WATERMELON 



small moth, the larvaj of which, light, yellowish 

 green caterpillars about an inch long, destroy only the 

 leaves o£ the Watermelon, but both the foliage and 

 fruit of the cantaloupe or muskmelon. They are 

 "chewers," not "suckers." 



2. The melon louse (Aphis go.iS!/pii).— This attacks 

 the foliage, only, in the form of the adult — a small 

 winged green fly, viviparous, whose wingless progeny 

 attain maturity in about a week from birth, and begin 

 to reproduce. 



3. The striped cucumber beetle (Diabrotica viltntii). 

 — A small black and yellow-striped beetle, a quarter 

 of an inch long, appearing In spring and attacking the 

 young plants as they emerge from the ground, its larvee 

 at the same time destroying the roots. 



4. The flea beetle [Crepidodera CHCumeris). Dimin- 

 utive, like all of its kind, but very active, feeding 

 on the young plants in spring, after maturing under 

 rubbish and stones. The adult insect eats the upper 

 surface of the leaves, in irregular patches, and the 

 larvEe are said to burrow their way through the interior 

 of the leaf structure under the surface. 



Remedies: The commercial grower is generally pre- 

 pared to accept the fact that none of these pests is 

 going to neglect him, and therefore makes his prepara- 

 tions to combat all, separatelv and collectively, and so 

 plans his schedule as to cover the entire list. The fol- 

 lowing is a detail of the operations advised: 



1. Apply a pinch of nitrate of soda to each hill as 

 soon as the young plants are up to insure full vigor and 

 power of resistance to all enemies as they arrive upon 

 the scene. 



2. For the melon worm, striped cucumber beetle and 

 ilea beetle, spray with Paris green — 4 ounces to 50 gal- 

 lons of water— for two or three sprayings, at intervals 

 of a week apart. 



3. Spray intermediately, at intervals of a week (mid- 

 way between the arsenite applications) if the melon 

 louse is found to have located on the plants, with a 



1 to 20 mixture of kerosene and water (using Weed kero- 

 sene attachment to sprayer) or with kerosene emulsion, 

 same strength. Whale-oil soap, 1 lb. to the gallon, may 

 be substituted for the kerosene treatment in ordinary 

 cases, but wlien obdurate resort must be had to carbon 

 bisulfide, a teaspoonful to the hill, in box-tops, clam- 

 shells or cheap vessels of any kind, under canvas- 

 hooped covers. This remedy is unfailing, but somewhat 

 troublesome, and is only iustifled when the commercial 

 grower is fighting desperately for his crop and liveli- 

 hood. A detail of the methods of preparing the 

 remedies here siiggested may be obtained from the 

 article on Insecticides, in Vol. 11 of this work, which 

 s^^- Hugh N. Staenes. 



WATSdNIA (Sir Wm. Watson, M.D., 1715-1787. elec- 

 trician and professor of botany at Chelsea). IridticecE. 

 A genus of 16 species of tender bulbous plants, one 

 from Madagascar, the others from the Cape of Good 

 Hope. They bloom from July to September and have 

 scarlet, rose or white 6-lobed flowers, with usually a 

 long, slender tube which is bent near the base. Wat- 

 sonias are very much like Gladioli, having the same 

 kind of a corm, the same sword-shaped, rigid Ivs., the 

 same kind of a spike and the same season of bloom. It 

 is, therefore, a great mistake to suppose that they are 

 suited only to greenhouse cultivation. The main dif- 

 ferences between Watsonia and Gladiolus, from the 

 horticultural as well as botanical points of view, are the 

 longer tube and regular flower of Watsonia; three of 

 the six perianth-segments in Gladiolus being usually 

 different in size, shape and direction of spread. An im- 

 portant botanical difference is that the style-branches of 

 Watsonia are simple, while those of Gladiolus are bifid. 



Great interest has been aroused in Watsonias recently 

 by the introduction of the "White Watsonia," known to 

 the trade as W. Ardernei. The plant might be roughly 

 described as a white Gladiolus. It is likely to receive 

 considerable attention within the next few years. II 

 grows 3 or 4 ft. high, strong specimens being branched, 

 and bears about a dozen fls., each 2H-3 in. long and about 



2 in. across. The purity of its color and its value for 

 cutting make it of exceptional interest to florists. There 

 are other white - fld. forms of Watsonia, but none of 



WATSONIA 1971 



them seem to be in the American trade. Pure white is 

 the exception in the iris family, while it is a com- 

 mon, if not dominant, "color" in the lily and amaryllis 

 families. 



The White Watsonia has acquired so many names 

 that a short historical sketch of the plant is desirable. 

 All the stock in lii- i;:i«'.. :ii iri'sent is supposed to be 

 descended from | id by H. W. Arderne, of 



Cape Town, Tl i i i i - was found 80 miles away 



in a peat bog am- h- - i ,,i,,ls of the common pink-fld. 



kind. In Oct., 1,-.LIJ, Jlr. .uacrue had 400 spikes in 

 bloom and in March, ISUo, some of his plants were pic- 

 tured in The Garden under the name of Watsonia alba. 

 However, a pure white -fld. form had been previously 

 found near Port Elizabeth and a bulb sent to J. O'Brien, 

 of Harrow, flowered in England in 1889 and was then 

 fully described as W. iridi folia, var. O'Brieni, the 

 name adopted in this work. In the recent discussions 

 of the pl.iiit the f I. t has heen overlooked that T. S. 

 Wart ..r r 1. 1 ulln it.d a white Na.ietv in 1880, 



it b. Ill 1 I 1,11.1.11 f. 1 111 it \( .1 :is Wat- 



land i~ , I I II 



and thm ».i, <i i..,, -.in. 



William Watson, of Kew, was the first to emphasize 

 the close horticultural parallel between Watsonia and 

 Gladiolus ami t.i uiirc the -nhole group upon the atten- 

 tion oltl I I II I I I I. r This suggestion, coming from 

 the 111 I - ud to have created the modem 



Cap. [ I ptocarpus, should result in an- 



other lin I I I I I Ills before many years. However, 



the Wats. mil "bulb is not so easily and safely stored 

 as that ot Gladiolus. 



Generic characters: perianth with long, curved tube, 

 the lowest and narrowest part ascending a short dis- 

 tance above the cnlvx- tli. fiil . i flu u dilated into a 

 cylindrical or funni 1 v| i i i i li bends down, 



usually at a sharp 111 _'l. I l.long, spread- 



ing; stamens unil iti i I ind below the 



if the IridesB. 



X / ( 



E /■ /^ ^ ,11 II ...2. angusta 



EE. /'/s , V ,,,l , , „l,,l, 



F iiv ' -', n: „ 1,1, spikis 



"I ii I "' 3. Meriana 



FF. / I .s d,Hi.t>, 



4. iridiSolia 



DD. Spi! 'II 5. densiflora 



cc. sterna W / J-3 ft., nii- 



bninch.il 



I). Tube 1^,-2 tn. lonq 6 coccinea 



DD. Tube l'^i-1'^i III. lonq 7 humilis 



Upper part of tube short and broadly 

 funnel-shaped 8. rosea 



1. aletroldes, Ker. Bright scarlet or pale pink-fld. 

 species, 1-2 ft. high, remarkable for the short peri.anth- 

 segments: stem simple or branched: spikes 6-12-fld. 

 B.M. 533 (rosy scarlet, splashed with cardinal, the inner 

 segments white at the tip). 



2. angusta, Ker. (W. iridifblia, var. fiilgens, Ker.). 

 Scarlet-fld. species distinguished from W. Meriana by 

 the color of the fls. and by the shape of the perianth- 

 segments. In W. angusta the segments are decidedly 

 acuminate, while those of W. Meriana are more nearlv 

 oblong and come to a point suddenly. Also the style of 



W. angusta reaches to the tip of the perianth-segments, 

 while in W. Meriana it does not. B.M. 600. Gn. 17:230 

 (as W. Meriana, var. coccinea), 44:923. 



