May 29, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



255 



are worthy of reproduction here. "The timber is suffering 

 from a disease well known to the manufacturers of shovels 

 and pickaxes, and called by them ' powder post.' A worm 

 eats the ashen handle, which show minute holes, and when 

 jarred by striking a hard substance gives out a shower of fine 

 powder, 'powder post.' It is so common that they do not 

 attempt to keep long any stock of handled spades, shovels and 

 picks ; and I was advised by the late Mr. Oakes Ames, at the 

 close of the war, to sell off at auction the large stock of such 

 stores left in the army depots, as it would be impossible to 

 keep the handles from destruction. 



"Saturation with petroleum was tried, and I think gave pro- 

 tection and prevented the progress of the disease. 



" Perhaps petroleum applied in abundance by a sponge or 

 brush might arrest the destruction to the Andover church. 



" Captain F. Petrie, Honorable Secretary of the Philosophic 

 Society of Great Britain, has written me as follows : ' I believe 

 it will be found an effectual cure if the wood-work, or even the 

 parts affected, are painted with parafine oil ; I have not 

 known it to fail. We are going to try it on places where we see 

 them at work.'" 



We suggested the application of a coat of oil to the " finish," 

 as any oily substance if thoroughly applied woiUd tend to soak 

 into the wood, especially where mined by the borers, and kill 

 them. It may be borne in mind that insects breathe by little 

 openings in the sides of the body, and if a film of oil or any 

 greasy substance spreads over the breathing pores or spiracles, 

 the worms will speedily die by asphyxiation. 



The oil was applied, with the results kindly communicated 

 to us by Mr. Taylor, under date of March 28, 1888. " I have 

 heard no complaint of these worms at work in our chapel for 

 some time, in fact I think evide?ice of 

 their work ceased to appear very soon 

 after the application of the wash ap- 

 plied to the places where they gave 

 signs of working. I think kerosene, 

 or something of that kind, was applied, 

 only in places where they threw out 

 their champing, and this, I was told, 

 was in what the carpenter called sap 

 wood." 



The piece of Ash sent us in 1882 was 

 honey-combed by the mines or tunnels 

 of what was probably the young of this 

 beetle, and which were between one 

 and two millimeters in diameter; in 

 some places there were a dozen holes, pig. ,o8.-Teretrius America- 

 or places of exit made by the l:)eetle, nus, Lee. 



to a square inch of the surface. 



Much of the wood had been affected by dry rot, die work, as 

 we understand it, of a fungus. It is most probable that the 

 luml)er used was affected by the dry rot, and that the larv^ of 

 the beetles began their work in situations thus affected. 



We have observed somewhat similar beetles (probably Sin- 

 oxylon) boring in the wooden bottom of a trunk, which had 

 also been affected by " dry rot." 



Specimens of the depredator, found in August, 1883, and 

 which proved to be rather a rare beetle, were sent to our lead- 

 ing coleopterist. Dr. G. H. Horn, for identification, who was 

 kind enough to name it as Teretrius Americanus, Leconte. 



It belongs to the family of mimic beetles, or A^/i-/,?r/rt',^, so 

 named from their power of drawing up their limbs and feign- 

 ing death. Now, this insect does not belong to a group of 

 borers, for most of the species, as Westwood says, feed upon 

 decaying vegetable and animal matter, or on dung, while 

 others are much flattened, and thus are adapted for a life 

 under the bark of trees. However, some forms appear to 

 connect the family Histeridae with that of the stag beedes 

 (^Liicanida), whose larvse are wood borers, though attackino- 

 rotten wood. 



In this connection I may quote from a letter of Dr. Horn, in 

 which he says : "The idea that they do the boring is strenu- 

 ously opposed by Mr. George Lewis, who says that they enter 

 the holes made by the larvee of Lyctus and Sinoxylon with 

 murderous intent. I cannot see any reason why they should 

 be wood borers. In fact, I cannot recall any coleopter that is 

 an in-borer. I am, therefore, inclined to accept his idea that 

 they enter the holes with predaceous intent." 



While there are no facts to justify the inference that the 

 beetles themselves gnawed into the wood, it is not improbable 

 that their young or larvte were the culprits. Yet, no larvae 

 were found in the piece of wood sent us, and only one or two 

 of the beetles, and it is rather singular that more dead speci- 

 mens did not remain in the wood. At present, then, we are 

 inclined to believe that the Teretrius in the larvce state made 



the tunnels, though it is still not impossible that some species 

 of Sinoxylon, a small beetle of the size and general appear- 

 ance of the Teretrius, may have been the culprit. Moreover, 

 we are inclined to believe that the ash wood used in making 

 the finish was affected by dry rot, either before or very soon 

 after it was put into the chapel. , A. S. Packard. 



Providence, R. I. 



The Lindens of Western Europe. 



EUROPEAN Lindens were introduced early into the 

 Eastern States, and, although now known to be not 

 as well suited to the American climate as our native species, 

 they are still favorites with many persons, and numbers of 

 them are planted every year, especially in the neighbor- 

 hood of the great nursery centres. 



Planters of these Lindens in Europe, as well as in this 

 country, rarely distinguish, however, between the three 

 species of western Europe, which they generally regard as 

 one and the same plant, usually called in nurseries TUia 

 EuropcBa ; and the specific characters and the nomenclature 

 of these trees are still, apparently, very imperfectly known, 

 except by botanists familiar with the European flora 



Linnaeus, to be sure, in the "Species Plantarum," grouped 

 the different European Lindens together under the general 

 name oiTilia ^z^ro/x^a. distinguishing five varieties Scop- 

 oli, in the " Flora Carinolica" (1772), separated the Linnsean 

 species into two — -TUia plaiypJiyllos (the Var. s. of Linnaeus) 

 ^'folia magna, subhirsu/a ;" and D'lia ulmifulia (the Var. y of 

 Linnaeus) '■'/oUa duriora, minora, nullihi vi/losa." Hayne, in the 

 "Abbildungder Deutschen Holzarten" (1815), further divided 

 the Linnaean species by proposing a third — Tilia vulgaris 

 {T. intermedia, DC. "Prodr.," i.,5i3). Colored figures show- 

 ing plainly the characters of the three forms were published 

 by Hayne, with whose views as to the limitation of these 

 species later botanists, from De Candolle to Nyman, have 

 generally concurred. 



I can find no distinguishing characters in the bark, in the 

 habit of growth, or in theflowers,whichin all three species are 

 destitute of the petaloid scales that occur in those of our 

 American species, or in the winter-buds of these trees 

 as they are found growing here ; but in the leaves and in 

 the fruit they are clearly distinct, as will be seen from an 

 examination of the figures upon pages 256 and 257, drawn 

 by Mr. Faxon from specimens cultivated in the neighbor- 

 hood of Boston, where, at least one species is common. 



The following characters, therefore, may be found useful 

 in enabling cultivators who cannot always readily refer to 

 the old figures to distinguish the different species. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE SPECIES 



Leaves pubescent : fruit prominently four-ribbed at ma- 

 turity . . . . . . I. T. platyphyllos. 



Leaves naked, except in the axils of the principal veins : 

 fruit destitute of wings. 



Leaves ample, the base more or less oblique, green 

 on both surfaces : tufts of hairs pale : shell of the 

 fruit thick and tough. ... 2. T. vulgaris. 



Leaves small, sub-cordate or rounded at the base, 

 pale on the lower surface : tufts of hair, rusty brown: 

 shell of the fruit thin and brittle. . 3. T. ulmifolia. 



Tilia platyphyllos. Scop. Young shoots and petioles hairy- 

 pubescent ; leaves large, four and a half to five inches long 

 by four inches broad, thick, distinctly yellow-green, cordate, or, 

 sometimes, slightly oblique at the base, coarsely and sharply 

 serrate, softly puberulent on the upper, densely pubescent on 

 the lower surface ; fruit top-shaped or oval, prominently four- 

 ribbed at maturity, and coated with pale brown tomentum. 



This tree may always be easily distinguished, even at a con- 

 siderable distance, by the marked yellow tone of the green 

 of its foliage. It is the first of the Lindens to bloom, the 

 flowers appearing here sometimes as early as the middle of 

 June ; and the first to lose its leaves in the autumn. In dry 

 seasons the leaves, even in Europe, begin to shrivel and 

 turn brown in August, and sometimes fall in September — 

 peculiarities which make this species the least desirable of 

 the Lindens for ornamental planting. 



