BORERS, 



BOTANY. 



thorn and other thorn bushes, the June-berry 

 or shad-bush, and other kinds of Amelanchier 

 and Aronia. Our native thorns and Aronias 

 are its natural food; for I have discovered 

 the larvoe in the stems of these shrubs, and 

 have repeatedly found the beetles upon them, 

 eating the leaves, in June and July. It is in 

 these months that the eggs are deposited, being 

 laid up6n the bark near the root, during the 

 night. The larvae hatched therefrom are fleshy 

 whitish grubs." 



The larva or grub state continues two or 

 three years, during which the borer will be 

 found to have penetrated eight or ten inches 

 upwards in the trunk of the tree, its burrow, at 

 rhe end approaching to, and being covered 

 only by, the bark. Here its transformation 

 from larva to pupa takes place, and its final 

 change from pupa to beetle or winged insect, 

 which occurs about the first of June, soon 

 after which the beetle gnaws through the bark 

 that covers the end of its burrow, and leaves 

 its place of confinement in the night. 



"Notwithstanding," says Dr. Harris, "the 

 pains that have been taken by some persons 

 o destroy and exterminate these pernicious 

 >orers, they continue to reappear in our or- 

 hards and nurseries every season. The rea- 

 ons of this are to be found in the habits of 

 he insects, and in individual carelessness, 

 lany orchards suffer deplorably from the want 

 f proper attention; the trees are permitted to 

 emain, year after year, without any pains be- 

 ig taken to destroy the numerous and various 

 isects that infest them ; old orchards, espe- 

 :ially, are neglected, and not only the rugged 

 unks of the trees, but even a forest of un- 

 >runed suckers around them, are left to the 

 mdisturbed possession and perpetual inherit- 

 ince of the Saperda. On the means that have 

 oeen used to destroy this borer, a few remarks 

 nly need to be made ; for it is evident that 

 hey can be fully successful only when gene- 

 rally adopted. Killing it by a wire thrust into 

 the holes it has made, is one of the oldest, 

 safest, and most successful methods. Cutting 

 out the grub with a knife or gouge is the most 

 common practice; but it is feared that these 

 lools have sometimes been used without suffi- 

 cient caution. A third method, which has 

 more than once been suggested, consists in 

 plugging the holes with soft wood. If a little 

 camphor be previously inserted, this practice 

 promises to be more effectual ; but experi- 

 ments are wanting to confirm its expediency." 

 The zealous and able naturalist who has 

 urnished the foregoing information relative 

 o insects which so frequently carry destruc- 

 on among the forest, fruit, and ornamental 

 rees of the United States, has also described 

 nany others of the beetle tribe which attack 

 rees and plants not yet named. Among these 

 nay be mentioned the borers which infest the 

 itch pine tree, and even the blackberry and 

 aspberry bushes ; together with various leaf- 

 >eetles which prey upon the foliage of fruit- 

 rees, the linden-tree, potato, cucumber, and 

 mmpkin vines, the leaves of turnips, horse- 

 adish, milk-weed, &c., most of which will be 

 eferred to in noticing the several trees and 

 'lants named, together with the best means 



known of destroying them or preventing their 

 ravages. 



BORING. A practice sometimes employed 

 in order to ascertain the nature of the different 

 strata that lie beneath the soil; and also for 

 the purpose of discovering springs, and tap- 

 ping them, so as to draw off the water, that 

 injures the grounds below or in the neighbour- 

 hood. See DRAIXIKB. 



BOS. The generic name for quadrupeds 

 whose horns are in the form of a crescent. See 

 CATTLE. 



BOSCAGE. A word borrowed from the 

 French, signifying a woody grove, or woodland. 



BOTANY (from the Gr. frvan*, an herb), 

 in the most confined sense of the terra, is the 

 science which teaches us the arrangement of 

 the members of the vegetable kingdom in a 

 certain order or system, by which we are 

 enabled to ascertain the name of any indivi- 

 dual plant with facility and precision. Such 

 arrangement is only to be considered as useful 

 in proportion as it facilitates the acquirement 

 of a knowledge of their economical and medi- 

 cinil qualities, which cannot be perfectly 

 ascertained without an acquaintance with 

 vegetable physiology, the parts of plants, their 

 functions, and uses. Botany, in its most com- 

 prehensive form, teaches us the names, ar- 

 rangement, parts, functions, qualities, and uses 

 of plants. 



This science may be consulted by the agri- 

 culturist with considerable benefit. For in- 

 stance (and several other advantages will 

 readily suggest themselves to the intelligent 

 farmer), the plants growing wild on a soil ever 

 afford some tolerable indication of the nature 

 of the soil and its subsoil. Thus, the heath on 

 elevations indicates a dry soil ; the fern that it 

 is deep as well as dry. The deer hair (Scirpus 

 caespitosus) grows commonly over bogs, resting 

 on clay. In the lower situations the broom 

 (Spartium scoparium) tenants the deep light 

 gravels. The whin, coarser gravels upon a 

 clay subsoil. The rush (Juncus conglimeratus) 

 tells the negligent farmer that good land is ren- 

 dered useless for want of drainage. The com- 

 mon sprit {Juncus articulatus), that the land is 

 not fertile. Sweet gale (Myrica Gale"), that it 

 is still worse. The rag weed (Senecio jacobxa) 

 in arable land betrays an ill-cultivated loam. 

 The marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) or the 

 wild water-cress in water meadows, tells the 

 owner that the land is fully irrigated. The 

 common rattle (Rhinanthus christi}, that a 

 meadow is exhausted. The pry (Carex dioica), 

 that water is stagnating beneath its surface, 

 and these are only a few of the truths which 

 wild flowers teach the intelligent cultivator. 

 Botanists have, indeed, long been at work for 

 the farmer a fact no one will be willing to 

 dispute who remembers that the sloe, the black- 

 berry, and the crab are nearly all the fruits 

 indigenous to England ; and that hardl/ a 

 grass, a flower, or a vegetable that is now cul- 

 tivated is a native of the island. 



In 1825 and 1827, the Highland Society of 

 Scotland offered as a prize theme, "The indi- 

 cations to be formed regarding the nature anil 

 qualities of soils and subsoils, according to 

 the plants growing upon them, having regard 



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