PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 107 



of a brilliant black and orang-c. It is very lively, has a voracious appetite 

 and <2;ro\vs rapidly; is of the kind known as measuring worms, and when 

 shaken from its hold drops down and hangs suspended by a thread, by 

 which it ascends to the bush ag-ain. About the 16th of May I selected 

 three full gmwu worms and put thetn in a lemonade glass, with about one 

 inch of fine earth at the bottom of the glass. I fed them for several days, 

 and they one by one disappeared. Turning up the earth with a stick, I 

 found the worms in a torpid state. Going to my garden, I dug them out 

 of the earth about the roots of niy currant bushes in the same state. Two 

 days later they were small, dark brown chrysalises. In a little over two 

 weeks one of them made its appearance as a perfect insect — a small maize 

 butterlly, with light gray marks upon its wings. In a week more they 

 were very common in my garden, never going far from the currant bushes, 

 nor could 1 discover when they laid their eggs. They fly mostJy by night, 

 and are very difficult to catch; but a candle set in a pan of water might 

 attract them and destroy thousands before they had laid their eggs. The 

 worm has been common to currant bushes for years, but it is seven years 

 or more since it commenced to be troublesome here. One of my neighbors 

 counted 900 worms shaken from a single bush at one time. 



A Parasite Plant. 



Professor Thurbur names the plant sent 1»3^ John H. Mudget, Sr., Fonks- 

 ville. Lake county. 111. Its common name is "Dodder;" its botanical name 

 is Cu.-^cida Gronovii. It is the pest of flax growers in England. It is a 

 true parasite, like the mistletoe {Vit^cum album) and many others. It ger- 

 minates its seeds in the earth, but as soon as the slender stem rises aljove 

 ground it attaches itself to some other plant and the root dies, and then 

 all the sustenance gf the parasite is drawn from the supporting plant, which 

 suflers in consequence. The one sent by Mr. Mudget is attached to the 

 stalk of dwarf willow, which grows common on moist prairie soil, and may 

 not be the same which plagues the fla.K growers of England. If it is, it 

 will be likely to prove troublesome in future in Illinois. Mr. JVIudget says 

 he has most generally found this species of dodder attached to the largo 

 stiff stalks of the golden rod. It grows in long yellow threpds, without 

 leaves, which twine around the supporting stalk, where the dodder forms 

 a little cluster of seed vessels. Dodder has no use, medicinal or otherwise, 

 that has ever been discovered. 



Adirondac Grape — Its Value ably Discussed. 



Mr. Geo. W. Campbell, Delaware, Ohio, sends us a comnmnicatiou of 

 which he says: " My object is to bring out the facts, if possible, about the 

 Adirondac Grape, and while I seek no notoriety in the premises, I never 

 allow myself to write any thing for publication to which I am unwilling to 

 place my signature. 



"I am fully satisfied that the Adirondac is not hardy enough to be of any 

 value for general cultivation, and although I have the plants for sale, and 

 means for increasing them to any desirable extent, I cannot with my pres- 

 ent impressions recommend it; and I feel it to be due t.) the public that its 

 true character and value should be ascertained." 



