CATERPILLARS. 



55 



CEANOTHUS. 



It will grow in any common soil 

 that is tolerably dry ; but if it lias 

 too much moisture, the shoots, 

 which are naturally soft, with a 

 large pith, will never be thoroughly 

 ripened, and the tree will very pro- 

 bably be killed by the first frost. 

 For the same reason, the situation 

 ought to be airy. It is propagated 

 by seeds, or by cuttings of the 

 roots. 



Catana'xche. — Compositce. — 

 Herbaceous plants, natives of the 

 South of Europe. C. ccerulca is a 

 perennial ; C. hicolor is a biennial ; 

 and C. lutea, an annual. All the 

 species have pretty flowers, but are 

 rather awkward-looking plants, from 

 their long and very slender flower- 

 stalks. They are of easy culture, 

 but grow best in poor gravelly soil. 



Catchfly. — See Sile^ne. 



Caterpillars. • — The larvae of 

 moths and butterflies, are very de- 

 structive to vegetation. Many gar- 

 deners keep their gardens clear by 

 destroying the female butterflies and 

 moths before they have laid their 

 eggs (see Butterflies and Moth) ; 

 and others, by carefully searching 

 for the eggs early in spring, when 

 the trees are without leaves. "When 

 these preventive measures have been 

 neglected, the only eff"ectual way to 

 prevent the ravages of caterpillars 

 is to pick them off the trees sepa- 

 rately. The visits of caterpillars 

 are very uncertain, and some sea- 

 sons they are much more abundant 

 than in others. Sometimes the ca- 

 tei-pillars of the Magpie Moth will 

 entirely strip the gooseberry bushes 

 of their leaves, and the fruit will, 

 in consequence, become tough and 

 insipid ; and in other seasons, the 

 caterpillars of the Lackey ]\Ioth, the 

 Hawthorn Butterfly, and the Ermine 

 Moth, will strip the Hawthorn and 

 other shrubs. In all these cases 

 hand-picking should be resorted to 



as soon as the insects are perceived. 

 Many persons recommend fumigat- 

 ing with tobacco-smoke, or by burn- 

 ing wet straw under the tree ; and 

 others, washing with tobacco or lime 

 water ; but most of the remedies are 

 worse than the disease. 



CATiiiNT. — See Ne'peta. 



Cattle'ya. — Orchulacece. —Or- 

 chideous plants, with large and 

 splendid flowers, natives of South 

 America. They may be grown either 

 in pots, in peat mLxed with lime- 

 rubbish, or on pieces of wood or cocoa 

 husks hung up in a hothouse, the 

 roots being wrapped in wet moss. 

 All the species of Cattleya are easily 

 propagated by dividing their roots ; 

 and they are pai-ticularly valuable, 

 as they will thrive in a common hot- 

 house if well supplied with water, 

 without requiring the excessive heat 

 and moisture generally necessary for 

 the tropical Orchldese. 



Ceano'thus. — Bhamnacece. — 

 Red Root. — American hardy and 

 half-hardy shrubs, with large spikes 

 of very small flowers. The most 

 ornamental species of the genus is 

 0. azureus, which is only half-hardy 

 in the climate of London, requiring 

 protection from severe frosts. Ceano' 

 thus lydllidus is much, hardier than 

 C. azureus, and strongly resembles 

 that species ; but its leaves are not 

 hoary beneath, and its flowers, Dr. 

 Lindley tells usintheBotBeg., "are 

 smaller, as well as much paler." 

 He adds, that it is often confused 

 with C. ovatus, which "is a mere 

 variety of C. americdnus,'^ and C. 

 thyrsiflbrus, which "is a Califor- 

 nian tree, with deep-blue flowers, 

 and very strong angular branches." 

 C. americanus is the least orna- 

 mental of all the kinds ; and C. col- 

 Ihius is a dwarf plant, not above two 

 feet high, with a profusion of white 

 flowers. The last two are quite 

 hardy, but the other kinds should 



