498 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 459. 



as the weather is favorable they are planted in almost any 

 open position, where they remain till September, with but 

 little attention except in the matter of pinching to keep them 

 bushy. They are potted about the second week in Septem- 

 ber and placed in a shaded position tor a few days and finally 

 removed to the house in which they are intended to flower. 

 They are of Mexican origin, and considering the little trouble 

 in growing them they are among the most satisfactory fall- 

 blooming plants we have. 



Oxalis Ortgiesii, a Peruvian species, has been flowering in 

 the same house for the past six weeks. It is a woody-stemmed 

 plant, about eighteen inches in height. The forked cymes of 

 bright yellow flowers contrast strongly with the copper-colored 

 trifoliate leaves, and well-grown plants are very useful for 

 decorative purposes. 



Camellia Sasanqua is now in flower, and a beautiful species 

 it is. The flowers are single, three inches in diameter and 

 borneabundantly. They are of a lovely pink color, and their 

 orange-colored stamens suggest a wild Rose. They have also 

 a delicate fragrance. The leaves of this species are much 

 smaller than those of the well-known varieties of C. Japonica, 

 but the cultivation is the same. 



Botanic Garden, Northampton, Mass. Edward J. Canning. 



The Pear Slug. 



PEAR-TREES have been severely injured in some portions 

 of Delaware by the larva of this insect, Eriocampa cerasi, 

 during the past season. This slimy, dark green slug eats the 

 soft tissues of the leaves, leaving the coarser veins, and the 

 mutilated foliage dries up and falls in midsummer. The 

 insect can easily be checked by sprinkling the trees with air- 

 slaked lime, or pyrethrum, or hellebore, can be applied dry or 

 in water. Road-dust has often been used with success, the 

 efficiency of its action depending on each slug receiving a 

 coating of the dust, which stops up its breathing apparatus and 

 causes its death. 



The effect of the defoliation of a Pear-tree in midsummer 

 extends further than the immediate loss of its leaves. The 

 dormant buds, which normally produce the foliage and flow- 

 ers of the coming season, may push forth and cover the tree 

 with a new foliage in August or September. Then a new set 

 of buds are developed on this late growth to provide leaves 

 for next year, and these buds are necessarily weak and unde- 

 veloped, and result in a feeble growth. This extra effo. t on 

 the part of a tree, after its growing period is practically over, 

 is a devitalizing process, and if continued three or four years 

 may result in its death. I know of one valuable bearing 

 orchard that was quite destroyed by this pest in three years. 

 Several young orchards have come under my notice which 

 have gone, or are rapidly going, the same way. 



Experiment Station, Newark, Del. G. Harold Powell. 



Correspondence. 

 Aquatics in California. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Some time ago Mr. Watson, in one of his instructive 

 letters, gave your readers an account of the effect of high tem- 

 perature on hardy Nymphsas in England. Mr. Tricker has 

 told of the behavior of both tropical and hardy varieties in 

 New Jersey during a very hot summer. A few words from a 

 southern water-garden may, therefore, not be out of place. 

 Southern California is in the same latitude as the state of 

 South Carolina. In the minds of most residents of the eastern 

 states, latitude thirty-four degrees is associated with the idea 

 of an extremely hot summer. From sixty to one hundred 

 miles inland summer days in this part of California are often 

 hot, but along the coast the temperature is much more agree- 

 able than that of the Atlantic coast during the warm season. No 

 one can understand the climate of this region without actual 

 residence here. The newly arrived visitor who is interested in 

 plant-growth is constantly meeting with surprises. He will 

 see a multitude of trees, shrubs and vines from semi-tropical 

 regions, and by their side an equally great number of plants 

 which endure many degrees of trost in the east. 



In favored spots like the Cahuenga Valley one may see a 

 small plantation of Pineapples producing a moderate supply 

 of fruit, an orchard of Cherimoyers, and some bearing trees 

 of the Alligator Pear, while in the immediate vicinity most 

 deciduous fruit-trees, such as the Apricot, Peach, Plum and 

 Pear, flourish and bear luscious and abundant truit. With par- 

 tial shade or a northern exposure such plants as Pansies and 

 Tuberous Begonias "flower freely in midsummer. 



In the water-garden hardy Nympheeas take very kindly to this 

 climate. Nymphasa Marliacea chromatella flowers for more 

 than seven months, and is as fine color in midsummer as at 

 any time. N. Marliacea carnea the past summer has been 

 superb, producing flowers seven inches across, of the most 

 lovely flesh-color, while the variety Rosea has also been true, 

 with flowers quite as deep in color as those of N. odorata 

 rosea. N. odorata and N. odorata rosea have the same fail- 

 ing here as in the east, a rather short period of bloom. N. 

 odorata Caroliniana is an exception, however, as it produces 

 its lovely tinted blossoms as late as N. candidissima. 



The tropical varieties bloom very profusely for a long pe- 

 riod, but owing to the cool nights neither flowers nor leaves 

 are quite as large as in the east. The same may be said of 

 the Victoria regia, if grown without artificial heat. I have 

 found N. gigantea a difficult plant to grow here, but a gentle- 

 man in Alameda County, who has a water-garden fed by a hot 

 spring, writes me that it flowers finely with him every day in 

 the year. I have several forms of N. Zanzibarensis which are 

 interesting. One is a delicate porcelain blue, a very pleasing 

 shade. This is the result of an attempt to cross the variety 

 Azurea with N. dentata. Another form of N. Zanzibarensis 

 has bright blue flowers, with the base of each petal nearly 

 white. I have also a plant of N. Zanzibarensis rosea which 

 uniformly bears flowers having five sepals and an increased 

 number of petals, their color approaching salmon-pink, with 

 no trace of violet as in most forms. 



The hybridist who takes Water-liiits for his subjects has 

 many failures. The bees are often more successful. I find 

 it impossible to get seed of Nympluea gracilis true to color if 

 the plants are growing near the Zanzibar Lilies, unless the 

 flowers are protected from insects. I have flowered for two 

 seasons a seedling of N. gracilis which is undoubtedly a cross 

 between it and the Zanzibar Lily. The flowers are bright 

 violet-blue, with purple stamens and petals, intermediate in 

 width between those of the two parents. I call it N. gracilis 

 violacea. N. gracilis rosea is another chance cross between 

 N. gracilis and N. Zanzibarensis rosea. Its flowers also have 

 a tone of salmon mingled with the pink, and the stamens are 

 dark yellow and pink. Of the failures which often attend the 

 efforts of the hybridist two instances may be given : Some years 

 ago I fertilized a flower of N. Zanzibarensis with pollen of N. 

 Sturtevantii. An abundance of perfect seed was the result, but 

 on flowering the seedlings not one of them was affected by 

 the male parent. All turned out to be N. Zanzibarensis of 

 varying shades of blue. Some time ago Mr. Watson, in one 

 of his letters, spoke of the desirability of crossing the night- 

 blooming varieties with some of the day-blooming tropical 

 ones. Following this suggestion, three years ago 1 succeeded 

 in getting ripe seed of N. dentata fertilized with pollen of N. 

 Zanzibarensis. The seedlings in a young state had leaves of 

 a rich wine-color, but when they came to flower were all N. 

 dentata, pure and simple. These were cases of the prepotency 

 of the female parent surely. 



Nuphar polysepala is the Pacific coast representative of the 

 Spatter-Docks of the eastern states. The plant is a strong- 

 growing one, but not more so than the form of N. advena 

 which grows in the Delaware River at Bordentown, New Jer- 

 sey. The flowers, however, are two or three times the size of 

 the eastern species, being three and a half inches or more 

 across and of a deep golden-yellow color. The plant would 

 undoubtedly be hardy in the east, and is well worthy of a place 

 in a large water-garden or natural pond. 



At this writing (the middle of November) the tenderest of 

 the tropical Lilies have about finished their blooming. The 

 Zanzibar varieties and Nymphasa chromatella are still pro- 

 ducing a few flowers. Aponogeton distachyon flowers freely 

 from September to May. 



Los Angeles, Calif. Edmund D. Sturtcvant. 



Chrysanthemums Out-of-doors. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Perhaps no other flower fits in so well with the indoor 

 arrangement of our homes as the Chrysanthemum, or has a 

 more distinctly decorative and artistic effect according to mod- 

 ern ideas in combination with house furniture and hangings. 

 Many of them are graceful in pose and come in so many odd 

 colorings that varieties may be found to harmonize with 

 almost any of the rich or subdued tints used in modern inte- 

 riors. Out-of-doors they are quite another thing, and their 

 proper place in landscape-gardening is a problem which I 

 have not solved. Certainly they look like nothing native to 

 our fields and forests. They do not at all resemble our wild 

 Asters and Golden-rods, which give the distinctive floral 



