384 Editor's Letter-Box. 



Mrs. J. H. B., Dyer Station, Lake Co., Ind. — The Ismene zxi6. Phycella both 

 belong to the Amaryllidacece, and their culture is in general the same as that of 

 the Amaryllis. The bulbs should be turned out of the pots in autumn, and laid 

 on a shelf, or other dry place, until spring, when they should be potted, and intro- 

 duced to the hot-house or green-house, giving them plenty of water as tliey pro- 

 gress. The soil should be equal parts of turfy loam, peat, and sand, and the 

 pots well drained. The Phycellas are more hardy than some of the family, and 

 in England are grown in pits, frames, or warm borders, with a slight protection 

 in severe frost. We have never known either of these bulbs grown without the 

 aid of a green-house, and if any of our readers have, we here ask them to com- 

 municate the information for your benefit. 



E. S. B., Nassau. — Cut your hedge in the form of the letter A. The first 

 cutting had better be done before it begins to start in spring, or at your leisure 

 during mild days in winter. The summer cutting is best done before the shoots 

 get so hard as to be cut with difficulty. Be sure to keep the base widest ; if 

 the sides are made perpendicular, they inevitably die away. You can get a 

 hedge by planting the seed where you want the hedge, but it will be much better 

 and more uniform if the seed is sown in beds, and the plants carefully assorted 

 when two years old, or one year, if strong. We have always sown buckthorn 

 seed in autumn, but if deferred till spring it should be carefully washed from the 

 berries, and mixed with damp sand. 



J. J. M., West Chester. — The chrysalis was too much injured to identify. If 

 you will send us specimens of the insect another season, in its various stages, 

 packed so as to reach us safely, we will try what we can do to name it, and tell 

 you how to prevent its depredations. 



E. E. W., Wakefield, N. H. — The " creeper " is I^chinocystis lobata, or Wild 

 Balsam apple. The generic name is from two Greek words, signifying hedgehog 

 and bladder^ and is therefore quite apropriate. The plant belongs to the Cticur- 

 bitacecE, or gourd family, and is indigenous in low grounds in the northern and 

 western parts of the United States. 



R. W., Troy, N. Y. — The color of hyacinth bulbs generally corresponds 

 to that of the flowers, that of the blue being darker than the red. A majority of 

 the white-flowered kinds have white bulbs, but sometimes the bulbs are colored. 



We regret to be obliged to say that the Peruvian seeds, which you were so kind 

 as to send us, proved of little value. Some of them did not vegetate, and of 

 those which did, the most noticeable was a morning glory, of poor quality. 



Surprise. — Your late pears 'and apples ripen earlier on account of the warm, 

 dry season. They were riper when taken oiT the trees than they are in average 

 seasons when gathered, and nothing that you can now do will wholly counteract 

 the effect which was gradually wrought in them all summer. Use special care 

 to keep them at a uniformly cool temperature, and this is about all you can do. 



