415 



the old stalks are systematically removed from the field and burned 

 after harvest or during winter, or where a constant rotation of crops is 

 practiced, the cornstalk borer will never become a serious pest." 



Besides an account of the life history and habits of JHahrotica 

 12-punctata, the facts relating to the ravages which the larvseof the insect 

 have in recent years been observed to make on young corn, are stated. 

 Tlie different stages of the insect are illustrated, as well as a cornstalk 

 showing punctures made by larvas. 



Experiments in breeding cages indicated that the eggs of the clover 

 hay worm "may be deposited on the plants in the field, and thus the 

 larvte be drawn to the stack or mow, and also the eggs may be 

 deposited in the stacks in the field early in August." 



Bulletin No. 6 (Second Edition). 



The imported elm leap beetle, C. V. Eiley (pp. 21, plate 1, 

 fig. 1). — A reprint of a bulletin on Galcruca .vanthomekvna, issued in 1.S85, 

 with an api)endix stating some additional facts. Tlie observations of 

 the past 6 years tend to modify j)revious conclusions regarding the 

 number of annual broods. In New Jersey it has recently been claimed 

 that there is but one annual generation, but in the vicinity of Washing- 

 ton, D. (J., it is safe to say that there are two broods. Reference is 

 made to a record of spraying experiments by J. B. Smith in Garden 

 and Forest, June 19, 1889. In these exi^eriments a small quantity of 

 kerosene emulsion was added to the arsenical mixture to secure thor- 

 ough wetting of the leaves. The formula recommended by him was: 

 Water 100 gallons, London purple 1 pound, kerosene emulsion 1 gallon. 

 Dilution with 150 or even 200 gallons of water would make a safer and 

 sufticiently effective mixture. 



DIVISION OF BOTANY. 

 Bulletin No. 14. 



Ilex cassine, the aboriginal North American tea, E. M. 

 Hale (pp. 22, ijlate 1). — An account of the botany, chemistry, distri- 

 bution, history, and uses of Ilex cassine, a species of holly " growing in 

 the Southern States along the seacoast, not extending inland more than 

 20 or 30 miles, from Virginia to the Rio Grande. Its leaves and tender 

 branches were once used by the aboriginal tribes of the United States 

 in the same maimer as the Chinese use tea and the South Americans 

 use mate. But while the use of Thea sinensis and Ilex ;paraguayensis 

 still, survives, the use of the shrub above mentioned has been almost 

 abandoned by our native Indians and by the white people who once 

 partially adopted it as a beverage." 



In 1884 F. P. Venable, Ph. D., of the University of North Carolina, 

 detected the presence of the caffeine in the leaves. Somewhat later he 



