434 Forest Trees in Illinois. 



possibly the lohata. A very showy malva ? on dry, sandy 

 prairiesj may be M. triangulata. Of plants known to me, 

 the tall Rudbeckia purpurea, with its conspicuous drooping 

 purple ray, was going out of flower ; but the yellow species, 

 especially the fulgida, were found in dense " beds" on dry 

 prairies, as gay as sunshine in spring. 



Our native black or red mulberry, with its rich, broad 

 leaves, entire or lobed, and its very early, slightly tartish 

 fruit, I deem a very desirable tree for introduction. When 

 introduced, it improves in appearance and fruitfulness. The 

 woods border is full of beautiful trees, of second and third 

 magnitude, besides maples, oaks, elms, butternut, black 

 walnut, and bass wood, all fine shade trees. Of smaller 

 ones, you have Cercis canadensis, (Red bud,) and Gymno- 

 cladus canadensis, (Coffee tree.) What can be more graceful 

 than this hardy little tree, with its rich bipinnate leaves. 



But I am forgetting the Rose Bug, in my enthusiasm for 

 trees. This pest has, this year, in many places, eaten every 

 thing he could " lay his teeth to," — flower, fruit, and foliage. 

 I was told that they had been gathered hy the bushel, by 

 shaking vines and fruit trees over sheets, &c. 



What are we to do for or with these vermin ? The curculio 

 seems to have some limit to his or her fecundity, but this 

 disgusting and omnivorous Rose Bug, is as prolific as an 

 aphis. 



And here is our native caterpillar, a little fellow, only 

 about five-eighths of an inch long, when grown ; with a 

 double row of dark beads on his back, and plenty of feet, 

 which he does not use to crawl beyond the limits of his nest. 

 This nest is often a large one ; sometimes only made over the 

 leaves of a single branch ; sometimes including two or more 

 branches that naturally meet. Within this silky nest, which 

 entirely envelops the devoted limb, or portion of foliage, 

 these rascals lie at their ease, ''suck the blood" of the tree, 

 and remove the entire corticle from both sides of the leaf, 

 leaving it a perfect skeleton, which, with its gauzy shroud, 

 has a most ghost-like look. And when the whole tree (as is 

 often the case.) has been colonized, and every leaf decorti- 



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