354 TRANSACTIONS Or THE 



quite close to the crown, and in the spring the trunks and branches were 

 carefully scraped, and soft-soap melted and applied all over with a brush. 

 It was gratifying to see the good effect of this upon the bark of the trees. 

 The windfalls T always burned up, as I ever had more faith in the destroying 

 power of fire than any thing else — a curcuHo germ seems to live through 

 everything but fire. These trees afterward bore fine fuit, and abundantly. 



" The Rose-slug Destroyer — How Destroyed. — With regard to the in- 

 sects that infest rosebushes, the most troublesome with us have been the 

 slugs, which cause the bushes to look as if they had been burned. In try- 

 ing to destroy the grub or the cock-chafer, I stumbled into a plan that 

 proved c{uite effectual in destroying the black glossy fly, which is the pro- 

 genitor of the slugs. This is the remedy : Scatter air-slaked lime upon 

 the ground, as far as the branches of the bush extends, and apply it twice 

 a year, at the two periods of growth when the leaves first open, and when 

 the second growth commences. There are two crops of flies at these periods- 

 Let this remain upon the gi-ound some days, and then dig it under. 

 When these insects first come out of the ground they are very sluggish, 

 and can be killed with the thumb and finger. I have never seen them at- 

 tack anything but rosebushes. For three years I have pursued this plan, 

 and while my friends' bushes are all shabby and sickly-looking, mine are 

 fresh and green. One need not neglect cooking or housework to have a 

 garden. The garden is the play, and when work-weary, it refi'eshes one to 

 be in it. 



" Flowering Plants. — The Dielytra Spectabilis is quite common in 

 Massachusetts, is very handsome and hardy, and, as one jocosely remarked, 

 'it is the better for a little frost.' Yuccas are in almost every garden. 



" There is more pleasure is cultivating herbaceous plants; they require 

 less care than annuals, and always are sure to flower. The various kinds 

 of ■penstejnon fraxinella (dictaranus), double red and white lychnis, hardy 

 veronicas, buglars, rather a coarse-growing plant, but when in flower, beau- 

 tiful — color clear, heavenly blue, and it is like looking into the sky to look 

 at it when in bloom ; double white and purple sweet rocket {Hesperis ma- 

 tronalia), perfume delicious as a violet ; upright clematis ; helleborus 

 Nigre, or Christmas rose, very choice, low habit of growth, leaves ever- 

 green, bears our winters, and blooms under the snow and ice — not a great 

 bloomer, but is desirable in a collection. 



"Of vernal flowers, cardamine pratensis, or cuckoo flower; cynoglas- 

 suvi (hound's tongue), lungworth {pulmonaria), anemone hepatica and 

 anemone aconiti foliu7?i^ ure also fine flowers. But the finest of all garden 

 flowers, perfectly hard, and but little known, is the dodecafkeon media, or 

 American cowslip — the flowers vary in color, from pure white to dark lilac, 

 and have reflexed petals like the cyclamen. The flower stalk is long, and 

 from the top project these beautiful flowers, the whole like an elegantly 

 formed chandelier. Seeds of this plant are not to be relied on, but they 

 propagate rapidly, and in the fall three plants can betaken from one root." 



