88 



Garden and Forest. 



[February 19, 1890. 



Entomological. 



An Enemy to the Egyptian Lotus. 



IN Garden and Forest for April 10th, 1889, was an interest- 

 ing account of the naturalization of the Oriental Nelum- 

 bium in New Jersey, by Mr. E, D. Sturtevant, who has done 

 more than any other man to popularize the cultivation of this 

 plant. Beauty and poetry, combined, are represented by the 

 Mower and its traditions, but neither will serve to protect it 

 against the sordid prose of insect attack. An enemy has 

 appeared that annually ruins many of the plants, eating their 

 leaves, buds, seeds, and even into the stem. The caterpillar 

 — for it is a caterpillar — is a typical borer, living primarily in 

 the leaf and flower stems ; but as soon as buds form, they are 

 attacked ; the larva bores into the side and feeds so judiciously 

 that the bud continues to grow, and will even open in due 

 time, only to fall apart and to show a mass of black frass in 

 place of a beautiful flower. The seed-pods also are attractive 

 to the larvas, and the seeds are eaten before they attain 

 maturity. Unfortunately the insects seem to be increasing in 

 number, and bid fair to render Lotus-growing unsatisfactory. 

 To Mr. J. Turner Brakeley, of Bordentown, I owe my introduc- 

 tion to the larvae infesting these plants, the specimens sent me 

 being from Mr. Sturtevant's ponds. According to the state- 

 ments made, the larva, when it first appears, lives on the out- 

 side of the leaves in a little silken tent, but very soon gets 

 under cover somewhere, either in bud, stem or seed-capsule, 

 whichever is most handy. It continues its work during 

 the summer, and in fact until frost puts a period to the life of 

 the leaves. It was in the latter part of July when specimens 

 of infested stems, buds and seed-capsules reached me, and 

 there were sometimes three to four larvae in a single stem. 

 In general color the caterpillars are a dirty white, with a more 

 or less evident reddish tint, and rather stout of build, the head 

 and dorsal plate smooth, yellowish, mottled with red-brown. 

 Each body segment has two larger dorsal yellowish tubercles, 

 one large tubercle each side, and usually two smaller, also 

 yellowish, tubercles near the posterior end of the segment. 

 The annexed figure will give 

 a fair idea of the general form, 

 and the mouth parts or instru- 

 ments of destruction are also 

 shown in detail. When full 

 grown the larva is nearly an 

 inch in length, and then spins 

 a rather flattened cocoon of a 

 quite dense texture inside the 

 stem and changes to a blackish 

 brown pupa about half an inch 

 in length. Towards the middle 

 and latter part of August the 

 moths issued, and proved to 

 be a species of Botis not previ- 

 ously described. From its 

 food plant I name it Botis ne- 

 lumbialis. 



In general color it varies 

 from a pale clay yellow to a 

 powdery, rusty red, all inter- 

 vening shades being repre- 

 sented. Two dentate dark lines 

 cross the wing, one near the 

 base, the other toward the outer margin of the wing. Usually 

 there is a dusky discal spot and a dark shade close to the outer 

 margin, but sometimes only the median lines are visible. The 



figure shows three forms of the new 

 species, about natural size. These 

 insects promise to become quite a 

 serious pest, and it is not easy to 

 suggest a certain remedy. Black- 

 birds are said to eat the larvae, 

 while they are exposed. Where 

 there are but a few of the plants, 

 they can be easily kept clean by 

 picking them off before they take 

 to shelter. It is probable that in their 

 method of passing the winter we 

 shall have an opportunity to control 

 them. If, as I suspect, the winter 

 is passed in the pupa state in the stem, the collection and 

 destruction of the dry etalks would kill the specimens con- 

 tained in them, and reduce the risk of injury the following 

 season. I should advise the cutting off, as soon as could be 

 done without danger of injury to the plant, of all the parts above 



the water line, the cut material to be buried deeply enough to 

 prevent all chance of the larvae working their way out. 



Rutgers College, February 8th, 1890. John B. Smith. 



Fig. 18. — Botis nelumbialis, Smith; a, 

 larva from above : b, a single seg- 

 ment from side, showing sculpture; 

 c, mandible of larva; d, maxillfe and 

 palpi; e, clypeus;/", antenna; g, leg. 

 All greatly enlarged. 



Fig. 19. — Botis nelumbialis, 

 Smith ; varieties. 



New or Little Known Plants. 

 Gladiolus Turicensis. 



WE are indebted to Messrs. Froebel&Co., of Zurich, 

 for the drawing from which has been made the 

 illustration, on page 89, of Gladiolus Turice?tsis, concern- 

 ing which they send the following note : 



" Mr. Max Leichtlin, of Baden-Baden, was the first to im- 

 prove garden Gladioli by an infusion of the blood of G. 

 Saundersii. .The first variety obtained in this way he named 

 G. Saundersii superbus. In 1880 we produced two varieties by 

 crossing G. purpureo-auratus with G. Gandavensis, which we 

 named G. Froebeli and G. Engesseri. These were both good 

 varieties, and proved perfectly hardy. G. Brineri, of the same 

 parentage, followed in 1885. G. Turicensis is our last produc- 

 tion, obtained by a cross between a large-flowered variety of 

 G. Gandavensis with G. Saundersii superbus. The flowers of 

 G. Turicensis are a fine purplish crimson color, the lower 

 segments of the perianth beautifully marked with white. 

 When fully expanded the flowers are upward of three inches 

 across. The flowers of G. Saundersii have the bad habit of 

 bending in toward the stem, while those of this hybrid, when 

 fully expanded, look one in the face, so to speak. G. Turi- 

 censis is a plant of exceedingly vigorous growth, the spikes of 

 flowers attaining the length of two feet. It is a free bloomer, 

 and seems well adapted to plant in beds where masses of 

 flowers of one color are needed." 



Should this plant prove, as it is predicted, perfectly 

 hardy, it will make, certainly, one of the most valuable 

 additions to the list of hardy summer-blooming bulbs 

 which has appeared for some time. Whether it is hardy 

 or not, however, it is a plant of great value, which will 

 be watched with interest by all growers of Gladioli, not 

 only for the beauty of its flowers, but as an element of pos- 

 sible future improvement in garden varieties of Gladiolus. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 Berlin Letter. 

 TTYACINTHS bloomed much earlier than usual this year, 

 -*■ *■ such varieties as Homer, Maria Cornelia, Wilhelm I. 

 and Norma being in flower from ten days to two weeks 

 before their usual season. The same remark is true of the 

 Tulips, and it is interesting to know that the bulbs grown here 

 are forced more easily and flower earlier than Holland bulbs, a 

 fact which has been known to Berlin gardeners for some years 

 past. The culture of spring bulbs, which was once a promi- 

 nent industry here, has fallen off within the last ten years, but 

 the tide has again turned, and large fields of Hyacinths, Tulips 

 and Scillas can now be seen, a result largely due to the energy 

 and enterprise of Mr. Spath. Old gardeners say that the bulbs 

 have not flowered so early as they have this year since 1840. 

 They attribute this. fact to the very hot and dry May of last 

 year, which in their opinion ripened up the bulbs quickly and 

 perfectly. I am not sure, however, that this is the true cause. 

 It is well known that plants which suffer so much from dry- 

 ness, or any other cause, that they are in danger of death, at 

 once begin to develop flower-buds. It is as if the instinct of 

 the plant for the preservation of its species asserts itself when- 

 ever the individual plant is threatened with extinction. Every 

 gardener knows that plants which are to produce abundant 

 foliage should be well fertilized, while plants which are needed 

 for bloom should be kept in more or less sterile soil. In con- 

 sideration of this it is my opinion that the early flowering of 

 these bulbs is really due to the hot and dry May, although not 

 to the fact that the bulbs were ripened well, but rather because 

 in their enfeebled condition they followed the general law and 

 gave all their energies to the production of bulbs. 



This opinion is based on practical experience. To decide 

 this and many other questions with accuracy would require 

 the work of horticultural experiment stations, but these are 

 entirely lacking in Germany. We have fine horticultural 

 schools where gardeners may learn all that is necessary for 

 them to know, in practice, of plant life, but a station in which 

 experiments can be made on the same broad scale as they are 

 made in the agricultural stations has not yet been established 

 in Germany. How strong the interest here is in the educa- 

 tion of young gardeners appears from the fact that the Royal 



