812 



INSECTS 



INULA 



In the aggregate, the damage done by plant-lice is 

 very great. At times hundreds of acres of peas have 

 been ruined Iiy an aphid. Nursery stocis often suffers 

 severely, but bearing fruit trees are not often seriously 

 injured by them. About 40 different liinds of aphides 

 live in greenhouses, where a perpetual warfare has to 

 be waged against them. In 4 years we have reared nearly 

 100 generations of a common aphis in greenhouses, 

 and there were no in- 

 dications of any egg- 

 stage or of male forms 

 during this time, so that 

 they may thus breed 

 indefinitely in houses, 

 their young being born 

 alive and no males ap- 

 pearing. 



The standard reme- 

 dies for plant-lice are 

 whale-oil soap, kero- 

 sene emulsion, kei'O- 

 water, and tobacco in 

 various ways (as a de- 

 coction, dry as a dust, 

 or the "Roseleaf" or 

 .• similar extracts), and 

 iliese are successfully 

 used to kill the aphides 

 in all situations. 



Scale Jnxecls.— 

 Since the recent ad- 

 vent of the San Josfi 

 scale into the eastern 

 United States, scale In- 

 sects of all kinds have 

 attracted world - wide 

 attention. They are all 

 small Insects, and de- 

 j-ivf their name from 

 till' tac-t that their ten- 

 der l)iMlies are protect- 

 ed by hard, scale-like 

 coverings secreted by 

 the Insects. Thus pro- 

 tected, they are difficult 

 Insects to kill, and as 

 they are easily trans- 

 ported on nursery 

 stock, buds or cions, 

 and also multiply rap- 

 idly, the scale Insects 

 are .iustly to be consid- 

 ered as among the most 

 dangerous and destruc- 

 tive of injurious In- 

 sects. A single female 

 San Josfi scale may 

 rear a brood of from 100 to GOO young, and there may be 

 four or live generations a year; and more than 2,000 

 eggs have been laid by a single Lecanium scale. 



The scale Insects, the dreaded San Jos^ species in- 

 cluded, can be successfully controlled by judicious, in- 

 telligent and timely work with sprays of whale-oil soap, 

 lii.ie-siiltur, c-ruili- peiroleum, or hydrocyanic acid gas, 

 whicli sliould lie used in the ease of nursery stock. 



Since ISSi) fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas has 

 been extensively practiced in the citrous orchards of 

 California, and now Florida and South African fruit- 

 growers are also using it in their orchards. Large gas- 

 tight tents or boxes are placed over the trees and the 

 gas then generated within. Much nursery stock is now 

 treated with the gas in tight boxes or houses ; this is 

 required by law in Maryland and the province of Ontario, 

 and it should be practiced in other regions. Recently 

 greenliouses, railway coaches, rocmis in private houses, 

 and whole flouring mills have been effectively fumigated 



1162. A spreading board for drying 

 soft-winged insects. 





space ; for nursery stock use the same amounts for each 

 100 cubic feet of space ; in greenhouses the gas is used 

 about one-half as strong, or even less for some kinds of 

 plants. Nursery stock, trees and plants in greenhouses 

 are usually subjected to the gas for from 30 to GO 

 minutes ; mills are usually kept closed 12 to 24 hours. 

 As potassium cyanide and hydrocyanic acid gas are 

 among the most deadly poisons, fumigation should be 

 under the direct supervision of competent persons. 



Insects are preserved in collections by securing them 

 in tight cases by means of a pin inserted through the 

 thorax, or through the right wing if the subject is a- 

 beetle. Moths and butterflies are pinned in position on 

 a spreading-hoard until thoroughly dried. See Figs. 

 1159-11G3. K\''ry lioiticulturist should make a collec- 

 tion of injurious lIl■•trI^. 



Insect Lii. j-<iiini i<<r ffoW(c«(H»r!'s/.«. — Horticultur- 

 ists should ki'cp ill clu.su touch with the experiment sta- 

 tions and state entomologists of their own and of other 

 states, and also with the Department of Agriculture at 

 Washington; for it is from these sources that the best 

 and latest advice regarding injurious Insects is now be- 

 ing disseminated free, either by personal correspon- 

 dence or by means of bulletins. Among the books, one 

 or more of which may well find a place in a horticul- 

 turist's library are the following : Weed's "Insects and 

 Insecticides," Sempers' "Injurious Insects and the Use 

 of Insecticides," Loderaan's "The Spraying of Plants," 

 Saunders' "Fruit Insects," and Smith's "Economic 

 Entomology." ji. y. Slingerland. 



Inula (ancient name). CompOsitcc. This genus in- 

 cludes some hardy herbaceous plants of the easiest cul 

 ture and of rather coarse habit, with heads of yellow or 

 orange, each 2-4 in. across, borne in summer. There is 

 such a great abundance of autumn-flowering yellow 

 composites in the hardy border that only those Inulas 

 that bloom in early summer are particularly desirable. 

 Elecampane, /. Helenium, is probably also cultivated 

 for medicine. A preparation of the mucilaginous roots 

 is common in drug stores. Inula flowers have as many 

 as 40 linear rays. The plants like a sunny position in 

 any garden soil, and are prop, by division or seed. 



Inula is a genus of about 56 species, found in Europe. 

 Asia and Africa: herbs, usually perennial, glandular, 

 hairy: Ivs. radical or alternate, entire or serrate: heads 

 large, medium or small, solitary, corymbose, panloled or 

 crowded at the crown: rays yellow, rarely white. 



A. Stems panicled or corymbose. 

 Helenium, Linn. Elecampane. Fig. 1164. Tall, 

 thick-stemmed : Ivs. unequally dentate-serrate : root- 

 Ivs. elliptic-oblong, narrowed into a petiole; stem-Ivs. 

 half-clasping, cordate-oblong: outer involucral parts 

 leafy, ovate. Wet, sandy and mountainous regions. 

 Eu., N. Asia. Naturalized in Amer. D. 163.— For medic- 

 inal purposes, 2-year-old roots should be dug in August. 

 If older they are likely to be stringy and woody. 



with this gas. It is generatcil with v 

 of commercial sulfuric aciii. ami |M.tassiuiu mani'h' 

 98 to 99 per cent pure. The ami is pmii. il iut..ili. wat. i- 

 in an earthen jar or crock ami the cyanide then dropped 

 in. In fumieating trees, rooms or flouring mills, 1 ounce 

 of the cyanide, 1% fluidounces of sulfuric acid, and 2K 

 ounces of water are used for every 125 cubic feet of 



^msmmmmmmmimimmm 



1163. A cross-section of spreadine board in front t-f 

 the cleat "d." in Fig. 1162. 



AA. Stems 1-fld., or with at most S or 3 heads. 

 B. Outer involucral parts linear and numerous. 

 grandiflora, Willd. Height 2-3 ft.: Ivs. elliptic-ob- 

 long', serrulate, all sessile; upper ones subcordate; 

 |..\vir <oies '2-4 in. long: glands numerous: heads 

 ;i'4-4 in. across. Himalayas, Caucasus. G. P. 6:406.— 

 Cult, but not advertised. Earliest blooming Inula in 

 cult. Bears orange-yellow fls. 5 in. across in June, and 

 has bold but not coarse habit. 



