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THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[September, 



Destroying Chicory and Similar Weeds | 



We give the inclosed here in order to repeat ad- 1 

 vice to a New York correspondent that may be 

 useful to others elsewhere : " Can you give me any 

 advice as to how to destroy or get rid of chicory 

 when it gets possession of a lawn ? lam asked 

 the question by a lady who has tried every means 

 to extirpate the plant. She has dosed it with salt, 

 and she has pulled it up by the root ; but it will 

 grow again in greater quantity from the portion of 

 the root that breaks off." 



[No plant can live long, no matter if it is as per- 1 

 sistent as the Poison Vme, if we prevent it from | 

 making new leaves. As soon as the young and 

 tender leaves appear, cut the whole plant off just 

 under the ground. A second crop may possibly 

 appear, when cut them again. We have known a 

 feeble attempt to make a third crop of leaves, 

 when another cutting ends the effort. If the 

 leaves are permitted to get mature, food will be 

 sent down into the roots which can then success- 

 fully resist the cutting out. It is essential to cut 

 while the leaves are very young. Any tough 

 weed can easily be destroyed in this way. — 

 Ed. G. M.J 



Improved Hepaticas. — Mr. W. F. Bassett, 

 Hammonton, N. J., says: "Years ago, in my 

 boyhood, when roaming over the fields and in the 

 forests of ' the Old Bay State ' in search of nature's 

 floral treasures, I found several Hepaticas of re- 

 markable beauty and semi-double. One of these 

 was deep velvety blue, and one deep pink. I re- 

 moved them to the garden and kept them for 

 several years, and if I could now get hold of 

 varieties as fine, would prize them higher than 

 many of the high priced novelties." 



[In gardens in Europe there are varieties of 

 double and single and of many shades of colors; 

 and possibly these are already in some American 

 gardens where hardy herbaceous plants are appre- 

 ciated.— Ed. G. M.] 



Treatment of Rhododendrons. — A Virginia 

 subscriber asks : " How shall some Rhododen- 

 drons, transplanted last fall and not protected from 

 the winter and spring winds, be treated ? They 

 survived, but that is all. Very little growth this,sum- 

 mer — vitality much weakened. Am now giving 

 them liquid stable manure bi-weekly." 



[We have never known liquid manure to be ap- 

 plied to Rhododendrons, nor indeed manure of any 

 kind except that which may be in the form of dead 

 wood or leaf mould in which they certainly de- 

 light. They require a soft, spongy soil in which 



the delicate hair-like roots may get air and 

 moisture, and be preserved from hot sun. The 

 foliage does not mind heat, so that the roots are 

 kept cool in a well aerated soil. In the winter 

 protect them from dry winds by throwing some 

 branches over the plants till they are fully recov- 

 ered.— Ed. G. M.] 



Hall's Japan Honeysuckle. — "E. S. W.," 

 Berlin, Mass.: The plant sent is Lonicerajaponica. 

 It is known in nurseries as L. Halliana, because it 

 was introduced to America by Dr. Hall. What is 

 commonly known as Japan Honeysuckle appears 

 to be Lonicera brachypoda. This has shining 

 evergreen leaves, and is a great creeper over the 

 ground. 



Injury by the Seventeen-Year Locust. — 

 Some very intelligent people write what to do with 

 the larvae of the seventeen-year locust, which the 

 entomologists tell them "must do" immense in- 

 jury by feeding on the roots of fruit trees for 

 seventeen long years. We have no evidence that 

 they really do any injury by feeding on the roots, 

 though theoretically, as the entomologist argues, 

 they ought to do. A quarter of a century ago. 

 Miss Margaretta Morris, distinguished for her 

 knowledge of insect life, published a paper that 

 attracted considerable attention at the time, con- 

 tending that the well-known disease in the Butter 

 I Pear, was caused by the larvae of the Cicada 

 ' preying on the roots. She hired a man to dig 

 round a large tree of this variety, and collect and 

 count the enormous number picked out from the 

 earth around. There were other varieties of Pear 

 on her ground as healthy as Pear trees could be, 

 I bearing perfect fruit after their kind, which she 

 did not dig around and examine, but which the 

 event showed had as many larvae preying on their 

 roots as on the Butter, and one can scarcely be- 

 lieve they would produce disease on the one and 

 not on the other. This thought was suggested to 

 her, but she would insist that that only showed 

 I that some varieties had the power of resisting 

 ] Cicadian influences more than others. To her 

 death she fully believed she had discovered the 

 cause of the cracking of the Butter Pear. 



The fact is, that there are hundreds of old Pear 

 trees in this vicinity, which during the century or 

 more of their existence must have sustained many 

 generations of Cicada larvae, that are just as 

 healthy as pear trees can be. 



We might answer the question. How is it possible 

 that a tree can have thousands of insects preying 

 on its roots without injury ? by the childish reply, 



