August 2, 1919 



HORTICULTURK 



103 



A View at Sunnybrook Golf Club, Chestnut Hill, Pa- Grounds Sown Extensively with Michell's Grass 



Seeds 



Michell's Recleaned Grass Seeds 



For Putting Greens, Fairways, Bunkers and Teeing Grounds, and in fact for every purpose, are 



immediately recognized by authorities to be of a superior quality. 



Many varieties of grass seeds are short in supply — better cover your wants now. 



August, September and early October are the right times to sow grass seeds. 



Write for illustrated large catalog and list of satisfied golf club clients. 



MICHELL'S SEED HOUSE, 



618 MARKET STREET 

 PHILADELPHIA 



red-flowered Himalayan species, I. 

 atropurpurea, are desired by the Ar- 

 boretum. 



OLD-WORLD ASH TREES. 



Fraxinus oregona, the Pacific coast 

 Ash-tree, is a large and handsome tree 

 and one of the few valuable deciduous- 

 leaved timber trees of the northwest. 

 It has proved hardy in the Arboretum 

 where it grows well but where it will 

 probably never become a large tree. 



Of the Old-World Ash-trees the best 

 known is Fraxinus excelsior, one of 

 the important timber trees of the 

 world, and as it grows in western and 

 central Europe often a magnificent 

 tree sometimes nearly one hundred 

 and fifty feet high with a tall massive 

 trunk three or four feet in diameter. 

 A number of abnormal forms of this 

 tree have appeared in European nur- 

 series and plantations, but F. excelsior 

 and its varieties are miserable trees 

 in New England and should not be 

 planted here. Fraxinus rotundifolia and 

 its variety with pendulous branches 

 are established in the Arboretum. 

 They are small trees, natives of south- 

 ern Europe and southwestern Asia, 

 and although interesting from the bota- 

 nists' point of view add little to the 

 beauty of a collection of trees. 



An Ash-tree from Turkestan and 

 Songaria (F. potamophylla ) was raised 

 at the Arboretum in 1878 and has 

 grown rapidly into a handsome, shape- 

 ly and hardy tree. As an ornamental 

 tree this is the most promising of the 

 exotic Ashes which have been planted 

 in the Arboretum. The great Ash-tree 

 of northeastern Asia, Fraxinus mand- 

 shurica, inhabits eastern Siberia, Man- 

 churia, Korea, and northern Japan. It 

 is a really splendid tree and produces 

 wood of exceptionally good quality. 

 This tree was first raised in the Ar- 

 boretum in 1878. It is hardy and 

 grows well for a few years but soon 

 begins to fail and become unsightly, 

 and no place has yet been found in the 

 Arboretum which suits it. 



Ash-trees require deep, rich, moist 

 soil and as they usually unfold their 

 leaves late and lose them early in the 

 autumn they are not good trees to 

 plant to shade streets and sidewalks. 

 They are often injured while young by 

 borers, and they are all liable to suffer 

 from the attacks of the oyster shell 

 scale. 



INSECT HELPS CONTROL OTHER 

 INSECTS. 



A European parasitic fly that may 

 become of far-reaching importance in 



the control of the gipsy moth and 

 brown-tail moth and certain other seri- 

 ous pests of similar character is being 

 multiplied from importations of this 

 new insect enemy. A report of the 

 work with the parasite — known as 

 Compsilura concinnata — has just been 

 made by entomologists of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. 



This report shows that this parasite 

 has reduced the damage done by the 

 gipsy moth and the brown-tail moth in 

 the New England States, where they 

 were so abundant and destructive that 

 they ate the leaves off enormous areas 

 of forest and shade trees every year. 

 It has been found that Compsilura also 

 aids in the control of other insect 

 pests. 



The white-marked tussock moth, a 

 serious pest in the New England 

 States a few years ago, has practically 

 disappeared since Compsilura has be- 

 come established. The cabbage worm, 

 still a serious pest, has been lessened 

 in some sections. Celery worms are 

 not :is common as formerly, and the 

 fall webworm is scarcely noticed in the 

 Northeastern States now. 



The entomologists do not claim that 

 this parasite is the sole cause of this 

 reduction, but it has proved an impor- 

 tant natural enemy to all of them. 



