20 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 



iS<SS. 



attracted and bewildered l)v them. Many, if ni>t most of these 

 variations, are not reproduced by seeds. In order to perpetu- 

 ate tliem the grower should graft from them. 



Good ornamental-fruited plants are not abundant. We find 

 that the large-fruited Thorns drop their fruits early. This is 

 due in part to the weight of the fruit and in part to the ravages 

 of the codling moth and the plum curculio. The fruits of the 

 liest forms of the scarlet Thorn fC. coccincaj are especially 

 lialile to drop. We shall spray our plants with Paris-green 

 water next spring. Of the Michigan kinds, the pear-fruited 

 Thorn (C. toinentosa,) holds its fruits best. Up to Christmas 

 all these rul.)y colored fruits I'emained erect, long after every 

 other sort had fallen. Tlie fruits are small, resemliling a 

 small rose-hip, and contain so little Hesh that the worms do 

 not trouble them. They iire borne in clusters. Hereal>outs 

 the branches of this Thorn are nearly liare of leaves where the 

 clustered fruit is borne, so that the autumn aspect of the plant 

 'is singularly attractive. 



Thorns are attractive in fruit, in habit, in foliage and in 

 flowers. Upon this classification I should place our .Michigan 

 Thorns, five sorts, as follows, in order of preference : — 



For Fruit : C. toiiwutosa vai\ pyriffllia, C. punctata ( C. 

 tflm-cntosa var. punctata), C. cocciiwa. C. Crus-galli, C. su/>- 

 villosa ( C. tomeniosa var. mollis ). 



For Habit ; C. punctata, C. coccincn, C. suh-'illosa, C. O-us- 

 galli, C. toinentosa vaw pyr/folia. 



For Foliage: C. Crus-galli, C. coccinca. C. subi'illosa, C. 

 tomeniosa var. pvrifolia, C. punctata. 



For Flowers ; C. coccinca, C. Crus-galli, C punctata, C 

 touicntflsa, \'ar. pvrifolia, C. subi'illosa. 



Mi.:lui;ai) AKiiculUiml College. L. II. Bailcy. 



Plant Notes. 



Milla biflora, Cav., in its Home. — By an occasional glance at 

 horticidtiu'al journals, whenever returned to civilization, I have 

 been gratified to learn that this plant, which I have admired in 

 the wilds of North Mexico, is being brought into general culti- 

 vation. I had for two years seen it scattered over the grassy 

 |)l;iins and foothills and even on the broader mountain sum- 

 mits about Chihuahua — the plant on the richer plains growing 

 to a height of two feet and be'dring half a dozen flowers, in the 

 thinner, dryer soil of the mountain top less than a foot high 

 with but a single flower — but, not until I reached the high 

 plains about the continental divide and near the Cordilleras, 

 did I find it in abundance. Here on broad swells were miles 

 of prairie bespangled with its silver stars crowding upon a 

 yellow-flowered Phlox and a purple Pentstemon. From a bulb 

 one-half to three-fourths inch in diameter, planted two to four 

 inches deep, it sends up a stem one to two feet high, bearing 

 one to five flowers. Under good culture the size oi^ the bulbs 

 must rival those of some classes of Gladiolus, and a much 

 taller stem must bear an umbel of a dozen flowers, whose size 

 is proportionately increased. The fact that its flowers possess 

 much endurance, and succeed one another in the umbel dur- 

 ing many days, in the way of Agapanthus, must add merit to 

 the pliant. It should prove hardy, with a light covering of 

 leaves, in American gardens, and would doubtless thrive 

 best if thus wintered in tlie soil. The pl.int propagates itself 

 Ijy seed onlv. 



Calochortus flavus, Shult. f. — Associated wifli Milla hijiora 

 in the drier situations we find this, another liliaceous plant of 

 much beauty, as yet little known in gardens. On a branching 

 stem a foot high it bears tvvo to four, or more, nodding flowers, 

 one to two inches broad, of rich crimson and gold and furred 

 within. In a Northern garden the plant has shown even in 

 one year nmch increase in its size and in the numl>er of its 

 flowers. C. G. Pringle. 



Caryopteris Mastacanthus, Schauer. — Among the novelties of 

 late years this beautiful shrub, introduced into Europe by 

 V'eitch & Sons, deserves special notice. A native of China, 

 its hardiness was doubted at first, but it has done very well 

 in a dry, sunny position ; as well at Baden-Baden as in Eng- 

 land. It is a much-branched shrub of a sturdy appearance 

 much like a Ceanothus. Along the branches and branchlets, 

 wherever there is a leaf, a little bunch of small starry flowers 

 is produced, assuming an umbellate form and decorating the 

 v\'hole shrub with deep blue. It flowers here about the mid- 

 dle of October, when flowering shrubs are quite as rare as l)lue 

 flowers. Planted against a low wall and left to grow at will, 

 all passers-by are struck witli its beauty. 



Baden-Baden. Ma.x Lcichtlin. 



(This plant was discovered by Fortune in .Southern 

 (_'hina, and is well described in De Candolle s Prodroinus, 

 xi. 625. It is a native also of Japan, where it is said to 

 grow on the borders of old fields and on the summits of 

 mountains. It is from Japan that the Messrs. Veitch intro- 

 duced it into cultivation, and there is a prospect, therefore, 

 that it will prove hardy in the United .States. A good figure 

 of Caryopteris inastacantlius appeared in the Gardener's 

 Clironicle, xxi. n. ser., 149. It belongs to the Verbena fami- 

 ly.— Ed.) 



The Red Mite on \^erbcnas. 



THE two packages of Verbena sent by Mr. Peter Henderson 

 to the office of Garden and Forest, one containing 

 voung, healthy plants, and the other those which have been 

 dwarfed and crumpled by the attacks of the mite, illustrate 

 well the work of this pest. We could not find any full-grown 

 specimens, but only the very small young, which were of a 

 pale yellowish color. 



The red mite, erroneously by some called the red spider, is 

 one of the few mites which spin a web. When we examine 

 the mouth parts it will be seen how well adapted it is for cut- 

 ting into and sticking close to leaves ; its jaws, like those of 

 seed-ticks, form a spiny beak, with the points directed back- 

 wards ; with this l;>eak it can anchor itself in the soft parts of 

 the under side of leaves, while with the forceps-like feelers it 

 can eat its way into the leaf, or grasp surrounding hairs or pro- 

 jecting parts of the leaf and steady itself while sucking- the sap 

 of the plant. Its presence may be detected liy the slight web, 

 the l.)lighted, pale patches on the leaf, and sometimes, as in 

 the examples before us, by the striking alteration in the leaves 

 and tlie dwarfed appearance of the Plant. 



A general pest of Plants, both 

 in the hot-house and in the garden, 

 when it varies much in color, most 

 of them when fully grown being 

 greenish to rust-red, sometimes 

 quite dark, the creature propagates 

 rapidly, and aboimds most in hot, 

 dry seasons, moisture being un- 

 favorable to its growth. 



As to remedies, it should l)e 

 borne in mind tbat all mites are 

 very susceptiljle to sulpihur, hence 

 as a preventive measure laving 

 Hour of sulijhur upon th^ pipes 

 ill the hot-house has been recom- 

 mended. It' would also be well to 

 undersprav the li'aves of infected 

 plants with such a solution of 

 sulphur as would cause the pow- 

 der to remain on the leaves. Spray- 

 ing machines are the most efficient 

 means of rapidly and evenly diftus- 

 ing insecficides of all sorts, though 

 we have not heard of their use in 

 the hot-house. Finely powdered tobaccci, or even Paris green 

 or London purple in solution, the latter carefully applied with 

 the sprayer to plants not in flower, would be \\orth trial. 



Nearly all mites, like all insects, breathe through minute 

 openings in the sides of the body, hence any oily or greasy 

 substance which, spreading over the body, will form a film 

 over the air-holes, will kill the creature ; it is soon asphyxiated 

 or drowned. For this reason greasy or oily substances are the 

 most powerful and sure insecticicles. Oily emulsions, even 

 cotton-seed, or any other vegetalile oils, could easily be used 

 in hot-houses ; kerosene emulsions should be used with care, 

 and only after experiments, so as not to injure the plant itself, 

 since mineral oils are most destructive to plant-life. Perhaps 

 underspraving with whale-oil soap or sulphur in solution is 

 the readiest and most available remedy, liut it would be worth 

 \v'hile to experiment with the Paris green or London purple so- 

 lutions, also kerosene emulsions, which have proved so suc- 

 cessful out-of-doors ; always bearing in mind that frequent 

 showerings with soap-suds or water alone, by which the leaves 

 are kept wet, tends to prevent undue increase of the pest. Mr. 

 Henderson tfunks he has discovered a complete remedy for 

 this pest in the use of manure water. The increased vigor of 

 the plant under this treatment seems to enable it tooutgrow 

 the ravages made by the mite. 



A. S. Packard. 



Red Mite f Te/raiiyc/iin! ti-tarl 

 Fiuin Saunders' "Insects 

 Injurious to Fruits." 



