November 25, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



473 



at night and remaining underground during the day, are less 

 likely to be disturbed, and the measure suggested is of least 

 benefit as against these. 



The grass should be always kept well fed ; but so far as pos- 

 sible, after the ground has once been put into good condition 

 and a good lawn has been obtained, use no barnyard manure. 

 All insects do very much better in a soil containing a great 

 quantity of vegetable matter, and are least at home where 

 mineral fertilizers are constantly used. Lawns should be fed 

 almost entirely with mineral fertilizers, nitrate of soda being 

 used to furnish the necessary nitrogen, and kainit or muriate 

 to furnish the potash. None of the phosphates in ordinary 

 use have insecticide qualities, so it does not much matter in 

 what form this is put on. It is also a good plan wdien using 

 these fertilizers to apply them quite heavily and to make the 

 application during or just before a rain, that they may be 

 readilv dissolved and washed into the soil. No insects like 

 salt, and kainit contains a considerable amount of both chlo- 

 ride of sodium and chloride of magnesium. A great many of 

 the young insects are at once killed by this application, and the 

 others will not feel inclined to feed much so long as any trace 

 of it remains about them. 



Where land is badly infested, especially if by white grubs, it 

 is a very good plan to plow or dig up the sod, and if chickens 

 are available, turn them in for two or three days and allow 

 them to pick up everything in the way of insect life that they 

 can find. Chickens are very fond of white grubs, and will dis- 

 pose of a very great number of them if given an opportunity. 

 If the ground be turned over more than once, so as to expose 

 as many as possible of the insects, the work will be the more 

 thorough. 



It has been found practical to use kerosene on a small 

 scale on lawns, and with very good effect as against all 

 underground insects. Kerosene is, of course, a contact 

 poison and exceedingly effective wherever it can be brought 

 in touch with creatures in which the spiracles, or breathing- 

 pores, are not too well protected. An emulsion should be pre- 

 pared in the ordinary way, that is, according to the following 

 formula: Hard soap, shaved fine, half-pound; soft water, one 

 gallon ; kerosene, two gallons. Dissolve the soap in the boil- 

 ing water, warm the kerosene slightly, then pour the boiling 

 hot soap-suds into the kerosene and churn with a small force- 

 pump until the oil and suds are thoroughly mixed and form a 

 pure white, soft butter. Where the mixture is very hot and the 

 churning is active, five minutes will serve to prepare a perfect 

 emulsion. The colder the mixture and the less thorough the 

 churning the longer the time required to procure the butter. 

 This emulsion may be readily diluted with water, and using from 

 ten to fifteen parts of water to one part of the emulsion makes 

 a sufficiently active mixture to apply liberally to infested grass 

 lawns. It can be put on with an ordinary sprinkling pot, and 

 should be applied so as to thoroughly moisten the soil. If it 

 does not rain within twenty-four hours use a hose, if one is 

 available, to wash the kerosene deep into the soil, and a con- 

 siderable amount of water may be applied. This will carry the 

 oil down, and it will kill whatever it touches there, without 

 hurting the roots of the grass or other plants. The addition 

 of water should be continued for at least three days in succes- 

 sion, unless it rains sufficiently to wet from two to three inches 

 below the surface, or to the bottom of the grass roots. Of 

 course, this material is useful only on lawns, or where the 

 amount of land to be protected is limited. It would be alto- 

 gether too expensive to use in ordinary field practice, but is 

 very effective where it is used to protect only a small area. An 

 application of this kind was made on the Capitol grounds at 

 Washington in 18S8, under the direction of the then entomol- 

 ogist, Dr. C. V. Riley, and it proved a decided success. It has 

 been used by others on a smaller scale and always with ben- 

 efit. The application may be made at any time when the 

 presence of destructive insects working on the sod is deter- 

 mined. If land is at this time (November) badly infested, the 

 emulsion can be applied diluted ten times, and in considera- 

 ble quantity, so as to make certain of killing all the grubs at 

 whatever depth they may be. In spring the land can be 

 reseeded, and will then be free from insects for a time at least. 



New Jersey Experiment Station, New Brunswick. J> £>• Smith, 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Cajioensia maxima. — This plant is now flowering for the 

 first time in a stove at Kew, where it was planted about 

 ten years ago in a raised border beneath which there are 



several hot-water pipes, its shoots being trained close to 

 the roof glass which faces south. Here it has grown ram- 

 pantly, and if unrestricted would long ago have covered a 

 very large area with its stems, which are produced freely all 

 over the bed from the thick woody roots. The flowers are 

 borne in a terminal erect raceme (not drooping, as hitherto 

 believed), and there are eight buds in each raceme, at first 

 covered with a rusty brown tomenlum. The expanded 

 flowers have a greenish tomatose, tubular, five-lobed 

 calyx over three inches long, and white petals six inches 

 long, the largest, or vexillum, being four inches wide, the 

 others much narrower ; the margins are elegantly crisped 

 and colored pale gold. The odor of the flowers is power- 

 ful and suggestive of vanillas. This plant was introduced 

 to Kew in 1S73, when Mr. H. Monteiro sent seeds of it from 

 Angola, where it was discovered by Dr. Welwitsch and 

 described and figured by Bentham in vol. xxv. of the Trans- 

 actions of /he Linncean Society. I am told that it is now 

 flowering also in two other gardens in England. It flow- 

 ered in Ceylon two years ago. 



Vanda Sanderiana. — The largest and most floriferous 

 specimen of this grand Vanda ever seen in Europe was 

 exhibited at the last meeting of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society by Mr. J. G. Fowler, of South Woodford, in Essex. 

 It was nearly four feet high and three feet through, and 

 consisted of eight strong, well-leaved growths, upon which 

 were eleven flower-spikes, bearing an aggregate of one 

 hundred and twenty expanded flowers of exceptionally 

 large size and rich in colors ; the largest spike bore fifteen 

 flowers. Such a specimen of an Orchid, which at best is 

 a bad grower and one of the most difficult of all to import, 

 created quite a sensation, and was awarded the gold medal 

 of the society by acclamation. It was imported from Min- 

 danao by Messrs. H. Low & Co. about a year ago, who 

 attribute its exceptional growth here to the care taken of 

 it by their collector, Mr. Boxall, who brought it over in his 

 own cabin and tended it carefully all the way. Under 

 ordinary care this Vanda suffers severely during transport, 

 and is generally found difficult to establish. 



Cycnochis chlorochtlon is grown exceptionally well in 

 the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, where I lately saw a plant 

 which had matured pseudo-bulbs two feet long, and upon 

 one of them there had been two racemes, one with five, the 

 other with seven, flowers. Altogether, the plant bore thirty- 

 five flowers, all open at once, and the same pseudo-bulbs 

 were again pushing out racemes from the nodes below 

 where the others were developed. This plant is a male, 

 but in the same house with it was a female, which had 

 borne racemes of only two flowers, differing from the male 

 flowers in being larger, thicker, with a much shorter 

 column. These plants were grown in a hot-house along 

 with Vandas, etc., and were suspended in baskets near the 

 roof glass. This species has done well also at Kew this 

 year, where it is now in flower. The large creamy-looking 

 flowers are a great attraction to visitors, who are most de- 

 lighted when' they see an Orchid-flower which suggests 

 some animal, and the resemblance of this Cycnoches to a 

 swan is quite striking. 



Catti.eya Apollo. — This is a beautiful hybrid of Veitchian 

 origin, its parents being Cattleya Mossiw ami C. Aclandice. 

 It is quite distinct from all other hybrids, and was awarded 

 a first-class certificate by the Royal Horticultural Society a 

 fortnight ago. It is dwarf in habit and the flowers resem- 

 ble those of C. Aclanditr in form and substance, while in 

 color they are like those of C. Mossite. The sepals and 

 petals are about three inches long, rose-colored, shaded 

 and faintly blotched with purple; the lip is broad, some- 

 what flattened, and is colored crimson-purple in front, 

 yellow at the base and a pleasing shade of rose on the 

 side loins. 



Catti.eya Triumph. — This hybrid between Cattleya Law- 

 renciana and C. speciosissima, ami raised by .Mr. C. J. 

 Ingram, was also awarded a first class certificate. It may 

 be called an enlarged C. Lawrenciana, the flowers resem- 

 bling some forms of that spe :ies in color, but being about 



