382 Editors' Letter- Box. 



will do the job without hurting the tenderest foliage. The same applied to an 

 ant-hill will cure them eflfectually." 



[Our remarks were intended chiefly to apply to the use of kerosene on parlor- 

 plants, and were in answer to a mischievous article which has been going the 

 rounds of the papers, advising an application of kerosene to the plant with a 

 camel's-hair brush. 



We know the ill effects of this, and that many pet plants have come to grief 

 by following this advice. We are glad to learn that kerosene can be applied 

 safely and effectually ; but would still advise its cautious use, as its effects on 

 vegetation are deadly.] 



Mount Vernon, Ind., Sept. 29, 1869. 



J. E. TiLTON & Co. Dear Sirs, — Please tell me through " The Journal of 

 Horticulture " the names of plants to which these leaves belong. Tell me 

 according to number, and oblige yours, &c. C. B. G. 



P. S. — I take your valuable magazine through our news-dealers, and would 

 not be without it for quadruple the price. I shall take your publication of 

 " Foliage Plants " as soon as you commence publishing. 



No. I is Aucuba japonica. The small leaf. No. 2, is ^xohdihl)' Heterocentrain 

 roseum, — a very pretty melastomaceous plant, requiring common greenhouse- 

 treatment. It blooms freely in winter, and is easily propagated from cuttings. 

 There is a white-flowered variety. When next you send a plant for a name, do 

 not select the poorest leaf If possible, send flower; but, if you can only send 

 a leaf, give some description of the plant. 



The publication of the " Beautiful-leaved Plants " is already commenced ; 

 two numbers having been issued. 



W. G. inquires as follows : " Have any attempts been made to improve and 

 obtain varieties of the Canada Plum, which grows abundantly in our Northern 

 States ? It is not mentioned in your article on native plums, and I suppose is 

 not identical with the Chickasaw Plum of the South. In the garden of Dr. 

 True of Bethel, Me., I saw fine trees of the European Plum grafted upon the 

 Canada Plum. I have also been informed that the native variety is not subject 

 to black knot or to the attacks of the curculio." 



[The Canada Plum {Pr-iHtus Americana) has often been used by nursery-men 

 for stocks ; but, as it does not grow so large as the common varieties "of plums, 

 it presents an unsightly appearance unless grafted at the surface of the ground. 

 A few seedlings have been produced, varying somewhat from the original ; but 

 we know of no decided improvement, and no extended experiment to improve 

 this species. It is more free from black warts than the common plum ; but we 

 do not know that it is less subject to the curculio. — Ed.'] 



T. G. G., Providence, R.I. — You must keep solanums warm in winter. They 

 propagate freely from cuttings ; and good stocky young plants, set out in spring 

 in rich soil, will attain gigantic dimensions by autumn. You cannot, however, 

 get the soil too rich for them. 



