1 SS0.1 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



51 



has (lone such good botanical sprvice in liis 

 recent faithful exploration of the soutliern 

 portion of Florida. Anioiiu; tlie resl, lie lias 

 rediscovered the interesting plant wliieli will 

 now eoninieniorate his name and services. 

 This plant is the Liali-is frKtirosa of Nuttall, 

 before collected only liy Mr. Ware in .scanty 

 specimens." Nnttall formed for this plant a 

 sub-genns, which Dr. Gray suhse(inently 

 raised to a sieneric rank, in view of certain 

 characters which he had formerly described. 

 Dr. Uray then adds: "A sut)^eneric name has 

 no rights as against a published generic name. 

 So a new name must be provided for the 

 Florida plant. I had thought at the lirst of 

 dedicating it to Dr. thirber, but I deferred to 

 the subgeneric name given by Nuttall; and I 

 now do with alacrity what I ought to have 

 done in .the lirst place. The name and .syn- 

 onymy will stand thus : — 



GARBERI.V FKl tkosa. 



Liatris frutkosn, Nuttall. 



LeptocUiiium Jrutirnsa, Gray. 



South Florida. — Ware, Qarber.^'' 



Dr. A. P. Garber is a native of Lancaster 

 county, and a son of the venerable Jacob B. 

 Garber, of Mountville, one of the horticul- 

 tural veterans of oui' county. Dr. (iarber 

 was a graduate of the State Normal at Millers- 

 ville, tiie faculty of which <loubtless still re- 

 member him. lie al.-<i) graduated as a pliysi- 

 ciau, and for some time held a position as 

 botanist in Lafayette College, at Easton, Pa. 

 He was also an active member of the Lan- 

 caster Linna'au Society, and is still a corre- 

 sponding member, and we recall him as one 

 of the members of its early held e.xcursions. 

 He has been for some years located at Manitee, 

 Florida, and occasionally forwards to the 

 society rare specimens in natural history. 

 This dedication conferred by such a distin- 

 guished authority as Dr. Gray, and recognized 

 by such a distinguished institution as the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, is an honor 

 worthy of tho.se who so heartily accord it a 

 credit to him whom we know will •'blush- 

 ingly hear it " — an honor of which any man 

 might afford to feel proud. We recall Dr. 

 Garber as a quiet patient, per-severing and 

 thorough student in the scientilic specialty to 

 which he has been for many years devoted, 

 and which furnishes him "so many golden 

 opportunities in the ''land of Bowers." As 

 an evidence that he is not merely an idle 

 spectator there, the Conservator of the Botanic 

 Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 in his report for 1879, states that during the 

 year Dr. Garber has donated to the Herbarium 

 of that institution 023 species of Florida 

 plants, embracing many rare and new species, 

 the results of his untiring industry. 



It is with a peculiar pleasure that we are 

 enabled to make this honorable record of one 

 of the worthy sons of Lancaster county, and 

 regret that the cxamides seem to be so "few 

 and far between. " Most young men of leisure 

 and pecuniary means court luxurious ease, 

 rather than the school of .science, even in 

 cases where opportunities are amply afforded. 

 And yet there is a compensation in it, of 

 which nothing can deprive them. 



A NEW MYRIAPOD. 



The following we clip from the Intelligencer, 

 altliough we have seen something similar to 

 it in the American Ifaturalial : 



Mr. Ryder, a member of the Academy of 

 Nat>u'al Sciences, Philadeliihia, has discov- 

 ered in Fairmount Park a little myriapod- 

 like scolopendrella, which is regarded as a 

 creature of great importance scientifically. 

 The extraordinary — one might say bizarre — 

 combination of characters presented by the 

 animal, makes it what has been known since 

 Agassiz's time as a synthetic type — that is, a 

 form which combines clKiractcristics of several 

 orders or widely separated groups. It, in 

 fact, represents the ideal form, from which it 

 maj' be supposed that the great six-legged 

 group of insects has been derived, as the 

 number of joints in its body corresponds witli 

 that of the larval stages of the greater part of 

 this group. It seems, in truth, to be an insect 



with legs to every joint instead of to only 

 three, as in the latter. This view of its ela- 

 tiiinship more than ever justilies its recogni- 

 tion as the type of an order under the name 

 sympyla, signifying that its oi'ganization 

 represents in a combined form that of several 

 lines of development of descent. When the 

 embryology or development from the egg of 

 this little creatui'e is studied, the proiiabilities 

 are that a story of the highest significance 

 will be revealed, perhaps one of the most im- 

 portant ever recorded in the annals of ento- 

 mological science. 



HAIR WORMS. 



A small and very attenuated wliite worm is 

 sometimes found in the seed cavities of the 

 apple — hardly any thicker than No. tiO spool 

 cotton — and also in other fruits and vege- 

 tables. We have specimens in the (tolk'ction 

 of the Liiniffiau Society, oiu^ of which was 

 taken out of a cavity near the middle of a 

 head of cabbage, and another taken out of 

 an apple — the former being by far the thick- 

 est and longest. Others iuive been received 

 from persons who had no distinct recollec- 

 tion of the circumstances under which they 

 were found, or had gotten them from other 

 jiersons. These animals belong to a family 

 of Abranchious annelides, (or "worms" 

 without bristles) of which the common 

 " Hair Worm " is the typical genus. The 

 GoKDiACEiD.E have been long known to be 

 parasitic on other animals, in tlie early stages 

 of their development, but the details of their 

 transformations or transitions are little l)et- 

 ter known now than they were a hundred 

 years ago. These animals are seldom found 

 stretched out at length, except when found 

 swimming in ponds or marshes in very warm 

 weather. They are usually found tangled or 

 knotted, and from this fact the " Gordian 

 Knot " has originated. We have a female 

 specimen of Oordius rariun in the Linna?an 

 Museum, that has a fine filament adhering 

 to her body, to which are attached a number 

 of eggs resembling a tiny string of minute 

 beads. On one occasion we fomid numerous 

 specimens of F'daria (which belongs to the 

 .■^ame family) infesting the bodies of grass- 

 hoppers {Caloptinus ffmer-ruhrum), some of 

 them protruding an inch or more, and in 

 every instance the "hoppers" were either 

 dead or very feeble. There are still some 

 people who firmly believe that these Gordians 

 are animated horse-nairs. We tried to ani- 

 mate a horse-hair many years ago, but we 

 utterly failed. 



Dr. Greene, of this city, sent one of the.se 

 white hair-worms to Prof. Comstock, of the 

 Entomological Department at Wa.sliington, 

 for determination, and lie answers under date 

 of March lu, 1S80, that it is Mermis accumi- 

 nata, and that it is parasitic on the larva of 

 the ''codling moth" (C(n-pocap,sa jiomnic/^a) 

 which is good news to apple growers, as far 

 as it goes, that that pernicious pest has at 

 least one parasite. But it does not go very 

 far, forthe codlings are too numerous and tlie 

 parasites too few, ever to ed'ect an equilibri- 

 um. It may, however, serve to quiet alarm 

 when the 3Ifrniis is found in apples- Could 

 the specimens found in cabbage have been 

 parasitic on the larv;e of Fieris rapa' ? That 

 would also be something worth knowing. 



A MUNIFICENT GIFT. 

 William L. Shatfer, Esq., formally years the 

 distinguished president of the "Pennsylvania 

 Horticultural Society," has just consumated 

 an act that will forever place his name high 

 on the pillar of fame, and render it dear as 

 an example of disinterested liberality to the 

 friends of Horticulture all over our broad 

 land. The society over whose interest he has 

 so long and so etliciently presided, and whose 

 welfare w-as so dear to him, is the oldest hor- 

 ticultural society in our whole country, hav- 

 ing been organized about sixty years ago — if 

 not longer — and, during all that long period, 

 it has been one of the most Jive societies in 

 the "Keystone State," or elsewhere. The 

 fruit and tloral exhibitions of this ancient as- 



sociation have for many years been prominent 

 events in the progress of American horticul- 

 ture. Some years ago during the successful 

 tide of our commercial, manufacturing and 

 general business allaiis of the country, it pur- 

 chased ground and built a magnificent hall on 

 the west side of Broad street, at a cost of 

 about $75,(100, an ornament to the city of 

 Pluladelphia, and a credit to the society 

 under whose auspices it was erected. But 

 after that a "long and anxious" financial re- 

 verse occurred, einliiacingour entire country, 

 and "wiping out" many of the noblest enter- 

 jirises of the land, and so enervating othera 

 that they could only with the greatest difli- 

 culty brave the impending storm; and hence, 

 this old society had an embarra.ssing outlook, 

 financially, although, in the objects of its or- 

 ganization, it kept on, in the "even tenor of 

 its way." At length President Shafler, under 

 the iniluence of an ennobling and benevolent 

 impulse, stepped forward, purchased the 

 entire hall, and kindly donated it to the soci- 

 ety. An engrossed copy of the society's 

 giatelul thanks, signed by the facidty, wa9 

 executed and presented to the president on 

 Friday evening, April 9th, in the hall, on 

 which occasion the formalities of tliis "double 

 blessing" were duly observed, and appropri- 

 ately solemnized. Long live the ^^Pennsylva- 

 nia Horticultural Society.''^ 



A GOOD EGG. 

 Mr. Henry Wyman of this city, exhibited 

 to us a very eiyys-traordinary hen's egg; and, 

 although we may not be able to separate it 

 from the class of "monstrosities," yet, for 

 special reasons, it may be none the less a good 

 eyg. He found it "lying around loose" in the 

 chicken yard, which seems to imply that 

 whatever value he or other people may attach 

 to it, the hen that laid it thought it "no great 

 shakes" — not worth cackling over. There 

 were in fact two eggs, united uy a narrow tu- 

 luilar process, the wiiole being without a shell, 

 but covered with a white translucent integtr- 

 luent — something like an old-fashioned double 

 money-purse, with the middle contracted and 

 the ends well tilled. That which is most singu- 

 lar about it is, that the one lobe contains the 

 albumen and the other the yolk; and to caiTy 

 the singularity still further the^integuments 

 of the two lobes have accommodated them- 

 selves in form to the character of their con- 

 tents — that is, the lobe that contains the yolk 

 is spherical, and the one that contains the al- 

 bumen is oblong, approximating to the natu- 

 ral form of an egg. This may illustrate the 

 influence which the inner contents of the egg 

 exercises over the form of the shell. Now, 

 we have above designated this a "good egg," 

 and doubtless every progressive housewife 

 will occur in that opinion In many culinary 

 or baking preparations housewives desire the 

 yolk and the albumen separated, and some- 

 times in attempting to do this, they get the 

 two sadly "mixed" up;" therefore, if they 

 could have them naturally separated, so that 

 they could empty them out (like a purse) into 

 separate vessels," it would facilitate labor and 

 prevent vexation. If Mr. Wyman can pro- 

 duce "strains" of that kind of eggs, no doubt 

 he would be considered a benefactor. 

 ^ ■ 



PENNSYLVANIA FRUIT GROWERS- 

 SOCIETY. 



At a meeting of the Executive Committee 

 of the Pennsylvania Fruit Growers' Society, 

 held in Lancaster, Pa., ]S;arch, 1st, 1880. the 

 following standing committees were appoint- 

 ed for the year ending third Wednesday of 

 January, 1881. It is hoped that chairmen 

 will open correspondence at once with mem- 

 bers of committees, and submit their reports 

 at the annual meeting without, further 

 notice. 



The next annual meeting will be held in 

 Gettysburg, Pa., commencing third Wednes- 

 day in .lannarv, 1881. 



Geo. D. Sti"tzel, Pres., Reading. 



Geo. B. Tho.ma.'^, Treas., West Chester. 



E. B. Engle, Sec. Marietta, 



IHxecutive Committee, 



