March 26, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



151 



was imprisoned here from December, 1873, until n ^ s escape in 

 August of the following year. 



Orange-trees are largely grown at Cannes, principally for 

 their blossoms; the real centre of the Provencal perfumery 

 distillation is, however, at Grasse, about a dozen miles inland 

 from Cannes. Cassie [Acacia Farnesiana) is also extensively 

 cultivated on the hills outside Cannes ; the plants are kept 

 pruned in like large gooseberry-bushes. 



One of the glories of Cannes is the beautiful Acacia dealbata, 

 which, as described so charmingly by Alphonse Karr, has 

 "for leaves the finest ostrich plumes, and for flowers great 

 golden thyrses." Enormous quantities of the flowering 

 branches of this species are forwarded during the winter 

 months to the Paris, London and other markets, and as the 

 flowers stand traveling well and last a long time, they can be 

 bought at a cheap rate from the costermongers in the streets 

 of London and the neighboring towns. The soil of Cannes is 

 a micaceous schist which suits this Acacia admirably; at Nice 

 and elsewhere along the Riviera, wherever limestone abounds, 

 it obstinately refuses to grow. According to Alphonse Karr, a 

 line a yard wide, drawn between the territory of Nice and that 

 of Cannes and St. Raphael, marks the boundary where the 

 soil suddenly changes in character; on one side of this line 

 the Acacia in question luxuriates in company with tall Heaths 

 [Erica arborea) — three yards and upward in height — which in 

 January are covered with white blossoms, exhaling a perfume 

 that partakes of the character of vanilla as well as that of 

 bitter almonds. On the Nice side of the line neither this 

 Acacia nor Heath can even be made to grow. 



Fine Stone Pines and Cork Oaks form striking objects in the 

 Villa-gardens on the hill-sides, and in uncultivated ground the 

 underwood is Myrtle, Heaths, spiny members of the Broom 

 family, Smilax, Phillyrea, Lentisk, Lonicera Caprifolium, Cis- 

 tus, etc. 



Solaignac's establishment on the " Californie Hill" is the 

 most important and best managed of the gardens mainly de- 

 voted to the culture of plants on a large scale for cut flowers. 

 Terrace after terrace — many of them only just broad enough 

 for the long houses filled with Roses, etc. — are kept up by 

 stone walls and rise in long series one above the other. 

 Peaches, grown as bushes, gave promise of a fine crop of 

 fruit, and underneath them were planted such things as Iris 

 Susiana, Gladiolus Colvilli and other bulbous plants with 

 showy flowers. Large quantities of Mignonette were coming 

 on — sown toward the end of August, the seedlings had four 

 or five leaves the third week in September and would begin 

 to yield a crop of flowers in December. 



The favorite Carnation was "Enfant de Nice," a sturdy, 

 compact grower, with fine flowers, white, with a blush-colored 

 centre. The two Strawberries grown by Solaignac are Vic- 

 toria and Dr. Morere. Probably some of the readers of Gar- 

 den and Forest will remember the fine dishes of the latter 

 variety exhibited at Paris — in the horticultural exhibition from 

 May 24th to May 29th, in connection with the exposition — and 

 the statement written on the card, that the fruit had borne a 

 journey of about 630 miles. 



The Roses were nearly all Teas, and were planted out on 

 the terraces above mentioned. During the summer months 

 the lights are taken off and are only replaced at the end of 

 September. Comparatively little pruning is necessary, the 

 long, vigorous shoots being tied down in a more or less hori- 

 zontal position. Some 8,000 lights were piled in blocks at the 

 time of our visit ; the supports and framework of the houses — 

 at any rate, those in which the Roses were grown — were made 

 of pitch pine, unpainted. Excellent arrangements, some of 

 them very ingenious, existed for a copious water supply on all 

 the different levels in this thirsty spot, and everything evinced 

 the pride the proprietor feels in his garden. Not a weed was 

 to be seen, and all the plants were healthy and well grown. 



After leaving Cannes, we passed St. Raphael in a ravine on 

 the coast. Then comes a romantic rocky district with num- 

 berless Mulberry-trees and vineyards in which Phylloxera was 

 playing sad havoc. The Olives were pollarded as in Langue- 

 doc, and looked stiff and formal in comparison with the 

 beautiful trees on the Italian Riviera. Fields of Tuberoses 

 just coming into flower were passed here and there. Along the 

 coast heaps of snowy salt marked the spots where in the low, 

 marshy grounds the sun's rays had been utilized for procuring 

 this necessity of life from the sea-water by evaporation. 



But my holiday was nearly over, so a comparatively short 

 stay was made in Marseilles ; another stop at Lyons, not long 

 enough to make my scattered notes worth recording here, 

 and then a rush to London to resume duty after nearly a 

 month's absence. 



Kew. G. Nicholson. 



Entomological. 

 A Newly Imported Rose Saw-fly 



[Emphytus cinctus, L.) 



ONE of the natural and inevitable results of the great in- 

 crease in importation of plants, bulbs, etc., from foreign 

 countries is the introduction with the plants of some of the 

 insects which live upon them. These insects may also be 

 introduced in other accidental ways, and, like some foreign 

 weeds, it frequently happens that the immigrants thrive better 

 and prove more troublesome in their new surroundings than 

 in their native home. 



The importation of an additional enemy of the Rose has now 

 to be recorded, and whether or not it is to be as troublesome as 

 some of its predecessors remains to be proved. In the summer 

 of 1887 I found a number of Saw-fly larvae, which I had never 

 observed before, on the under side of the leaves of several spe- 

 cies of Rose at the Arnold Arboretum and on a few horticultural 

 varieties of the Rose in some gardens in the vicinity. In the 

 following summer and autumn the larvae were quite plentiful, 

 and they were found in the Botanic Garden at Cambridge as 

 well as in the Arboretum and other gardens in Boston. I do not 

 know how much further their present range extends, but it 

 maybe safely stated that in the localities mentioned, and where 

 the injuries by Saw-fly larvae were noticeable during the seasons 

 of 1888 and 1889, fully one-half of the defoliation of the Rose- 

 bushes was caused by this imported species, the remaining 

 portion of the injury being chiefly the work of the well known 

 Rose-slug (Sclandria Rosa, Harris). 



The difference in the character of their depredations may 

 be readily seen, as the larva of the imported Saw-fly generally 

 begins at the edge and eats all parts of the leaf to the thick 

 part of the midrib, whereas the Rose-slug usually devours the 

 green tissues of the leaf only, and leaves a more or less per- 

 fect skeleton of it. The larva of this newly imported Rose 

 saw-fly also has the habit, when at rest on the under side of 

 the leaf, of curling up its body into a close spiral or ball, with 

 the anal segments resting on the middle part of the body, a 

 position never assumed by the common Rose-slug. 



The fully grown larva is about three-quarters of an inch long, 

 smooth, cylindrical and tapering slightly from the head. The 

 head is dull yellowish orange in color, with a brownish or 

 blackish stripe down the middle of the top, and with black 

 eyes. The color of the body is a metallic green above, though 

 sometimes pale ; and the lower part of the sides, the under 

 side of the body and the legs are grayish white. Above the 

 spiracles there is a dark spot, which, in some stages of the 

 larva, appears as a dark stripe along each side of the body ; 

 and there are other spots close above the legs. 



It was not until the autumn of 1888 that a few perfect saw- 

 flies were raised from these larvae, and, at first being supposed 

 to be a native species, it was some time before they were 

 identified. Finally, after reference to descriptions of European 

 species, there seems to be no doubt that this is Emphytus 

 cinctus, L., a species known to occur over the larger part of 

 Europe and to extend into Siberia. 



The color of this Saw-fly is shining black ; antennas, black ; 

 thorax with two very small white points (cenchri) behind the 

 second pair of wings ; abdomen, a little longer than the head 

 and thorax together, and, besides a somewhat triangular white 

 blotch behind the thorax, there is a conspicuous yellowish 

 white band on the fifth segment of the females, which is absent 

 in the males. This white band does not quite encircle the 

 body, but terminates abruptly after passing around the sides, 

 leaving the middle of the under side of the segment black. 

 Of the legs, the femora or thighs are dark brown or black, 

 with white on the upper part ; and the tibiae are whitish at the 

 apex, the rest of the tibiae and the tarsi being reddish. The 

 length of the largest specimens (females) is about three- 

 eighths of an inch, and the wings, which are transparent, 

 expand five-eighths of an inch or slightly more. 



The ordinary observer may instantly distinguish these in- 

 sects from the common Rose Saw-fly by their much larger size 

 (two to three times as large) and this white band on the body of 

 the female. They are also much more active than the com- 

 mon black species, of which Dr. Harris says (" Insects Inju- 

 rious to Vegetation," p. 525), "when touched they draw up 

 their legs and fall to the ground." 



The eggs are deposited singly on the under side of the 

 leaves. The Saw-flics may be found hovering about the Rose- 

 bushes early in May, and some larvae continue to feed until 

 late in October. There are certainly two, possibly three, 

 broods during the season. 



Curiously enough, this insect has been considered by some 



