560 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 19, 1890. 



only existed a few years, being constructed long after the 

 plant was present. Just how it made the thousand-mile 

 journey eastward may never be known. But, nevertheless, the 

 beautiful little waif is with us, and forms a very welcome 

 addition to our Ohio flora. It has received the local name of 

 Lakeside Daisy. 



If this plant could be successfully cultivated it would make 

 a valuable addition to our list of spring bloomers. The bright 

 yellow blossoms in compact masses, coming so early in the 

 season as they do, would supply a place now vacant. 



Notes on the Plum Curculio. 



THIS insect is still one of the most serious of our orchard 

 pests. It attacks not only plums, but apples, pears, 

 quinces, peaches and cherries, and disfigures where it does 

 not destroy. Experiments looking to the destruction of this 

 pest have been and are still made in some of the western 

 states, and a good measure of success has attended them. In 

 spraying for the codling moth a large number of the 

 beetles are killed and the fruit is largely protected. Quite 

 early in the season of 1890 I noted, in collecting on the 

 June-berry (Amelanchier Canadensis), that many of the 

 half-grown berries had the peculiar crescent mark indicat- 

 ing Curculio. A little beating about gave me a number 

 of specimens of the mature beetle, so that the true culprit was 

 not in doubt. The berries were, many of them, infested by a 

 coleopterous larva, which I did not succeed in bringing to 

 maturity, but which was not this Curculio. I have no real 

 doubt, however, that the pest does breed in the June-berry if 

 its more usual food-supply is scant. I had noticed in previous 

 years that many mature apples showed scars of Curculio 

 crescents, and sometimes even traces of a short gallery, 

 evidently made by a young larva. It has been known that 

 Curculio acts differently in different kinds of fruit, and that 

 while it caused plums to drop, it did not have that effect on 

 apples. 



Based on these observations I made a few experiments this 

 past season. I gathered on one day a lot of punctured plums 

 and apples from the ground beneath the trees and placed these 

 in separate jars on moist soil. I gathered from the branches 

 of Apple-trees a number of apples showing many punc- 

 tures, taking one or two out of a cluster and marking the 

 branches. These plucked apples were separated into two lots — 

 one placed on moist soil and one placed in a dry jar and kept 

 changed as to position so as to prevent rotting. Another lot 

 of apples, further advanced and showing only punctures 

 apparently some days old, was plucked and placed on moist 

 soil. 



The apples and plums picked from the ground and placed 

 on moist soil developed all, or nearly all, the larvae. I believe 

 there could not have been a difference of ten per cent, be- 

 tween punctures and mature larvae. In some small apples 

 as many as nine full grown larvae developed ! The apples 

 plucked from the tree and placed on moist soil also developed 

 a very large proportion of the mature larvae. Those placed 

 in the dry jar withered and did not rot, and did not mature a 

 single larva ! A fair proportion hatched, but as there was no 

 decay the larva perished. 



Of the more advanced apples with older crescents, placed 

 on moist soil, a fair proportion hatched and came to maturity. 

 While the larvae were developing in my breeding-jars I made 

 periodical examination of my marked branches, picking ap- 

 ples and cutting down on the Curculio crescents. In most 

 cases the eggs never hatched ; in some few instances the young 

 larva did make its appearance, only to succumb before it had 

 penetrated very far into the fruit. All the fruit examined which 

 did not drop had not matured a single Curculio larva. It 

 seems to prove that the larva needs a decaying substance to 

 feed upon, and the matter is important in this wise : If all the 

 dropped fruit in an Apple (probably also Pear and Quince) 

 orchard is regularly picked up and destroyed, it would prevent 

 the maturing of any larvae in such orchards, and, by lessening 

 the number of beetles, would of course lessen next year's 

 damage. The obvious application is to the point so often 

 urged by entomologists — keep the orchards clear of fallen 

 fruit, and begin just as soon as the fruit begins to fall. By far 

 the greatest amount of Curculio injury results from insects 

 bred right at home, and this is especially true in the case of 

 isolated orchards. 



Rutgers College. J. B. Smith. 



The simple and uncombined landscape, if wrought out with 

 due attention to the ideal beauty of the features it includes, 

 will always be most powerful in its appeal to the heart. — Rtiskin. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Solidago speciosa. 



NO figure, it appears, has been published before of this 

 handsome Golden-Rod, which is one of the most 

 distinct and best marked of the numerous species which 

 inhabit North America, and which, with the Asters, form 

 the characteristic and the most striking feature of our 

 autumnal flora. Solidago speciosa (see page 56 1) is a stout, 

 smooth plant, with tall stems four to six feet high, and 

 ample, ovate or oval, slightly serrate leaves ; those on the 

 lower part of the stem are contracted into long, broad 

 petioles, while those higher up are short-stalked, or nearly 

 sessile, and narrower, or oblong-lanceolate. The heads of 

 bright, canary-colored flowers are crowded in erect racemes, 

 forming a narrow, pyramidal panicle five or six inches long 

 and one and a half or two inches broad. 



Soliilago speciosa is scattered from Canada and eastern 

 New England to Minnesota, Arkansas and the mountains of 

 North Carolina. It inhabits the borders of woods and 

 copses in rich, rather moist soil. It is not a very common 

 plant, and in New England it is one of the rarest of the 

 Golden-Rods. Our illustration is made from a wild 

 plant collected by Mr. Faxon in Newton, Massachusetts. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 Berlin Letter. 



"\T OT long ago a meeting of German forest-officers was held 

 -^ at Cassel, and one of the subjects discussed was the natur- 

 alization of foreign forest-trees in Germany. Some foresters 

 have been opposed to the introduction of exotic trees, while 

 others have urged that tests should be made to determine 

 whether the acclimatization of certain species would not be 

 possible and profitable. These tests have been insisted upon 

 because it is only by experiments that any true idea of the 

 value of foreign trees for us can be obtained. The study of 

 their growth in their native countries has little value for us 

 because a profitable growth is the product of so many in- 

 fluences which differ widely from those surrounding them at 

 home. After some less important tests made by the posses- 

 sors of private forests in the year 1882 there was founded 

 under the direction of the Government stations for various 

 trials of this sort in all the German states. In the kingdom of 

 Prussia alone there have been paid out in these eight years 

 $80,000 and nearly 1,500 acres have been planted with foreign 

 trees. The delegates from Bavaria and Brunswick gave the 

 results of similar experiments from their countries, which 

 were generally successful. 



The exotic trees tested may be arranged in three groups, as 

 follows: 1. Those whose success has been demonstrated, 

 including the Douglas Fir, the Tideland Spruce {Picea Sitchen- 

 sis), Lawson's Cypress, Red Cedar {Thuja gigantea), Black 

 Walnut, Shellbark, Mocker-Nut and Bitter-Nut Hickories and 

 the Red Oak. 2. Those which excel German trees only .in 

 certain districts, including the Pitch Pine, the Red Cedar 

 (Juniperus Virginiana), Nordmann's Fir, Sugar Maple and 

 Black Birch. 3. Such as do not grow or are not worth cultivat- 

 ing, as Pinics Jeffreyi, Pinus" ' ponderosa, Red Ash, White 

 Maple, the California Maple, the Pig-Nut Hickory and the Big 

 Shellbark (Hicoria sulcata). Allow me to add to this that 

 there are some varieties of Douglas Fir which will not grow 

 here at all, some which suffer from low temperature, and 

 others which are among the best coniferous trees we have. 

 The same is true of Lawson's Cypress. In the winter of 1879 

 and 1880 we had a good stock of this tree at Proskau, in upper 

 Silesia, each plant being a fine specimen six feet high. In 

 February snow fell to the depth of three feet and the tempera- 

 ture sank to thirty-two degrees below zero Fahr. Every 

 tree died down to the snow line, but all started well the fol- 

 lowing year from the part below the snow, which had remained 

 healthy. In the same winter the Pin Oaks did well. I cannot 

 understand why such an unfavorable opinion of the Black 

 Birch was expressed, as it reaches a large size in St. Peters- 

 burg, and it does not suffer in a temperature many degrees 

 below zero. Seedlings of the White Maple, too, I have found 

 to resist a cold of the same intensity. 



The fruit-growing industry of northern Germany is beset 

 with many difficulties, the chief of them now being the high 

 railway rates, which prevent the transportation of fruit to 



