Editors Letter- Box. 251 



E. A. F., Meadville, Penn. — The insect enclosed is the pupa of Coptocycla 

 aurichalcea. Fab., see Harris's new ed., p. 122, plates i, 5. The old name was 

 Cass I da aurichalcea. 



The plant it is impossible to name from sucli a specimen. It seems a small 

 growth of some larger plant. Send us flowers or fruit : it is generally impossi- 

 ble to identify plants from fragments of leaves, single leaves, or small side-shoots. 



H. L. — The plant which \'ou enclose as "found in the woods of Martha's 

 Vineyard " is not a fungus, but a very pretty and curious indigenous plant called 

 Indian Pipe ; botanicall}', Monotropa uniflora. — See Gray's " Manual of Bota- 

 ny," p. 262. The plant is common in rich dark woods. 



Last season we procured a lot of Japan lilies {Rubniin and Roscum), which 

 bloomed finely. This season, many of the same bulbs have "gone back ; " that 

 is, bloom has failed to a great extent : and many of them have turned pale and 

 sickly-looking ; budding, but rotting in the buds. Can you give us any informa- 

 tion as to the proper course to pursue hereafter .'' 



The auratum has behaved in the same manner. 



On behalf of many disappointed ones, Yours, W. E. H. 



Lancaster, Penn , Aug. 7, 1867. 



W. E. H., Lancaster, Penn. — As you do not state the character of the soil 

 in which your lilies were grown, it is not easy to give you a remedy ; but, from 

 your description, we should infer that they had been planted where water had 

 covered them during the winter, and exposed to alternate freezing and thawing, 

 which is very injurious. They will bear a hard frost, but, when once frozen in 

 the ground, should remain so until spring. We think your bulbs can be restored 

 to their usual vigor by transplanting them, as soon as the tops are dead, in a 

 compost prepared as follows : Take equal parts of turfy loam and leaf-mould 

 well decomposed ; pull this to pieces with your hands until the fibrous portion is 

 thoroughly broken up and mixed with the leaves ; add to this about one-sixth of 

 its bulk in sharp clean sand free from iron, all of which should be thoroughly 

 intermixed. If for pot-culture, the soil should be firmly pressed around the 

 bulbs, which should be covered about an inch from the crown : do not omit a 

 few crocks in the bottom of the pot for drainage. If designed for culture in the 

 garden, choose a situation where water will not stand during winter, nor where 

 it is very dry during summer ; excavate a portion of the soil a foot deep, which 

 should be replaced with the above compost, and the bulb covered to the depth 

 of four inches from the crown ; cover during winter with leaves to the depth of 

 eight or ten inches, which may be removed as soon as the frost is out of the 

 ground in spring. The same treatment will answer for the auratum, though 

 some growers are doubtful as to its being as hardy as the other varieties. It 

 will, perhaps, be as well, while this variety is so expensive, to cultivate in pots, 

 and winter in a cool dry cellar. Plant out as soon as the ground is ready in 

 spring. We are of the opinion, however, that, when fully acclimated, it will 

 prove as hardy as the other varieties. 



