December 13, 1838. ] 
537 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
pod, but did not fill well this! summer. Champion of England and 
Veitch’s Petfeciion are still amongst the lest in flavour, but 
behind many others in produc'iveness. 
Late Peas we never had later than this year. We sent good 
dishes to the table until November 9th. Our garden is surrounded 
by tcees. These confine the atmosphere, often resulting in 
much mildew on Peas. Lynn's Black-eyed Marrow (Dickson’s) 
having been recommended as a mildew resister, two quarts of it 
were sown the same time as Omega, Ne Plus Ultra, and Latest of 
All, and besides resisting the mildew it continued bearing three 
weeks after the others had come to a standstill.—A Kitchen 
Gardener. 
ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA. 
Comparatively few species of the genus Asclepias are cultivated in 
borders as hardy plants, and perhaps there are few that are really worthy 
of a place amongst the many attractive plants now grown in British 
gardens. No doubt can. however, he entertained respecting the merits 
•IXi. .*8.-AS JLEPIAS TUBEROSA 
of the plant represented in the woodcut, fig. 58. In w arm soils and 
situations it thrives vigorously, especially if the natural drainage be 
good, and being readily increased fine clumps can soon be had. The 
flowers are bright orange-red, and are produced in dense corymbose 
heads at the tops of the stems, which are clothed with narrow sesfile 
leaves. It forms compact bushy plants, 2 feet or so in height, and it 
can be increased by seeds or division of the tubers, the latter being 
preferable and quicker than the other; in fact, seeds are not produced 
with certainty. 
NEW FACTS IN APHIS LIFE. 
Amongst the multitudes of insects that annoy the gardener 
and the farmer, the aphis tribe, I believe, must occupy the bad 
pre-eminence of being the most troublesome of al . minute as is 
their size. Few, indeed, are the plants entirely exempt from them, 
and though these are often attacked by aphides without being 
killed, the exhaustive and disfiguring effects of their ravages are 
sadly conspicuous. Then their rate of increase is so marvellously 
rapid that were it not for the agency of their many parasitic 
enemies, and the influence of weather that is unfavourable to them, 
in a short time they would make the face of Nature a desolation. 
Prof. Huxley calculates that supposing the multiplication of 
aphides could go on uninterruptedly for 300 days and no more, 
“ there would be no room in the world for anything else but 
aphides.” This is the more remarkable when we compare what 
is the weight of an aphis and that of a human being, as Mr. 
Buckton reckons that two hundred millions of them would 
scarcely be as heavy as an average man. A forcible instance of 
the power of little things. 
The fact is now well known to many persons who are neither 
naturalists nor gardeners that twice in the year there occur migra¬ 
tions of aphides, in the seasons of spring and autumn ; possibly 
small migrations do take place at other times, but they are not of 
particular importance. The spring migration, which is usually 
during May, is, to appearance at least, associated with a peculiar 
condition of the atmosphere—an easterly wind, but not a strong 
one, and a heaviness in the air. On such days country folks are 
apt to say there is a blight in the sky, and though they may not 
connect these days with insect migration, in the remark there is 
more truth than they are aware of. A second, and in most years 
a greater, migration occurs during early autumn at the end of 
August or September. This migration, from some cause or 
another, perhaps owing to the destruction of many aphides by 
the heavy summer rains, went on to a very small extent this year 
in several places under my observation, and I expect a like scarcity 
of them was a general occurrence throughout Britain—out of doors, 
at hah ; but it will not do to relax one’s vigilance, as insects have 
a trick of showing themselves unexpectedly. No doubt, in the 
course of these aeiial journeys made by them fand small as are 
aphides, it seems that they sometimes travel several miles) quanti¬ 
ties of them are eaten by birds, drowned, and killed in various 
ways. 
More underlies the habit of periodic migration amongst aphides 
than we might suppose, and as a rule it seems to have nothing to 
do with a lack of food in the locality they are quitting. But it is 
evidently connected with a change of food in some species, though 
not in all, and as we get additional information about this we shall 
be the better able to cope with these enemies. Some of the older 
entomologists had a suspicion that aphides which suddenly 
appeared in swarms upon a particular species had not always come 
fiom some other plant of the same species, but from one very 
different, and they were right. Siphonophora Chelidonii, so named 
because it has been taken on the Greater Celandine, and probably 
occurring in ail ed species, also infests the Raspberry from June 
to October. Siphonophora Pisi, a large aphis, usually shining 
green, but occasionally mealy and brown, clusters by thousands on 
the Peas of our fields, though it is also noticeable on the common 
Nettle, the Shepherd’s Purse, the Meadow-sweet, and other wild 
species. One of the aphides infesting Wheat, S. granaria, is 
believed to migrate during autumn to Grasses, though it is not 
ascertained where the eggs are deposited which produce the spiing 
brood. A host of different names have been given to Aphis 
Rumicis from its various food plants. It is the “ black dolphin 
or “ collier ” of the country folk, infesting the Bean, but visiting 
other leguminous plants as well, in autumn, for instance, after 
retiring to the Furze to deposit its eggs. That notable foe of the 
Hop, Phorodon Humili, a bright green aphis, breeds in the spring 
upon the Sloe, probably also on the Whitethorn. There must be some 
migration in the case of A. Amygdali, the troublesome pest of the 
Peach and Nectarine, for after visiting the trees in spring, curling 
up the young leaves, it vanishes frequently for two or three 
months and reappears numerously during the autumn. 
It is a curious circumstance in the history of each individual 
aphis that it cannot change its food. Naturalists have proved that 
one of the tiibe will sooner die of starvation than imbibe the sap 
of a different species than that upon which it has fed. Hence 
when a swarm of aphides has travelled a long or short distance to 
settle on plants diverse from their former food they die on arrival, 
but produce a new brood, which continues the succession, I he 
migrations, however, are not associated with the appearance of 
both male and female winged aphides, by the latter of which eggs 
are laid to remain unhatched till spring. Towards the end ot 
autumn the females cease to produce living young, the low 
temperature, as is surmised, causing the development of the winged 
types and the laying of eggs, by which most kinds are carried over 
the winter. In some countries where the climate is equable and 
mild all the year many aphides continue to be viviparous from 
year to year. . , , , ,, 
The eggs of most aphides are difficult to detect because they 
