500 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 301. 



Notes. 



Mr. John Weathers, whose notes on Orchids have from time 

 to time appeared in Garden and Forest, has made a large 

 collection of drawings of new and interesting plants during his 

 connection, first with Kew, and now with the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society. These drawings, with others, Mr. Weathers now 

 proposes to publish under the title of The Floral Sketch-book. 

 The book will be published monthly, and each number will 

 contain five figures of plants, with full descriptions and his- 

 torical and cultural notes. The first number will be ready in 

 January next. The price will be one shilling. 



Japanese persimmons, from Florida, make altogether the 

 brightest show among seasonable fruits, and this delicious 

 dessert and breakfast fruit is now in perfect condition. The 

 final receipts of California grapes are expected at the end of 

 this week. Among the varieties in recent arrivals are Black 

 Morocco, a large, fleshy, black berry of rather inferior quality, 

 but a showy market fruit, which stands shipment well, and the 

 oblong yellowish-green Verdel, lacking in sweetness, but use- 

 ful as a late table grape. The first California Navel oranges 

 are now being put on the market in that state, but this fruit 

 will hardly reach eastern cities until toward the close of the 

 season for Florida oranges. Hot-house tomatoes are already 

 coming in from neighboring greenhouses and bring sixty-five 

 cents a pound. 



Mr. A. M. Herr, an authority on the cultivation of Carna- 

 tions, gives it as his opinion, in a recent number of the Aiiieri- 

 can Florist, that the growing of Carnations for flowers and for 

 propagation should be two distinct processes. When the same 

 plants are used for both purposes there will be loss on one 

 side or the other. Beyond question, the flowers can be in- 

 creased in quality by very high culture, and it is equally true 

 that this same culture is prejudicial to the health of the plant, 

 and if such plants are used for propagation they will in a few 

 generations become feeble and liable to fall a prey to disease. 

 On the other hand, if plants are grown for the producfion of 

 strong cuttings, the flowers must suffer in quality, and they 

 cannot be above a medium grade. But even in the trade the 

 best pays the best in the long run, and the comparative loss in 

 the quality of the flowers will be more than compensated by 

 clear gains in quality from better plants next year. 



A correspondent writes to the Florists' Exchange that the 

 best varieties of Odontoglossum crispum have been found, so 

 far, in a comparatively small range between the fourth and 

 fifth degrees of northern latitude on the western slope of the 

 eastern Cordilleras, and at an elevadon of 6,000 to 7,000 feet. 

 The plants grow higher up the mountains, and farther north 

 and south, but when found at an elevation of 9,000 feet they 

 are smaller, with more decidedly pear-shaped bulbs, which 

 shrivel a great deal when they are dried off. At the elevation 

 of 9,000 feet the temperature sometimes falls to forty-two de- 

 grees, Fahrenheit, while at 6,000 the thermometer never regis- 

 ters less than fifty-five degrees. O. crispum is fond of light 

 and air, and, therefore, does not grow in the dense woods, but 

 on the edges of openings, where it can receive sunlight and 

 enjoy the breezes. This is why it seems to follow the little 

 streams and guUies in the mountains which, apparently, split 

 the forests open. It grows on the thick limbs and crotches of 

 laro-e trees, such as the Chinonas and Melastomas, and the 

 trees upon which these Orchids are found are cut down with- 

 out mercy, and the plants are torn off and shipped away. 



The Florida lemon season, which commenced early in Sep- 

 tember, is about ended. Only a small portion of the crop, 

 esfimated variously at from 25,000 to 50,000 boxes, came to this 

 city. The percentage of handsome Florida oranges has been 

 small, the bulk being rusty or "horny," and prices have been 

 unsadsfactory to the growers. The average freight on a box 

 of lemons from Florida to New York is fifty cents, while from 

 Sicily the cost for transportation is but thirty-two cents, with 

 dutyamoundng to as much more. The railroad chargesfrom 

 California on a similar package are eighty-seven and a half 

 cents, but the crop in California is small, and as yet only speci- 

 men lemons have been seen here. Nearly three million boxes 

 of lemons came into the United States from Mediterranean 

 ports during last year. The lemon season with local dealers 

 begins November ist, when the first new Sicily lemons are 

 due, and continues the year through. While the over-impor- 

 tation of Mediterranean lemons last year has left a large sup- 

 ply of old stock on hand, there are just now no good lemons 

 to be had here. During November of last year 120,000 boxes 

 of new-crop Sicily lemons were sold in New York, but none 



have yet reached this port this season. The first cargo of 

 Messina lemons is, however, expected daily, and another 

 steamer, carrying above 20,000 boxes of the same high grade, 

 is due this week. The crop of Florida oranges this season is 

 the heaviest known, a conservative estimate being 4,500,000 

 boxes, while it is believed by other authorities that 5,000,000 

 boxes will go out of that state. The weather in Florida during 

 the summer was highly favorable for the development of the 

 fruit, and many young groves are coming into bearing for the 

 first time. The fruit is ripening earlier than it has for several 

 years past, and is reaching this city in heavy quantities, but 

 prices are very low, due to decay caused by recent rains. Last 

 week there arrived, besides large quantities of the fruit bound 

 for other points, about 60,000 boxes, while the week previous 

 42,000 boxes were thrown on this market. The heaviest re- 

 ceivers are the Florida Fruit Exchange, who sell the product 

 of above 8,000 growers at auction. An average price of re- 

 cent sales is $1.60, and this nets the grower but sixty-five cents a 

 box on the tree, the return heretofore having been about a 

 dollar a box. Since the middle of September 25,000 boxes of 

 Florida oranges have been sent to England by the Exchange, 

 with generally satisfactory results. 



An interesting bulletin has been prepared by Mark Vernon 

 Slingerland, and published by the Entomological Division of 

 the Cornell Experiment Station, on the Four-lined Leaf-bug 

 (Poecilocapsus lineatus). Unlike many of our worst pests, this is 

 a native American species, and was described nearly a hundred 

 years ago. It has been brought to attention within the past 

 year or so by its attacks on Currant and Gooseberry bushes, 

 which, after the insects had finished them, looked as though 

 a fire had swept through them, and had left the topmost 

 leaves brown and dead. The death of these leaves so early 

 in the season as the middle of June entirely stops the new 

 growth of the bushes, and although the fruidng portions of the 

 plants are injured litde for the current season, the check given 

 for the next year must seriously affect their future bearing ca- 

 pacity. What we wish to speak of, however, now is the inter- 

 esting fact that Dr. Fitch put it on record as early as 1858 that 

 this insect was seriously injuring Dahlias. Mr. Chatfield, an 

 Albany florist, then stated that upon his plants the first flower- 

 bud which appeared was attacked by the leaf-bug and punc- 

 tured so that it withered. The two or three stalks which then 

 came forth from the base of this one were destroyed in the 

 same manner. Other stalks put forth from the base of these 

 shared the same fate. The result was an enormously broad 

 mass of leaves and stalks which grew from one root, without 

 a single flower resuUing from the multitude of buds which 

 had been developed. In 1864, Mr. Heffron, of Utica, told Dr. 

 Fitch that these bugs had so infested his Dahlias that only 

 three or four imperfect flowers were produced, and that in the 

 neighboring gardens that year the insects had destroyed the 

 flowers on all the Dahlias. Mr. Slingerland says that these 

 facts may give the reason for the failure of the Dahlia to flower 

 in western New York, as noted by Mr. Chamberlain in a letter 

 to Garden and Forest for October 4th, and corroborated by 

 Messrs. EUwanger & Barry, of Rochester. The evidence 

 ofl'ered by Dr. Fitch seems to show that these effects are very 

 similar to those produced on Dahlias by the attacks of this 

 insect. Of course, there is need of more observation on this 

 point. If growers will watch their Dahlias closely next year 

 they can determine whether or not this widespread loss of 

 flowers is due to the punctures of the insect. The four-lined 

 leaf-bug attacks a large number of plants cultivated for food, 

 medicine and ornament, as well as many weeds, and as the in- 

 sects feed on the juices of the leaves or buds the arsenical 

 applications seem of little avail. It has no biting jaws for mas- 

 ticating its food, but a beak, through which it sucks its food, 

 and this delicately pointed sucker passes through the poison 

 even when it thickly coats the leaf, while the insect does not 

 imbibe any portion of it, but feeds safely on the inner tissues. 

 A strong kerosene emulsion is the cheapest and most effec- 

 tive insecticide for all these sucking insects. It had better be 

 applied on the nymphs as soon as they appear in May, for it 

 will not be so effective on the adults. Inasmuch as the eggs 

 are deposited on the tips of new-grown shrubs, the pruning 

 and burning of these tips on which the eggs are laid is also a 

 practicable means of fighting the pest. This pruning can be 

 done at any time between August ist and the first of the fol- 

 lowing May. Another good plan of attack against the adults, 

 especially on herbaceous plants, will be to capture them 

 by jarring them into a dish partly filled with kerosene water. 

 On shrubs like Currants and Gooseberries the nymphs should 

 be captured this way in May. The bulletin is helpfully illus- 

 trated and gives a complete summary of all that is known of 

 this pest. 



