August 23, li 



] 



Garden and Forest. 



357 



Rudbeckia purpurea— Mr. Watson does not overpraise this 

 plant when he says, " It is one of the stateliest and most effec- 

 tive of the many noble composites which have been intro- 

 duced from America." I have grown it for years, and among 

 a large collection of hardy perennial herbaceous plants I con 

 sider it one of the finest and most striking. In growth it is 

 vigorous and free, and it produces a profusion of flowers 

 which last for a long time. It is not particular as to soil, though 

 it likes a strong, rich one, Here is another instance of one of 

 our most beautiful native perennial plants quite neglected. 

 Probably the reason why it is cultivated so little in England is 

 found in the fact that it rarely perfects its seeds there, and can 

 be increased only by division, and in this way but slowly, un- 

 like most of our perennials. In this country we have no such 

 excuse for neglecting it, as it seeds freely. It is fortunate that 

 attention has been called to the stateliness and beauty of this 

 plant, which so richly merits a more extended use in our gar- 



Washington, D. C. J^O/in Saul. 



The Flower-garden. — Exceptionally dry weather since spring, 

 and latterly almost a drought, has left the garden in an unsatis- 

 factory condition, artificial watering in such a case, unless ac- 

 companied by careful cultivation, being of but slight service. 

 Annuals were never in worse condition with me, and the self- 

 sown hardy annuals are about the only ones which have made 

 ,.much progress. In the case of hardy annuals the results are 

 never entirely satisfactory unless the seed is sown in the 

 fall. Fall sowings will often produce plants which will astonish 

 those not familar with the results. As an instance, a good 

 plant of Coreopsis Drummondii will cover a space three feet 

 in diameter and have stems an inch or more in diameter. 

 New annuals of any value are rather rare, most of those tried 

 this season being botanical curiosities. Of those in flower the 

 most attractive at present is Ipomoea (mina) sanguinea, a 

 very graceful vine with small deeply cut five-lobed leaves 

 and tubular flowers with a spreading undivided corolla of a 

 peculiar dull cinnabar-red. The flowers are numerous and 

 handsome ; like others of the family, they are fugacious. 



Elizabeth, N.J. J' -"V. G. 



Single Paeonies. — The illustrated article in GARDEN and For- 

 est, p. 305, on the single White Paeony, calls to mind the fact 

 that a large percentage of seedlings come single. The seeds 

 take nearly a year to germinate, and some will come up only 

 after two years. Some seedlings, now three years old, bloomed 

 here last spring, and many were fine single varieties. Every 

 year hundreds of seedlings come up in a large bed of Paeo- 

 nies here ; and I presume they germinate as freely elsewhere, 

 but since they are not very conspicuous objects in the borders 

 they are liable to be hoed up, and, therefore, should be looked 

 for. Persons fond of single Paeonies might make quite a col- 

 lection by simply taking care of the seedlings which yearly 

 come up in the borders. 



Wellesley, Mass. I . D. H. 



Correspondence. 

 The White Grub in Lawns. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— Can you tell me what is the best thing to do with a lawn 

 of large extent which is infested with the white grub ? Will 

 plowing it up thoroughly and exposing it through the winter 

 kill the grubs ? The white grub is so serious an evil m New- 

 port this year that its destruction has become a question of 

 great moment. Is the English lawn-seed better than the 

 American ? 



Newport, R. I. E. B. A. 



[The white grub, the larva of the May-bug or Dor-bug, 

 Phyllophaga quercina, is one of our most serious insect 

 pests ; it is dirty white, with a yellowish orange head, and 

 when fully grown is sometimes as thick as the httle finger 

 and disgusting in appearance. It is particularly destruc- 

 tive to Grasses, Strawberries, young nursery stock and 

 other plants with thin dehcate roots. Working under 

 ground, it is impossible to detect its ravages until their 

 effects appear in the death of the injured i>lants. The 

 larvas remain three years in the ground, increasing in size 

 from year to year, and are only large enough in their third 

 and last season to be really destructive. There are always 

 more or less of them in cultivated ground, but it is only at 

 irregular intervals that they appear here in sufficient num- 



bers to be seriously destructive. When a season in which they 

 abound, like the present one, happens to be exceptionally 

 dry, the damage they inflict is very great, as the roots of 

 Grasses and other plants cannot grow in dry soil as rapidly 

 as the grubs devour them, and the plants are, therefore, 

 unable to recuperate. If their presence under a lawn can 

 be detected by the browning of the grass before it is killed, 

 the sod can be raised, and the grubs, which will be found 

 within a few inches of the surface, killed ; the sod can then 

 be reset. The grubs are sometimes killed by pounding the 

 surface of the sod with heavy wooden mauls, but this is 

 slow work, and only partially effective. If the grass is 

 killed there is nothing to do but to strip off the sod, which 

 will be found entirely detached from the soil, kill the grubs, 

 and then re-seed the ground. Exposing the ground during 

 the winter, as our correspondent suggests, will not be neces- 

 sary ; the grubs big enough to do serious mischief are in 

 their last season. This autumn they will descend deep 

 into the ground out of the reach of frosts and emerge early 

 in the following spring in the shape of beetles. The only 

 way to fight them successfully is in this stage of their ex- 

 istence, and by destroying the beetles prevent the damage 

 which three years later their offspring would inflict. In the 

 very early morning the beetles, which are then inert, may 

 be shaken down from the branches of trees into cloths and 

 destroyed ; or they can be caught during the night by 

 suspending a lantern over a tub of water placed in the 

 neighborhood of trees or shrubbery. The clumsy beetles, 

 attracted by the light, fly to it, and striking heavily against 

 the glass of the lantern fall to the water. A little kerosene 

 oil poured on the surface deprives them of all chance of 

 escape. In France, where these beetles (Hantons) are 

 particularly destructive, various lanterns have been in- 

 A^ented for this purpose, but an ordinary stable lantern 

 hung over a wash-tub will answer the purpose. The more 

 brilliant the light, however, the greater the number of bee- 

 tles it will attract. As the grubs are so abundant this year 

 in Newport there will be a large number of beetles there 

 next spring, and an attempt should be made to destroy 

 them. Concerted effort on the part of the land-owners 

 ought to reduce the number materially in an isolated 

 community like that on the island of Rhode Island, 

 although it will not be possible to destroy them all. 



In our climate Kentucky Blue Grass and Rhode Island 

 Bent Grass make a better lawn than any of the foreign 

 Grasses. — Ed. J 



Dutch Bulbs in America. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I judge by Professor Massey's rejoinder to my remarks 

 concerning the cultivation of Dutch bulbs in America, that he 

 did not quite see what I thought stood in the way of the prose- 

 cution of that business here, for he simply asserts that North 

 Carolina has a great deal of soil suitable for these bulbs, which 

 I fully believe, and that a Dutch grower is going to examine 

 for himself. I spoke of the probable quality of the flowers 

 produced by southern-grown bulbs, and in that connection 

 named southern Tuberoses, Bermudian Lilies and Italian 

 Lilium candidums. Professor Massey's reply asserts the su- 

 periority of North Carolina Tuberoses, which I do not deny, as 

 I have very little knowledge of the plant, but, whether right or 

 wrong, there is some prejudice in favor of the northern-grown 

 product ; if it is mistaken it will wear away in time, but at 

 present it exists. 



Professor Massey states that 100,000 undersized Lilium can- 

 didum bulbs grew to large dimensions in a year in North 

 Carolina, as they would have done with proper treatment in 

 almost any state of the Union, but he fails to meet the point 

 which I raised about them, inasmuch as he does not say 

 whether the flowers were of such substance as those we see 

 in old gardens all through the north. L. candidum is hardly a 

 " Dutch " hulh, but, pRPsing over that point, let me say that it 

 can he purchased in Italy at eight dollnrs jier thousand, and if 

 tlie flowers of these bulbs are not influenced iinfavoral)ly by 

 the clitnate, that will be the price which can be obtained for 

 them, plus the trifling expense of importation. One year more 

 of cultivation in Italy or America would make them larger, no 

 doubt, and then the Italian price would be fifty lire (ten dollars) 



