The Garden Under Glass

302 THE GARDEN UNDER GLASS that it has a tendency to make some people sick. The back of the leaf is the favourite resort of this pest, although they are not averse to attacking flowers. Cyclamens are often troubled with white thrip. Its presence may be known by the disfiguring lines in the foliage and the brown marks in the flowers. Tomato Disease.—By buying from a good source, readers are not so liable to be troubled with disease. The presence of the disease is noticed when the leaves droop for no apparent reason. There is no remedy for a diseased plant. Once it is attacked it is past remedy. Burn all diseased plants and the soil they grow in. If there are many plants the house or frame in which they are grown should be thoroughly washed with soapy water and paraffin. The use of lime in the soil will go a long way towards preventing an occurrence of the pest. Vine Weevil.—Personally I have never been troubled with this pest on vines, but I have known it do mighty damage to cyclamens and primulas. This pest is de-structive in both the larva and the weevil stage. During sunny weather a plant is seen to flag, and this may continue for some time, the leaves becoming firm and upright when in the shade. If the plant is turned out the maggots of this weevil will be found at the roots or at the base of the corm. I have found as many as thirteen of these fat, whitish maggots beneath one plant. It is, of course, easy to understand that where they do not cause the collapse of the plant they seriously undermine its Constitution. In the larva stage a dose of some soil fumigant such as Vaporite may cause their destruction, but I would not place implicit trust in it. The safest method of dealing with the pest is to adopt preventive methods. These will include killing all the weevils found, examining the soil in which the plants are to be potted, turning out the plants