234 
HEMIPTERA. 
soon assumes an unhealthy appearance, its growth is checked, 
its leaves and shoots curl up, and the tree dies by degrees, 
if not freed from its troublesome guests. Kollar recommends 
brushing off the insects, when young, with a brush of hog’s 
bristles, and crushing under foot those that fall; and also 
advises to search for the winged females in the spring, and 
destroy them by hand. Such a process would be altogether 
too tedious and uncertain here. I would therefore suo’crest 
CO 
the expediency of washing the twigs with a brush dipped 
in a mixture of strong soap-suds and flour of sulphur. If 
this be done before the buds expand^ the latter will not be 
injured thereby, while the application Avill he likely to deter 
the insects from laying their eggs on the tree. A weaker 
application of the same, or the common solution of whale-oil 
soap, may suffice to kill the young insects after they have 
fastened themselves upon the bark. If the latter be thrown 
upon the trees with a syringe, it will destroy the insects 
on the leaves also. 
Others, both sexes of which are also wiiwed, have lono- 
and slender bodies, very narrow wings, which are fringed 
with fine hairs, and lie flatly on the hack when not in use. 
They are exceedingly active in all their motions, and seem 
to leap rather than fly. They live on leaves, flowers, in 
buds, and even in the crevices of the hark of plants, hut 
are so small that they readily escape notice, the largest 
heino; not more than one tenth of an inch in leno-th. These 
minute and slender insects belong to the genus Thrips, 
Their punctures appear to poison plants, and often produce 
deformities in the leaves and blossoms. The peach-tree 
sometimes suffers severely from their attacks, as well as 
from those of the tme plant-lice; and they are found be¬ 
neath the leaves, in httle hollows caused by their irritating 
punctures. 
The same applications that are employed for the destruc¬ 
tion of plant-lice may be used with advantage upon plants 
infested Avith the Thrips. Mrs. N. G. S. Gage, formerly of 
