14 



look, it is entirely alive, and apt, therefore, to shrivel and 

 perish if no water at all be supplied for months. Well 

 established plants, i.e. such as have filled their pots with 

 roots, will, indeed, be all the safer if they stand in 

 saucers in which water is supplied as absorbed. 



C. T. D. 



A SERIOUS FERN PEST. 



Our Native Ferns are, as a rule, so free from either 

 disease or pests that we are apt to think there is no 

 necessity for being on our guard against danger. But a 

 recent experience of mine has been of a very startling 

 nature, and I am sure the readers of the "Gazette" will 

 thank me for a warning with reference to a danger, which 

 if not common is certainly terrible. 



For some time a large and exceptionally fine collection 

 of Native Ferns with which I am acquainted was observed 

 to lack its usual vigour ; the crowns developed unevenly, 

 making much less than their usual number of fronds, 

 and the fronds produced in many cases were very 

 unequal in size and finish. Under the impression that 

 what was wanted was re-planting and new compost, the 

 collection was lifted and very carefully re-planted. Un- 

 happily the results this year, instead of being improved, 

 were so much worse that a thorough inspection was 

 instituted, and I am sorry to say that a very alarming dis- 

 covery has been made. The whole collection has been found 

 to be infested with a white grub which forms the larva of a 

 \veevil. These pests appear to burrow downwards from 

 the top ; they hollow out the stems of the fronds and work 

 right into the very heart of the crowns, so much so that 

 their favourite resting place would seem to be the cells 

 where the fronds for the succeeding year are in process of 

 formation. The melancholy feature of this discovery is 

 that unhappily there appears to be no cure if once the 

 pest gets established. The collection to which I refer, so 



