The mealy bug has got among the Coleus family, and done damage the past three years, threatening to drive them out of culture. Propagators, by whose carelessness the bug spreads in this way, will be the first to suffer by the calamity, and it is time to look into it to save their customers from disappointment and themselves from loss. The bug is fond of the heat and moisture of a propagating house, and multiplies fifty times as fast as Coleus plants do. It can easily be destroyed. Make a weak solution of carbolic acid soap and Paris green or sulphur. When the cuttings are prepared for planting, dip them in the solution, all but the lower cut ends. Hold them there for a minute in bunches; then lay them upon their sides and shade them from sunshine and dry air. Let them lie a few hours with the lower cut ends open. They will not lose by evaporation while wet; the end cuts will partially callous, and will not be so apt to rot when planted. After being well rooted, and transplanted singly into small pots, dip them in the solution as before, but not the roots. Cover them wholly for shade, and when partially dry-plant them.

Once a week after that, syringe them with the solution.

To purchasers, I would say before planting, dip the plants in the solution, spread the fingers over the mouths of the pots, and turn the plants undermost. Then dip the plants (not the pots); set them in a warm, dark place, or shade them. In two days afterwards set the plants in the beds to grow. To those who do not know the bug and its ways of multiplying, I may say it locates itself at the forks of stems and leaf-stalks, and is very difficult to dislodge. When a white down appears on the plants, it means that there are hundreds of eggs to hatch young bugs. They are almost as minute as are the spores of mildew. Brush off the down with a very small painters' brush, or make a brush of horse hairs to do it. It will then be well to syringe the plants with the solution once a week for awhile. That may not kill the live bugs, but will check their ravages, and may kill all the young breeds from the eggs. Gardeners who have garden frames with glass sashes, may set the plants in them after dipping; then put on sashes and shade the plants one day and night. Keep them there two weeks; dip them again and plant them out; examine every plant carefully.

I have not seen the bug upon any of the other ornamental foliage plants.

[Mr. Elder's warning is well-timed, for the mealy bug has undoubtedly shown a growing taste for the Coleus. For hard woody stems the following has recently been recommended by the London Journal of Horticulture. It would probably not be so for soft wooded plants, like Coleus, but every good hint in the warfare against insects is a gain : " Common gas tar that was used here, about a fourth of tar to equal quantities of clay and water, one man keeping it well stirred during the time that another man was applying it to the vines, rubbing it well over all the cane, eyes included. We had some Lady Downe's more affected with bug than any others, and were prepared to remove them in spring if they suffered from the treatment we gave them. In their case the tar was used much stronger than the quantity given above, but the dressing had not the slightest ill effect, as the eyes broke as freely as those on the other canes in the same house. We paint all the wires and rafters in the vineries with paraffin oil, as it is no use trying to get rid of mealy bug on vines by cleansing the vines only." - Ed. G. M.]