EXPLORING THE GARDEN 



425 



are grown as house-plants by placing from one to half 

 a dozen of them in a suitable receptacle filled with small 

 stones and water, the latter just covering the upper layer 

 of stones. In order to start them well, they should be 

 kept in a dark and cool place for at least a fortnight, or 

 until the roots are largely in evidence, and then brought 

 gradually to the light. 



One of the shade trees in our garden, the leaves of 

 which appear to be in a very dilapidated condition, has 

 suspended from its m^ny twigs curious little elongate 

 bags, each about an inch or an inch and a half long, 

 pointed at either end and stuck over the greater part 

 of its outer surface with many small sticks. These are 

 the cocoons of the common "Bag-worm" a creature with 

 a very remarkable history. The insect that makes these 

 little bags is the larva of a moth, which is very injurious 

 to our shade trees, especially in certain city streets in the 

 eastern half of the United States. Every season or so, 

 the shade trees that line the avenues and streets of 

 Washington are special sufferers from this "bag-worm" 

 and the only remedy is to collect the "bags" in the 

 autumn and winter months, pile them up somewhere and 

 build a fire over them; or, if convenient, consign them to 

 a furnace fire. A year or so ago a prize was offered to the 

 children of that Public School of Washington which 

 could collect the greatest number of bag-worms from 

 her shade trees. An enormous pile of them was shown 



THE MODE OP TREES IN BUDDING 



FiK. 5 We have 

 hickory trees, a 

 Washington, D 

 in April. 



here represented the opening buds of one of the 

 s they first appear in the spring. This is a 

 C, specimen, and collected by the author early 



EXAMPLE OF TREE BUDDING 



Fig. 6 Here is also one of our hickories in early spring ; it 

 should be carefully compared with the one in Figure 5. 



me at one of the schools, the children of which had en- 

 tered this contest. Much to the disgust of the exhibitor, 

 I quickly demonstrated that more than four-fifths of the 

 bags were empty the insects having left them. They 

 had been collected at the wrong season, and so no benefit 

 followed. When the task is undertaken at the proper 

 time and thoroughly done, marked benefit to the tree 

 often follows, as was the case in the parks of St. Louis 

 a few years ago. My illustration in a previous issue well 

 shows a typical "bag" of one of these pests. Uninformed 

 people often wonder what they are, as they notice them 

 swinging in the breeze suspended from the twigs of some 

 favorite shrub or tree in their garden. 



In such a garden as I here describe, a great many 

 species of insects will readily be found during the sea- 

 sons when they occur. Often several kinds of lovely 

 butterflies will hover over the flowers or alight about 

 the little wet places in the pathways, or, perhaps, on the 

 muddy margin of the pond. Then, too, if one goes out 

 into the garden at night carrying a bright light, fine 

 examples of our moths may also be seen flitting about, 

 to be, perhaps, collected and studied. Often, during the 

 day, a handsome Luna moth or a Cecropia may be found 

 resting in some place, having just emerged from its 

 cocoon, which latter you may chance to find not far 

 away. Wasps, hornets and various bees, too, are fre- 

 quent visitors, and their names and habits are well worthy 

 of study. Quite a volume might be written on the wasps 



