36 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 413. 



trees of this species were even then often planted near 

 farm-houses on account of "the fine smells which their 

 flowers afford." It has been a favorite garden tree in 

 Europe for more than a century, and our European corre- 

 spondents have commended it as having few rivals among 

 ornamental Pears and Apples, although of late years it 

 seems to have been somewhat neglected. When at its 

 best in the lower Ohio valley and in the states west of the 

 Mississippi River it is a bushy tree sometimes thirty feet 

 high, with a trunk more than a foot through, breaking 

 into stout spreading branches eight or ten feet above the 

 ground. Usually it grows smaller, and sometimes is little 

 more than a shrub with stiff contorted branches. Its small 

 size and attractive habit give it a value for wood borders, 

 shrubberies and even for small gardens. Its pale pink or 

 rose-colored flowers appear ten or twelve days after the 

 petals have fallen from other Apples. They are nearly two 

 inches across when fully expanded and have a delightful 

 odor. The waxy, translucent fruits, which are from an inch 

 to an inch and a half in diameter, hang gracefully on long 

 stems and remain on the branches until after the leaves 

 have dropped in autumn, when their greenish orange color, 

 flushed with scarlet as they ripen, and their delicious 

 fragrance make the tree quite as ornamental as it is in 

 June. 



Begonia Evansiana. — This plant, often called Begonia 

 discolor, is a native of China and Japan. It is much the 

 hardiest of all the Begonias so far as known, and we have 

 often commended it for this quality as well as for its beauty. 

 The plants, of course, die down root and branch every 

 year with the first frost, but the bulblets, which form plen- 

 tifully at the bases of the leaf and flower-stems, will 

 have fallen to the ground ; these sprout just as soon as 

 warm weather commences the next year, and soon develop 

 into blooming plants. Mr. Oliver writes that this Begonia 

 has become naturalized in the Botanic Garden at Wash- 

 ington, not in one place only, but in several, for over thirty 

 years. It seems to like positions for hibernating which 

 are not affected in the least by sunshine. On the north 

 side of a house, close to the wall, it comes up abundantly 

 every year — in fact, far too abundantly, for many of the 

 plants have to be pulled up to give the remainder a chance 

 to develop. The bulblets do not receive any protection 

 whatever in the way of mulching; they are invariably left 

 to take care of themselves. The rock-garden is another 

 spot where this Begonia is at home ; those bulblets which 

 fall on the shady side of the rocks survive the winter with 

 ease, while those which are exposed to the sun, owing, 

 perhaps, to successive freezings and thawings, are killed. 

 After the plants are up a certain height a little decayed 

 manure thrown over the roots accelerates the growth of the 

 plants and produces a heavy crop of flowers. Some inter- 

 esting experiments have been made at the Washington 

 Gardens with this plant, where new colonies have been 

 started with bulblets from plants growing out-of-doors, and 

 also from those which have been grown for years in a hot- 

 house. While it is an easy matter to start a new colony in 

 a suitable place with plants or bulblets grown outside, it 

 is difficult to get a plant from indoors to perpetuate itself in 

 the open air. The plants from the hothouse form bulb- 

 lets enough, but in winter they require protecting by dry 

 leaves or some similar covering for a season or two. 



Cultural Department. 

 Winter Work among Insects Injurious to Fruits. 



MR. M. V. SLINGERLA.ND, of Cornell University, 

 makes some timely observations on this subject in 

 the current number of The American Agriculturist, the prin- 

 cipal points of which are here reproduced : 



The burning of fallen leaves and other rubbish in or near 

 fruit plantations of any kind will prevent many insect pests 

 from obtaining winter shelter near their food-plants, and those 

 pests already in hibernation will be killed. Many of our worst 



insect pests, as the plum curculio, thus hibernate in rubbish. 

 It is a good practice to scrape off the rough bark from the 

 trunks and larger branches of fruit-trees, for many caterpillars 

 of the codling moth (then in their little cocoons of silk), the 

 hibernating adults of the pear psylla, and the hibernating eggs 

 under the scales of the oyster-shell bark-louse and the scurfy 

 bark-louse will be dislodged or killed. A coating of white- 

 wash or some similar wash will tend to keep the bark clean, 

 thus rendering it less attractive as a hibernating place for 

 insects. 



If fruit-trees are pruned at any time during their dormant 

 period, the prunings should always be burned. These prun- 

 ings will often bear the wintering eggs of the different kinds 

 of plant-lice (as the apple and cherry aphides and the hop 

 aphis, whose eggs are laid on Plum-trees) that appear in such 

 great numbers on the trees in the spring and summer. The 

 half-grown caterpillars of the cigar-case-bearer are also then 

 snugly tucked away in their little curved cases attached to the 

 bark of the twigs, and many would thus perish on the prun- 

 ings. This insect has recently come to be a serious Apple 

 pest in western New York. 



Trees infested with the oyster-shell bark-louse, the scurfy 

 bark-louse, the San }o%€ scale or any other scale insect should 

 be thoroughly washed witli whale-oil soap in a solution of 

 one or two pounds to a gallon of water. It should be remem- 

 bered that the wash must come in contact with the insects to 

 kill them. With this wash, or with a strong kerosene emul- 

 sion, many'of the adults of that dreaded pest, the pear psylla, 

 then in hibernation in sheltered places on the bark, can be 

 killed. 



The New York Plum-scale, which has recently caused great 

 destruction in western New York Plum orchards, can be fought 

 to the best advantage only when the trees are dormant, as the 

 scales are then young and tender and lie exposed on the bark. 

 Badly infested trees should receive a thorough spraying with 

 kerosene emulsion (Hubbard-Riley formula diluted four times) 

 in the fall, in the winter if possible, and another very thorough 

 application early in the spring before the buds swell. 



The eggs of several insect pests can be collected and de- 

 stroyed during the winter, thus greatly reducing the numbers 

 of the pest the next season. The eggs of the Apple-tree tent 

 caterpillar are glued together in a large, conspicuous mass, 

 which usually encircles a twig ; it is a short job to look over a 

 tree and remove these egg masses. The eggs of the white- 

 marked tussock-moth form a very conspicuous large, white, 

 froth-like mass on the bark of the trees, or on near-by fences 

 or buildings ; this is the insect that is ravaging the shade-trees 

 in several of our large cities. It was nearly exterminated in 

 Rochester by offering prizes to the school children for collect- 

 ing the eggs ; the children collected millions of the frothy egg 

 masses. The eggs of the four-lined leaf-bug, a serious Cur- 

 rant pest in some localities, are laid in slits cut in the shoots 

 near the tips ; the white ends of the eggs project out of the 

 slit, and one can thus quite readily determine the infested tips 

 and cut them off. The long ragged scars or slits often found 

 in Raspberry-canes, or in the twigs of fruit-trees, are the work 

 of the snowy tree-cricket, done in laying its eggs ; this is the 

 only damage done by the insect. The infested canes or 

 branches are readily seen, and should be removed. When the 

 eggs of any of these insects have been collected, they should 

 always be burned. If left on the ground they will hatch as 

 readily there as on the tree or bush, and the young will easily 

 find their way to their food. 



Currant-bushes and Raspberry-canes are often infested with 

 borers ; two kinds, a beetle and a moth, work in currants. 

 Usually the infested shoots can be quickly detected in the 

 spring when growth begins, and all such should be removed 

 and burned at once, thus destroying the developing insect life 

 they contain. The hydrocyanic acid gas treatment, so exten- 

 sively used in California, will probably never come into general 

 use among New York fruit growers. It is too expensive, and 

 most of our insect pests can be effectively combated by other 

 means with less labor and expense. There is scarcely any 

 question about its efficiency against all insect life, especially 

 scale insects ; we have been unable to find a living San Jose 

 scale on trees treated with the gas. It is the most efficient and 

 practicable method for our nurserymen to use in fumigating 

 their stock to prevent the distribution of the San Jose' scale, the 

 pear psylla, the bud-moth and other serious pests. There is 

 no longer any doubt that some New York nurserymen are 

 sending out these insects on their stock ; and the time may 

 soon come when they will be compelled to resort to fumiga- 

 tion with the gas to protect their trade, and the matter is 

 worthy the careful attention of nurserymen throughout the 

 country. 



