Septemher 1 8, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



453 



protection, and this is easily provided. They should be planted 

 with others of the more tender kinds, such as L. giganteum, 

 L. Kranieri, L. excelsum, L. longifloriim, L. Dalinaticum, L. 

 Szoviisianiun, all near each other, where they may be shaded 

 from the mid-day sun, and when the ground begins to freeze 

 up a frame may be placed over them, tilled with dry leaves 

 and covered with shutters to keep out rain and sun-heat. In 

 this way many delicate plants may be cultivated successfully. 

 We never had Anemone fiilgens so good as when thus 

 treated. In the early part of May the bed was a perfect bla/.e 

 of color. Stcrnbergia lutea, too, may be grown and flowered 

 well, and many other things that cannot be trusted to the 

 tender mercies' of an Eastern winter. The frame should be 

 removed as soon as the shoots are above ground in sj^ring 

 and all danger from spring frosts is passed. If the soil be 

 heavy, and of a retentive nature, the addition of a little sand 

 for the choicer Lilies will be an advantage, and we find pow- 

 dered charcoal excellent to place around the base of the bulbs 

 themselves. This promotes healthy root-action and assists 

 in keeping away worms and grul)s. If the soil is poor and it 

 is necessary to add manure, care must be taken that it does 

 not come in contact with the bulbs, which latter should first 

 be covered with two or three inches of soil. The manure, 

 which should be well decomposed, or, better sdll, decayed 

 leaf-mould, should then be applied. In a position shaded 

 from hot sunshine, and where tree-roots are not liable to rob 

 the soil, it is not too much to expect that almost all the known 

 Lilies can be successfully cultivated in a very limited space, 

 year after year. The care and time bestowed upon these 

 most beautiful of hardy fiowers will be amply repaid by the 

 abundance and richness of bloom and, eventually, by the in- 

 crease of bulbs. 7- ^ ^ i ., 



Passaic, N.J. ^- O. Orpet. 



Roses and the Larvae of the June-bug. — Much complaint 

 has been made among Rose-growers during the present sea- 

 son of the ravages of the cockchafer grub, so-called, the 

 larva of the well-known June-bug, Lachnosterna fiisca, and, 

 while this is not an unusual complaint, yet it seems to be 

 especially loud this year. More or less damage is caused by 

 this insect to newly-planted Roses, under glass, every season, 

 and the loss is considerable in some large establishments. In 

 several instances brought to my notice during the past month, 

 from two to three hundred plants have been destroyed, while 

 the loss of valual)le time during the best growing season 

 is really of more serious importance than the money value 

 of the plants that have been destroyed. This grub seems to 

 do its work in a rather indiscriminate manner, apparently cut- 

 ting off the plant nearest to it without any regard to its being 

 a strong plant or a weak one, and, unless captured after the 

 first offense, it immediately proceeds to the next plant and 

 continues its work of destruction, sometimes spoiling four or 

 five plants in succession. Its usual method is to cut off all, or 

 nearly all, the roots just at the base of the plant, or else to 

 girdle the stem down near the base. Either plan is very effec- 

 tual in killing the plant, which only survives the attack for a 

 few days. 



The first sign of injury shown by a Rose, after having been 

 bitten by this pest, is usually its wilting imder the infiuence of 

 sunlight, which proves that something is wrong with its roots 

 (providing the soil be in a proper condition as regards mois- 

 ture), and, when such a manifestation is made by a pre- 

 viously healthy plant, it is well to examine the roots at once, 

 and make a careful search of the surrounding soil to find 

 the grub, which is usually not far away.. It is not easy to 

 prevent this loss, although it is safer to plant Roses in a com- 

 post that has been prepared for a year or so, because the 

 eggs of the June-bug are deposited in the grass, and, after 

 having been hatched out, the Iarv;p descend a short distance 

 into the sod. In this way they are carried with the sod to the 

 compost heap, and, if this compost is used immediately after 

 mixing, it is reasonable to suppose that more of the grubs 

 are brought into the houses with it than would be brought if it 

 were allowed to stand for a year when many of the larv:c will 

 have finished their growth and disappeared in the form of 

 perfect beetles. This grul) being of comparatively large size 

 (from .one to one and a half inches in length), is readily seen 

 among the compost, and should be watched for when the 

 benches are filled or the beds made ready for planting. In 

 this way many may be destroyed before they ha\'e a chance to 

 do injury, and the slight additional labor will save many plants, 

 besides preventing the discoiu-agement which is sure to visit 

 the grower as one after another of his young Roses suddenly 

 fails while it is making an apparently vigorous growth. 



Holmesbuig, Pa. f.^ ff_ TaplUl. 



Orchid-Culture, Past and Present. — A very interesting paper 

 bearing this title was read by Mr. Harry J. Veitch, of Chelsea, 

 at a meeting of the Royal Horticultiu'ai Society, on June nth 

 last, and is pidilished in extenso in a recent issue of the So- 

 ciety's Journal. A perusal of the same is not only interesting, 

 but very instructive, and, among other things, reminds us that 

 the commencement of what may be called the period of 

 modern Orchid-culture dates from only a quarter of a century 

 ago. Prior to that period, cool treatment was practically un- 

 known, and cool Orchids were killed off as rapidly as im- 

 ported by the incredil)le folly, jjcrsisted in, of culti\'ating them 

 in hot stoves, in a climate to which they were as great strangers 

 as to our severest winter frosts. It was in 1863 that three dif- 

 ferent collectors were sent out to New Granada to obtain liv- 

 ing plants of the beautiful Odontoglossums of that region, 

 winch were then chiefly known from dried specimens. A few 

 species had previously appeared in cultivation, O. bictoneiise 

 being the first to reach England alive, as early as 1835 ; but it 

 was not until the later period, when the conditions under 

 which these Alpine Orchids grow became understood and 

 infitated in gardens, that the Andean Odontoglossums became 

 common in cultivation. The same may be said of cool Orchids 

 generally, and what a large proportion of them modern col- 

 lections contain is patent to every one. If the cultivators of an 

 earlier period could see some of our best modern collections, 

 how great would l.)e their astonishment and admiration. 



Half a century ago a considerable number of Orchids were 

 successfully cultivated, most of them, however, found at low 

 elevations in the tropics, and for these, warm houses must be 

 provided at the present day. But a little earlier in the century 

 profound ignorance as to tlie requirements of an Orchid seems 

 to have reigned, and it is very instructive to observe the 

 gradual evolution of our modern system of cidture. 



The earliest recorded instance of the liowering of a tropical 

 Orchid in Great Britain dates from over a century and a half 

 ago, but is not mentioned by Mr. Veitch. It appears that Peter 

 CoUinson received a dried specimen of Bletia verecii7ida from 

 Providence Island, in the Bahamas, in 1731, and not despairing 

 of life in the tuber, sent it to the garden of one Wager, where 

 it was placed in a warm baric-bed during the winter, and pro- 

 duced its fiowers during the following summer. In this single 

 experiment we may see the germ from which modern Orchid- 

 culture has been developed. 



The Vanilla appears to have been established in cultivation 

 prior to 1768, being mentioned in the second edition of Mil- 

 ler's Dictionaiy of Gardening of that date, but of Epidendrum 

 the same author remarks that " the plants cannot by an)' art 

 yet known be cultivatetl in the ground, though, coifid they be 

 brought to thrive, many of them produce very fine fiowers of 

 imcommon form." Three species sent from America were 

 planted with care in pots and placed in a stove, where they 

 llowered, butsoon afterward perished. PJiajus grafidif alius and 

 Cynibidiuin cnsifoliiiin were introduced from China about 

 1778 ; Epidendrum cochleatum first Howered in this country in 

 1789, in the Royal Gardens at Kew, where also flowered E. 

 fragrans in October of the following year. In 1794, fifteen 

 species, chiefly West Indian Epidendrimis, are recorded as 

 being in cultivation at Kew, " in very great heat, and with 

 fragments of half-rotten bark at their roots." A number of 

 species from temperate regions were introduced previous to 

 this date, but these may here be passed over. 



The first Epiphytal Orchids received in England were 

 brought from the West Inilies by naval officers and captains of 

 the merchant service, who gave little information Tespecting 

 them beyond the fact that they grew on trees. Hence they 

 were believed to be parasites like the Mistletoe, as will appear 

 from a note by the editor of the Botanical Register, when 

 Wgiwmg Epidendrum nutans, :\{ \)\n\c \j. He there remarks: 

 " The cultivation of tropical parasites was long regarded as 

 hopeless; it appeared a vain attempt to find substitutes for the 

 various trees each species might affect within the limits of a 

 hot-house." 



Messrs. Loddiges, of Hackney, who commenced the cultiva- 

 tion of Orchids for sale in 1812, wereamong the more success- 

 ful cultivators of the period, and it is interesting to note their 

 methods. The comjiost was made of rotten wood and moss, 

 with a small quantity of sand. The Orchid-stove was heated 

 by brick Hues to as liigh a tem])crature as could be obtained 

 by that means, and l)y a tan-bed in the middle, kept constantly 

 moist by watering, from which a steamy evaporation was 

 rising at all times, without any ventilation from without. W'ell 

 might it be remarked that it was as dangerous to health and 

 comfort to enter one of these houses as it was into the (.lamp, 

 close jungle in which all tropical Orchids were then supposed 

 to have their homes ; and no wonder they seldom lived long 



