants came into bloom the middle of June, and I had more or less 
flowers from them all through the following winter and spring. In 1893 
I made two sowings, one tbe beginning of February, and another the 
end of March, to secure plants for w’inter flowering. About eighty of 
these in 6-inch pots were plunged out of doors until the middle of 
