292 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 19, iS 



295 shows, on a much reduced scale, a flowering branch. 

 The photograph from which this last illustration was 

 taken was made in the Arboretum three years ago, and was 

 reproduced at the time in the Gardeners Chronicle. A 

 figure of this species, made from dried specimens, was 

 pviblished also in the Nouvelles Archives du Museum, 

 second series, ii., /. 2, in connection with Decaisne's 

 monograph of the genus Syringa. 



Syringa Japonica, as it appears in the Arboretum, is a 

 tree of remarkably rapid and vigorous growth. The 

 trunk is straight, and shows no tendenc}^ to divide near 

 the ground ; it is covered with brown-red, sinooth bark, 

 which separates occasionally into thin scales, and is con- 

 spicuously marked, as is that of the branches, with raised, 

 white, oblong dots. It might be easily mistaken, except 

 for these dots, for the bark of a young Cherry-tree. The 

 branches are upright and rather slender ; those of the 

 year being round and covered with light-brown bark. The 

 winter buds are very small, rarely more than an eighth of 

 an inch long, the broadly ovate scales ciliolate on the mar- 

 gins, tipped with a short, blunt point, and pale chestnut 

 colored. The leaves are broadly ovate, contracted into 

 a long, slender point, cuneate or sometimes rounded 

 at the base. They are smooth on the upper and villous 

 pubescent on the lower surface, dark green, thick and 

 leathery, seven or eight inches long by three or three and 

 a half inches wide, and borne on stout petioles an inch 

 and a half or two inches long. The small white flowers, 

 with short corolla-tubes, included in the calyx (like those 

 of the other species belonging to the section Ligustrina of 

 the genus), measure from a quarter to a third of an inch 

 across. They are produced in immense compound pani- 

 cles, eighteen to twenty-four inches long by sixteen or 

 eighteen inches across, and appear here during the first 

 week of July. The fruit is smooth, oblong and obtuse. 



The hardiness and vigorous growth, the excellent habit, 

 ample, dark green foliage and splendid inflorescence, ap- 

 pearing at a season when few trees bloom, make Syringa 

 Japonica one of the most desirable of the small trees re- 

 cently introduced into gardens. The fact that it loses its 

 leaves early in the autumn, and that they fall while still 

 green, is the only drawback which has yet been noticed 

 in it here as an ornamental plant. C. S. S. 



Entomological. 



The Imported Elm-leaf Beetle 



{Galleruca xanthomelana Schr.). 



■pXPERIMENTS made during the season of 1888 at New 

 -*--' Brunswick, New Jersey, by Rev. Geo. D. Hulst prove that 

 this pest can be controlled by an expenditure of time and 

 money, small in proportion to the result attained. The trees 

 in Rutgers College Campus were effectually protected by 

 spraying with a mixture of one pound of London Purple to one 

 hundred gallons of water. In this proportion the larvae are 

 destroyed and the foliage is not injured. Some little difficulty 

 is experienced in getting London Purple to adhere well to the 

 leaves, and about three pounds of iiour should be added to 

 every fifty gallons of water, and thoroughly stirred. Better 

 than this is the mixture of London Purple prepared by the 

 Nixon Nozzle and Machine Company, of Dayton, Ohio, which 

 I find by experiment adheres very firmly where brought into 

 contact with the leaves. The underside of the leaves of the 

 Elm, where the larva feeds, is covered with a rather dense 

 velvety pubescence, which tends strongly to shed water, and 

 consequently to prevent the proper distribudon of the poison 

 on the leaves. To remedy this about two quarts of kerosene 

 emulsion should be added to it.. This will give sufficient 

 penetrating power to the mixti:re to spread it wherever it 

 touches, and its effectiveness is tliereby greatly increased. In 

 my experience this spring I find quite a decided difference in 

 the wetting power in favor of the mixture containing the kero- 

 sene. I should give the formula thus : Water, 100 gallons ; 

 London Purple, one pound ; kerosene emulsion, one gallon. 

 The kerosene emulsion maybe made either with milk or soap, 

 as is most convenient, in the proporfion of two parts of kero- 

 sene to one of milk, or two parts of kerosene to one of soap- 

 suds, made with half a pound of soap to the gallon of water. 



The results of an application of this mixture are quickly 

 noticeable. The young larvae succumb almost immediately, ' 

 and many of the eggs are destroyed where they are fairly hit 

 liy the mixture. Another point to be observed is the time of 

 application. This should be just after the eggs are hatched 

 and before the larvae become half-grown. One application 

 will then probably be sufficient, though the tree will be some- 

 what eaten by the imago. If the trees to be protected are 

 small and few in nimiber it will pay to spray twice— once when 

 the beetles are beginning to oviposit, and again when the eggs 

 are hatching. If sprayed too early a few beetles will be de- 

 stroyed, which will be replaced by later arrivals, and little good 

 is (lone. If sprayed too late the advanced larvag will be ready 

 for pupation, and will not be affected. Many a man has tried 

 poisons to destroy insect pests, and declared them a failure ; 

 they were so not because of any fault of the poison, but simply 

 because they were put on at the wrong time and in the wrong 

 way. It is advisable to avoid wetting the trees more than 

 necessary. The finer the spray, and consequent coating of 

 poisonous moisture, the better the result. 



The Elm-trees on Rutgers College Campus are probably as 

 high as any trees that are ever sprayed, and to reach to the 

 extreme tops of these I have the following apparatus : A 

 Seneca Falls force-pump, mounted on a -wheelbaiTow-tank 

 holding forty gallons, to which is attached a canvas-covered 

 garden-hose fifty feet in length. The end of this hose is pro- 

 vided with a large-sized Nixon nozzle, and is lashed to a bam- 

 boo stick ten feet in length. With this I can reach twenty feet 

 with the spray attachment from the ground ; removing the 

 spray attachment, I throw a small stream among the higher 

 branches, which breaks into quite a fine spray at about twenty- 

 five feet from the ground, and wets thoroughly a height of 

 thirty feet. A light ladder about twenty feet long gives access 

 to a position in the centre of the largest trees, whence the ex- 

 treme tips may be reached. Few shade-trees are larger than 

 the trees sprayed by me, and no more apparatus would ever 

 be required. For the largest trees, over fifty feet in height, I 

 use about twenty gallons of water, containing about one-fifth 

 of a pound of Londor^ Purple, and a pint of kerosene emul- 

 sion, at a cost of seven cents, and the labor of applying the 

 mixture. The result so far has been to destroy all the beetles 

 and larvag and most of the eggs, and has preserved fine-look- 

 ing green trees, instead of skeletons with fragmentary patches 

 of withered leaves. 



Rutgers College. Johtt B. Smith. 



Cultural Department. 

 The Late Garden. 



ONE who has secured by careful planning and good man- 

 agement an early garden, can also have a late one, by 

 persistent care in carrying forward the work; and a late garden 

 brings, in many respects, as much pleasure and profit as an 

 early one. 



Corn, Beans, Caulifiower, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Endive, Cu- 

 cumbers, Peas, Beets, Turnips, Radish, Celery, Spinach can 

 yet be planted in vacant places. July ist is not too late in the 

 latitude of Boston to plant Cory or Crosby Corn ; but it is too 

 late for large varieties, like the Evergreen. It is now too late 

 to plant the pole Lima Bean ; but the early bush varieties will 

 mature before frost if planted before July. Black Wax (yellow 

 pod). Early China (green pod) and Bush Horticultural (sliell) 

 Beans will all attain edible size before frost. Caulifiower, 

 Kohl-Rabi, Brussels Sprouts, Kale, Red Savoy and White Cab- 

 bage plants set now will have abundant time to perfect their 

 growths before autumn. Tomato-plants set now .will set fruit 

 for ripening before frost, or, at least, fruit which will ripen on 

 the vines after they are pulled up and put under cover. Let- 

 tuce-seed planted now, and again on the 15th of July, and 

 thinned where it stands, will make heads to weigh a pound ; 

 in the summer months it will not make good heads if trans- 

 planted. Endive sown now, and for succession, up to July 

 20th, can be botli thinned and transplanted and will furnish a 

 very acceptable salad from October to December. Cucum- 

 bers for pickles, or for the table, can be planted the last week 

 in June or the first in July. Peas will not produce a full crop 

 sown at this time of the year, but are worth trying for. The 

 Turnip-beets, sown up to the middle of July, will make sweeter 

 and more tender roots for the table than those sown in May, 

 as they will grow more quickly and not so large. Turnips of 

 the English varieties, as well as the summer and winter Rad- 

 ishes, can be sown up to August. Celery, if the plants are 

 large, can be set during July ; and Spinach can be sown up to 

 September in rich land, where it succeeds best. The Virofiay 



