THE PLANT WORLD 181 



Editorial. 



We have several times taken occasion to call attention in these 

 columns to the commendable enterprise evinced by the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture in maintaining a party of trained botanical explorers, 

 charged with the duty of seeking out the remote corners of the earth and 

 securing, not only new plants adapted to our own country, but improved 

 strains of old and well-known vegetable standards. Without attempting 

 an enumeration of all, mention may be made of the date palm, success- 

 fully introduced into our arid West ; Japanese rice, which is less liable 

 to loss by breaking ; improved races of fungus-resisting cotton, maca- 

 roni wheat, etc. ; but all these are overshadowed by the discovery 

 made in Guatemala by Dr. O. F. Cook, a botanical explorer, of an in- 

 sect — a brown ant — which is the deadly enemy of the cotton boll weevil. 

 If the attempt to introduce this insect into the ravaged cotton fields of 

 the South is successful it will mean an annual saving to this country of 

 half a dozen times the sum now expended in the whole Department of Ag- 

 riculture. This achievement should be brought prominently to the atten- 

 tion of Congress and should be potent in securing as large appropriations 

 for the Bureau of Plant Industry as can be judiciously handled. This is 

 a country of vast size and almost unlimited resources, and when we con- 

 sider the small sum now expended per capita or per acre in bringing up 

 our agricultural resources it should seem a sufficient argument for lib- 

 erality. 



The Home Garden and Greenhouse. 



Conducted by Dr. F. H. Knowlton. 



[The editor of this department will be glad to answer questions of a rele- 

 vant nature, and also to receive short articles on any phase of this subject.] 



Peonies Again. — Although the blooming season for this splendid flower 

 is now past, it is well to be thinking of next season and its possibilities in 

 this line. As the amateur whom we quoted in the last issue well said, 

 there are doubtless many who saw this season's wonderful productions 

 who vowed to have some himself next year. Such as made this resolve 

 may be getting ready for the attempt. The place in the grounds where 

 they are to go should be carefully selected, as they need a dry, well- 

 drained, and well-enriched soil. This should be plowed or spaded deep 

 now and have thoroughly incorporated with it a good amount of manure, 

 preferably chicken manure, and it will have time to thoroughly decay 



