274 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



even there the curcuUo destroyed every fruit year after year. 

 For the purpose of ascertaitiing the character of the fruit, I 

 selected a fruitful limb and covered it with what is commonly 

 called mosquito netting. The fruit formed abundantly, and 

 had attained a fine size by the time all the uncovered fruit 

 had dropped from the tree. I visited the tree about twice a 

 week, until one morning when I discovered the curculio 

 puncture on several of the nectarines. On removing the net 

 I found every fruit punctured with one to four holes, and, 

 entangled in the net, I found one curculio. The wind, in 

 rocking the tree, had made a very small opening in the net, 

 about half an inch in diameter, and the insidious enemy had 

 found his way through it. Last year I resolved to try a thor- 

 ough experiment of protection by this kind of gauze. I 

 selected a bearing tree about ten feet high, and covered it 

 with a frame or cage of this material. The frame was trian- 

 gular, and firmly braced against the force of the winds. The 

 whole head of the tree was carefully covered in at top, bot- 

 tom, and on three sides. Despite my care, one curculio crept 

 in somewhere, but he was soon detected. As it was, this 

 little tree ripened two hundred nectarines. The net was 

 removed about two weeks before the time of ripening, and 

 presented the rare and beautiful spectacle of a young nectar- 

 ine tree laden with fruit in the open air. The whole expense 

 of the frame was three dollars and a half, and it is good for 

 another year. Wire gauze would be much more durable and 

 perhaps more profitable. 



FLORICULTURAL AND BOTANICAL NOTICES. 



Salvia porphyra'ntha. — This is the name of a new and 

 very free flowering Salvia, introduced last season. It ap- 

 proaches in habit the coccinea, but with much handsomer 

 foliage, and deeper colored flowers. It grows from twelve to 

 fifteen inches high, with ascending stems branched at the 

 base, and terminal spikes of deep crimson scarlet flowers. It 



