lo Dec, 1908.] Garden Notes. 755 



Remedies. 



i placed some tomato plants sprayed with arsenate of lead in an obser- 

 vation box and liberated about 50 of the weevils. They immediately com- 

 menced to feed and were all dead in less than twenty-four hours. As 

 the weevils are in the ground close to the plants during the day I would 

 recommend that the soil be continually turned up and that fowls be placed 

 in coops close to the plants. By these means alone the pest could be kept 

 in check. 



It would not be advisable to spray such vegetables as lettuce, cabbage, 

 &c., with the arsenical spray, but if placing poultry as suggested above in 

 the vegetable garden were carried out this would certainly be beneficial. 

 Another plan that would capture numbers of the insects is to place a piece 

 of newspaper under the plants at night, and take a lantern or any light 

 out amongst the plants; when the insects see the light they will fall on 

 the paper and can be gathered up and destroyed. All marsh mallow 

 plants growing on vacant ground adjoining gardens should be destroved, 

 as the insects live on them and when all the marsh mallows are eaten they 

 invade gardens and not only destroy vegetable but flower plants also, 

 pansies in particular being a favourite food of theirs. 



Growers are warned against the dangerous practice of spraying lettuces, 

 tomatoes, and other such vegetables with poisonous spravs (arsenic, &c.), 

 as the vegetables are frequently consumed before the poison has been 

 washed off them. The plants may be sprayed in their early stages with 

 safetv, but when the fruit is nearly formed great care should be exercised 

 in this matter. 



GARDEN NOTES. 



/. Cronin, Principal, School of Horticulture, Burnley. 



Annuals and Biennials. 



Annuals are plants that develop from seeds, mature their growth, 

 blossom, produce seeds, and die within one year. Biennials differ from 

 annuals in that two years are required for the cycle from seeds sown to 

 seeds saved from the resultant plants, the plants maturing their growth 

 in the first year, and flowering, producing their seeds, and dying in the 

 second. 



A number of plants that are perennial in habit of growth are classed 

 as annuals by gardeners, and treated as such on account of ease of cul- 

 ture, as well' as increase of vigour, in the young seedling plant as com- 

 pared with the growth produced by the perennial after a debilitating sea- 

 son of growth and bloom. It is much easier and more profitable to raise 

 pansies, Iceland poppies, and other plants that are true perennials from 

 seeds each season than to save them during a hot and dry summer. Annuals 

 are classified as hardy or half hardy, according to their powers of re- 

 sistance to frost and adverse weather conditions generally. Many kinds 

 are native to tropical or semi-tropical regions and while they are damaged 

 or destroved bv the ordinary winter conditions obtaining in the greater 

 part of Victoria will endure considerable heat and sunshine, if supplied 

 with sufficient moisture. 



