Leather Jacket 



( 5 



Ledenbergia 



slender threads. A sheet laid under the tree or 

 shrub will serve to collect the fallen larva;, and 

 from it they can be destroyed' in any handy way. 



LEATHER JACKET. 



Several tough - skinned grubs are known as 

 Leather Jackets, but the designation applies more 

 particularly to grubs of the Crane Fly (Tipula 

 oleracea), an insect known to almost everyone 

 under its popular title of Daddy-Long-Legs. The 

 Leather Jacket's depredations are usually con- 

 lined to members of the Cabbage family, though 

 sometimes it does much damage to lawns. In the 

 latter case heavy and frequent rollings have proved 

 beneficial. In the kitchen garden the pest must 

 be trapped by means of pieces of Potato, Carrot. 

 or Parsnip, hollowed out and buried 2" or 3" 

 in the soil among infested crops. A piece of 

 stick attached to each serves to locate the trap 

 and also to withdraw it. Examine the traps 

 frequently, and throw the pests into a bucket of 

 hot brine. 



LEAVENWORTHIA. 



Hardy annuals (ord. Cruciferse), raised from 

 seeds sown in spring or autumn in any fertile soil. 



Principal Species : 

 aurea, 4", Je., ro., yel. 



LEAVES. 



In their myriad forms, sizes, and colours, leaves 

 add materially to the beauty of the world. They 

 contribute largely to the food supply ; afford 

 shelter for man, beast, and bird ; they supply the 

 fibre for ropes and cordage ; they are the factories 

 wherein may be elaborated a sweet fragrance, a 

 healing medicine, or a deadly poison ; to the plant 

 they act as lungs and partly as stomach ; while 

 man is indebted to them for the constant purifica- 

 tion of the atmosphere. Leaves are organs, 

 developed laterally from the stem or axis of a 

 plant, below its growing point. Though varied in 

 form and arrangement, they are, as a rule, designed 

 so as to present as large a surface as possible to 

 the light. In hot, arid countries, however, where 

 evaporation is so great, leaves are modified and 

 thickened, sometimes reduced to a mere point, so 

 that excessive exhalation of moisture is prevented. 

 Leaves never produce flowers, neither do they grow 

 indefinitely, but having reached full development 

 they fulfil their varied functions, but otherwise do 

 not change until decay, natural or accidental, sets 

 in. In deciduous subjects the leaf-fall is annual 

 and total, each leaf being pushed off by the plant, 

 by the formation of a layer of corky tissue at the 

 junction of leaf stalk and twig. In evergreen 

 plants the old leaves do not fall until new ones 

 have been produced, so that at no time is the plant 

 defoliated. In yet another class of plants, includ- 

 ing Palms and Pines, the leaves are persistent, 

 lasting for years. 



As has already been hinted, the leaves have 

 many functions to perform, and as they can only 

 perform these properly when fully developed, it is 

 essential that cultivators avoid overcrowding in 

 plant or branch, that light and air are not withheld, 

 and that insect pests and deposits of dirt are 

 prevented from doing harm. All these points must 

 be borne in mind if the largest and finest crops 

 of flowers, fruit, or vegetables are to be obtained. 

 Under the action of light the green chlorophyll 

 granules, which give the leaves their colour, are 



formed, and it is the green parts (and in a less 

 degree the green stems also) that have the power, 

 during daylight, of chemically breaking up the 

 carbon-dioxide taken in by the pores (stomata) 

 that are plentiful on the under sides of the leaves. 

 This process results in the retention of the carbon 

 for nutrition, the oxygen being allowed to escape ; 

 thus the carbonic acid, deadly to and given off by 

 animals, is useful to plants. 



Besides being food factories and air purifiers, 

 leaves exhale moisture according to the weather 

 conditions prevailing ; by this means the excess of 

 water in the sap drawn up from the earth is given 

 off, the surrounding atmosphere is moistened, and 

 consequently is able to attract and condense other 

 moisture in the air, and in this way ensure those 

 moist, climatic conditions that are the soul of 

 fertility, but which so many countries and 

 localities are forfeiting by the wholesale removal 

 of timber trees, without any attempt at re- 

 afforestation. 



Next to humanity itself there is probably 

 nothing so wonderful or so complex as the 

 leaves, and it is difficult to comprehend the 

 high position they hold in the economy of Nature ; 

 no chemist so skilled, no factory so ably run, no 

 pump so powerful, and no distiller so clever as 

 the leaves. 



LEBECKIA. 



Greenhouse shrubs (ord. Leguminosse), propa- 

 gated by cuttings of half-ripe wood. Soil, loam 

 and peat. 



Principal Species : 



cytisoides, 3', Je., yel. (/. Crotalaria angus- 



(*;/. Crotalaria pul- tifolia). 



chella). simsiana, 4', spr., yel. 



sericea, 4', Mch., yel. (?/. Sarcophyllum car- 



nosum). 



LECANOPTERIS. 



Lecanopteris carnosa (ord. Filices) is a curious 

 stove Fern. The rhizomes spread out as ex- 

 crescences over the tree trunks on which the plant 

 grows. Increase is by division and by spores. 

 Soil, sandy peat. The plant should be fixed to 

 pieces of cork. 



LECYTHIS. 



A genus of about forty species of tropical trees 

 (ord. Myrtacese), which grow to a considerable 

 height. They have big trunks, large heads of 

 handsome foliage, and peculiarly hooded flowers. 

 Two species are of economic value, Ollaria yielding 

 the Monkey Pot fruits, and Zabucajo producing 

 Sapucaia Nuts ; both are .stove plants which will 

 grow in good loam and sand, and may be raised 

 from imported seeds. 



LEDENBERGIA. 



Climbing shrubs (ord. Phytolaccacese), requiring 

 stove treatment, and propagated by cuttings in 

 very sandy soil. Soil, three parts loam and one 

 part leaf mould. Good drainage is essential. 



Principal Species : 



roseo-senea, 6', Ivs. vio. beneath and metallic grn. 

 above (syn. Phytolacca purpurascens). 



Lebanon, Cedar of (see Cednw). 

 Lebretonia (see Paronia). 

 Lechenaultia (see Lescltenatiltia,). 

 Ledebouria, (see Scilla). 



