284 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



AUilI'ST IT. lYi:<. 



where water won't, it can be washed 

 annually as clean as the day you put 

 it up. 



Fancy the luxury of painting such a 

 house. Remove the glass, thoroughly 

 paint and relay again. If you were 

 visited by a hailstorm you have only 

 to break out the shattered lights, shove 

 up the sound, and before night you ara 

 whole. 



Without considering these contin- 

 gencies, it is the ideal way for a com- 

 mercial man to build. I have ten 

 houses glazed with butted glass. I 

 had no one to tell me how, but I per- 

 severed, and when I had built five or 

 six I had it down fine and have given 

 you the mature fruits of my experi- 

 ence. 



AMERICAN CARNATION SOCIETY. 



An adjourned meeting of the above 

 society was held in the convention 

 hall at Detroit last Wednesday morn- 

 ing. 



A list of subjects for essays for the 

 meeting at Buffalo next February was 

 selected. 



It was decided to set aside a portion 

 of the money donated to the society 

 last February by Mr. Thos. W. Law- 

 son to procure a die for a medal to 

 be known as the Lawson medal. And 

 that two of these gold medals be given 

 at the next exhibition, one for 25 

 blooms of the best seedling not then 

 disseminated, and one for 100 blooms 

 of any variety already in commerce. 

 A committee, consisting of Messrs. 

 Wm. Nicholson, Peter Fisher and M. 

 Patten, was instructed to select a de- 

 sign for the die, same to be submitted 

 to Mr. Lawson for approval before be- 

 ing adopted by the society. 



It was also decided to admit to the 

 annual exhibitions floral products 

 other than carnations. 



ROSE PESTS. 



By E. M. Wood. 



[Read before the Detroit Convention of the 

 Society of American Florists.] 



It is difficult for me to present to 

 you much that is new, as technical 

 schools and agricultural colleges have 

 been and are doing so much in this 

 line. 



The study of entomology may be di- 

 vided into two classes — systematic, the 

 pure science, and economic, the ap- 

 plied or practical science. In present- 

 ing this paper, I shall deal with the 

 practical side of entomology, using 

 only such scientific terms as are nec- 

 essary to a clear understanding of the 

 subject. 



All insects with which the florist has 

 to battle belong to the various orders 

 in the class known as Hexapoda. The 

 Hexapoda are six-legged, air-breath- 

 ing creatures, having a distinct head, 

 thorax, and abdomen. They have one 

 pair of antennae, three pairs of legs, 

 and usually one or two pairs of wings. 

 There are an immense number of spe- 

 cies in this class, probably more than 

 all species of animals and plants com- 

 bined. Classification of insects is 



based on the arrangement and struc- 

 ture of the mouth part, the character 

 of the wings, the relation of the first 

 thoracic segment to the rest of the 

 segments and the degree of metamor- 

 phosis or change through which an 

 insect passes in the complete cycle of 

 its existence. Metamorphosis is of two 

 kinds — complete and incomplete. In- 

 complete signifies that the young 

 when hatched from the egg look like 

 the parent, or in other words there is 

 no difference in structure between the 

 young and the adults. Complete means 

 that the young do not resemble the 

 parent; that is to say, there is a com- 

 plete change in the appearance of the 

 insect while passing from the young to 

 the mature state. 



Insects that undergo no change in 

 appearance pass through an existence 

 of three stages — egg, nymph or young, 

 imago or adult. Those passing through 

 a complete change exist in four stages 

 ■ — egg, larva or caterpillar or grub, 

 pupa or chrysaiis, imago or adult. The 

 caterpillar or grub stage and the adult 

 stage are, of course, the only ones in 

 which the insect is capable of doing 

 any damage. 



In the practical application of in- 

 secticides, to be effectual we must 

 know how insects feed. They may be 

 divided into two general groups — 

 chewing, and piercing and sucking. 

 Chewing insects may be killed by ap- 

 plying arsenical compounds, either in 

 dry or liquid form, directly to the 

 foliage of the plants. But with pierc- 

 ing and sucking insects it will readily 

 be seen that poisons applied to the 

 foliage would have no effect, as this 

 class eats only the sap of the plant; 

 consequently we apply a liquid which 

 will come directly in contact with the 

 body and close up the breathing pores, 

 or use some of the various methods of 

 vaporizing. Having once learned how 

 an insect feeds, we can then adopt the 

 proper method for its destruction. 



There are a large number of species 

 which attack roses; but I shall discuss 

 in this paper only the important ones, 

 which, to the practical florist, are 

 those whose destructiveness amount to 

 dollars and cents. I have used the 

 classification as given by Dr. Harris, 

 and unless otherwise stated it will be 

 so understood. 



In the first order, Coleoptera or bee- 

 tles, are two rose pests of importance 

 — rose bug or rose chafer, and white 

 grub or May beetle. 



The rose chafer, incorrectly called 

 bug, is a diurnal or day working in- 

 sect. It is seven-twentieths of an inch 

 long, its body is slender and entirely 

 covered with very short and close 

 ashen-yellow down; the thorax is long 

 and narrow; the legs are slender and 

 of a pale red color; the joints of the 

 feet are tipped with black and are very 

 long. These beetles come forth from 

 the ground during the second week in 

 June and remain from thirty to forty 

 days. At the end of this time the 

 males die. The females deposit about 

 thirty eggs in the ground, when they 

 return to the surface, and after linger- 



ing a few days, die also. The eggs 

 hatch out in twenty days, and by the 

 following June appear as fully devel- 

 oped beetles. The grubs go down be- 

 low the frost line during the winter, 

 come up and pass through the pupa 

 state in the spring. Thus a complete 

 metamorphosis is effected in one year. 

 The rose chafer has generally been 

 considered destructive to out-door 

 roses only, but of late years it has ap- 

 peared in greenhouses. Their ravages 

 may be partially checked by dusting 

 with Paris green or hellebore. 



The June beetle is of a chestnut- 

 brown color, smooth, but covered with 

 little impressed dots. Its average 

 length is nine-tenths of an inch. In 

 its perfect state it feeds on the leaves 

 of the trees, particularly on those of 

 the cherry tree. The grub is a white 

 worm with a brownish head, and when 

 fully grown is about as thick as the 

 little finger. It is said that this 

 grub takes three years to ma- 

 ture. When brought in the soil into 

 the greenhouses it creates great havoc 

 among the roses by eating the roots. 

 When once established in rose beds, 

 the only methods of destruction prac- 

 ticed with any degree of success are 

 digging around the roots of the plants 

 and removing the grubs, or sprinkling 

 over the soil a thin coating of soot and 

 lime. This, when watered, gives off 

 ammonia, which destroys the grub. But 

 with proper precaution this trouble 

 need not be necessary, for, knowing 

 that the various kinds of grubs go 

 down deep in the soil in the winter 

 to escape the frost, it is evident that 

 the rose grower should obtain his soil 

 late in the fall, after the grubs have 

 gone down, or early in the spring, be- 

 fore they have come up. Should he 

 neglect to do this, the only way he 

 can get soil free from vermin is by 

 sterilizing it with steam before plant- 

 ing. This will kill all animal life, in- 

 cluding the much dreaded eel-worm, 

 so common in some rose growing lo- 

 calities. 



The order Hemiptera or true bugs 

 contains the well known greenfly, or 

 plant lice, and the rose leaf hopper, 

 which is often mistaken for thrips. 

 Concerning the greenfly, Theodore 

 Wood says: "Perhaps of all the be- 

 ings which we are accustomed to 

 rank together under the title of In- 

 jurious Insects, there is none, save 

 the locust itself, whose destructive 

 powers are greater than those of the 

 aphides, plant lice, or green blight, as 

 they are indifferently termed, and 

 none capable of causing more terri- 

 ble and widespread damage to the 

 crops upon which man so largely de- 

 pends for a livelihood. There is 

 scarcely a plant or a tree, whether 

 wild or cultivated, which escapes 

 their ravages — stem, leaves, fruit, and 

 even the very roots themselves, be- 

 ing alike attacked and drained of 

 their life juices by the insatiable lit- 

 tle creatures, whose numbers com- 

 pensate for their individual weakness 

 and render them one of the direst 

 pests to which civilized man is sub- 



