1030 Agricultural Gazette of N.^.W, [7) ^c. 2, 1908. 



Mr. Windeyer Thompson says it occurs at Miller's Creek, under the 

 Liverpool Range (property of Messrs, Reid Bros.) ; Walhallow, on tin- Mucki 

 River, Quirindi, and that it is said to have been in the district f(jr sixteen or 

 seventeen yeai\s. 



The Warrah Shire Council, Murrurundi, are taking steps to proclaim it 

 noxious. 



The only way to exterminate it is to era'3i(;3,te it not later than the 

 flowerina stage, if it be allowed to seed it will get a still tiiinei- hold, and 

 fi'om Mr. Fairbairn's testimony it is a most dangerous weed. 



The allied Scobjmus hispanicns is a native? of countries at or near the 

 Mediterranean Sea. The young roots and tender shoots of this biennial herb 

 .serve as a culinary vegetable, much like salsify ; the aged root acts as a 

 diuretic. It is known as " Scolyme d'Espagne," or " Cardillo," or "Tagarninas" 

 by the French ; "Cardouille," near Montpellier (France). It has largely gone 

 out of cultivation in France, but a full account of it will be found in "Le 

 Potager d'un Curieux" (Pallieux and Blois). 



Thrips. 



W. W. FROGGATT. 



In a letter to the Department of Agriculture, a correspondent states that 

 hundreds of apple-trees in the Marsfield flistrict — full of bloom — had not set 

 a single apple owing to the prevalence of thrips. The apple most affected was 

 "Granny Smith." 



The question of thrips in the flowei's of different fruit trees is a very 

 interesting one. It is stated that in certain districts around Sydney the 

 flowers of the trees, from no apparent cause, do not set ; and though the tree 

 may be covered with bloom, not a single fruit sets through some fault in the 

 fertilisation. 



It is a well-known fact that several species of "black Hy" [Tliri/pidcp) feed 

 upon the pollen of the flowers they infest, and the question is asked as to 

 whether these tiny insects swarming in the opening flowers eat all the jiollen, 

 so that none comes in contact with the stigma, and the whole flower withers 

 and drops off without maturing into a fruit. It seems hardly likely that all 

 the pollen would be destroyed ; we would rather expect to find that cross 

 fertilisation woulfl be caused by the presence of multitudes of these insects. 

 They might, howtvei', attack the stigma above the ovaries; and if they 

 sucked the surface off, it would not be able to receive and assimilate the 

 pollen that should fall upon its sticky surface. The flowers submitted by the 

 correspondent, though being a second bloom, were full of small thrips in all 

 stages of development, which is apparently the same species that attacks the 

 rose in our suburban gardens. 



The thrips pro])agate by means of egs;s laid iu clustei-s, pr( ibuhly upon the back 

 of the twigs of the apple-tree. Spraying in winter before the buds open, with 

 a caustic spray, such as lime and sulphur, would be probably one of the best 

 methods of clearing them off the trees before they could get into the flowers. 



