September 21, 191S 



HORTICULTURE 



291 



this country, namely, the Held, vegetable and flower seeds, 

 and fruit stock, cuttings, scions, etc., and rose stocks for 

 reproduction purposes." 



After referring to regulations prescribing condition? 

 of entry, the letter continues : 



"The board will be glad to have your association give 

 careful consideration to these regulations and, if it seems 

 desirable, a conference can be arranged for a discussion 

 of these regulations. It is the wish of the board to meet 

 any reasonable objections which can be presented, and 

 which will not involve a material increase of risk of en- 

 try of new plant pests. 



The quarantine will provide for the importation, 

 through the agency of the U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, of plants and seeds for experimental or scientific pur- 

 poses, and by this means it will be possible to import 

 novelties or other plants and seeds for which special need 

 can be shown. This does not mean, however, that the de- 

 partment will undertake commercial Importations for pri- 

 vate firms." 



The adoption of the proposed restrictions to take 

 effect ne.xt June cannot fail to affect very seriously the 

 majority of the florists and nurserymen in the United 

 States and it is to be hoped that the Board will recon- 

 sider and modify several of the proposed restrictions. It 

 is proposed to admit rose stocks, but the material with 

 whicli to work these stocks is excluded. We do not see 

 that there is really any greater danger in admitting 

 budded and grafted roses than in admitting the rose 



stocks and we trust that these, too, may be admitted or, 

 at least, the date of their exclusion postponed to say, 

 one year after the ending of the war. Nearly all the 

 popular hybrid tea and perpetual roses are of European 

 origin. There is of most of them comparatively little, 

 and of some, no stock in this country. Horticulture 

 feels that some provision should be made to enable the 

 trade to import them. The exclusion after June 1st, 

 1!)19, of many plants with earth at their roots will also 

 prove a great hardship to both nurserymen and florists. 

 The proposed time limit in view of present conditions in 

 Europe, is too short to permit the trade here to secure 

 even sufficient stock for purposes of propagation. It 

 was suggested at the hearing of May 28th, 1918, that 

 it would be better for the government to send inspectors 

 to Europe to examine such stock there rather than to 

 deprive florists and nurserymen at once of what to them 

 is virtually raw material, the product of which in nor- 

 mal time runs in millions of dollars. Horticulture 

 feels that this suggestion should receive further consid- 

 eration. Horticulture is quite in accord with the 

 policy of bringing about the production of our supplies 

 in this country as far as possible and has consistently 

 advocated such policy which, however, should be applied 

 gradually. The drastic action now proposed if carried 

 out will result in great hardship tc many and to others 

 ruin. 



THE CATTLEYA FLY 



Some varieties of Cattleyas are 

 more susceptible to attacks of the 

 Isosoma than are others. We have 

 found that Cattleya mosslae and Cat- 

 tleya gaskeliana have very few in- 

 juries, while Cattleya labiata, Cattleya 

 percivaliana, Cattleya gigas, and Cat- 

 tleya trianae are badly affected. 



The most recent recommendation 

 for control is that made by the Mis- 

 souri Botanical Garden. The advice 

 is to fumigate imported orchids upon 

 arrival with hydrocyanic acid gas. 

 The fumigation is to be repeated once 

 a week until the pseudo-bulbs are well 

 developed. The recommendation in- 

 cludes daily examination for char- 

 acteristic swellings in young growths 

 indicating the presence of the larvae. 

 These are to be cut off and burned 

 without hesitation. 



Thurgood claims to have entirely ex- 

 terminated the Cattleya fly from a bad- 

 ly infested house of orchids by fumi- 

 gation twice a week for 5 months with 

 Richard's XL. All Vaporizer. He says 

 the fumigations caused absolutely no 

 injury to the plants, and that the fly 

 was easily killed. He fails to state, 

 however, the strength of fumigations. 

 Collinge states that nicotine fumi- 

 gants are unsatisfactory and recom- 

 mends hydrocyanic acid gas. Nichol- 

 son says orchids should never be sub- 

 jected to fumigation as it undoubt- 

 edly causes injury at times. L. H. 

 Bailey advises fumigating three times 

 a week in the early spring. O'Brien's 

 advice is "fumigation, with some safe 



preparation to kill the fly." He makes 

 no mention of any "preparation'' that 

 is safe, the strength at which it should 

 be used, or when and how often it 

 should be applied. 



The method of control most univers- 

 ally advised by writers is that of cut- 

 ting out and destroying abnormally 

 swollen or pointed parts of the plants. 

 Considering the lack of knowledge 

 shown in literature of the life history 

 of the Cattleya fly, this seems to be 

 the most feasible method of control, 

 although it is very severe on the plant. 

 Fack has suggested the use of a 

 strong tobacco decoction, or some sol- 

 uble oil, for injection into infested 

 pseudo-bulbs. He is confident that 

 either substance will kill the insect if 

 it is reached. 



Control measures for the Cattleya 

 fly may be classed under four heads: 



(1) fumigation; (2) spraying; (3) 

 injection of insecticide into infested 

 portion; (4) destruction of infested 

 parts. 



Fumigation can be used to attack 

 only the adult since the other stages 

 of the insect are protected by the 

 epidermis of the plant. 

 — New Jersey Exper. Sta. Bulletin. 



GOLDEN OPHELIA. 

 A gold medal was awarded to B. 

 Cant & Sons by the National Rose 

 Society on July 4 at Regent's Park for 

 the new rose Golden Ophelia, said to 

 be an attractive light yellow. This, 

 we presume, is another sport for the 

 original Ophelia, of which we have 

 already several fine sports. 



VISIT TO GYPSY MOTH LABORA- 

 TORY 



About 125 members of the Massa- 

 chusetts Tree 'Wardens and Forestry 

 Association and interested visitors 

 from New York, Rhode Island, Con- 

 necticut, Vermont, Maine, and Canada 

 recently inspected the experimental 

 work in controlling the gipsy moth 

 and the brown tail moth, which is 

 being carried on at the Gipsy Moth 

 Laboratory, at Melrose Highlands, by 

 the Bureau of Entomology, United 

 States Department of Agriculture. 

 The visitors saw the methods of rear- 

 ing and handling the different para- 

 sites of the two insects which are 

 being introduced from Europe and 

 Japan. Explanations and demonstra- 

 tions were given in connection with 

 other Important work, such as the use 

 of improved material for banding 

 trees, and the result of studies which 

 had been made on the feeding habits 

 of the caterpillars, and preference for 

 different kinds of tree growth. A 

 spraying demonstration was given 

 with the large motor-truck sprayers 

 used by the Bureau of Entomology for 

 spraying infested areas to prevent the 

 spread of the gipsy moth. It is possi- 

 ble, with the sprayer used in the de- 

 monstration to send a solid stream of 

 spraying material through 4.000 feet 

 of 1%-inch hose at an elevation of 800 

 feet, throwing the poison 100 feet from 

 the ground and thus reaching the tall- 

 est trees on the highest hilltops that 

 occur in the infested area. 



