May 30, iSSS.] 



Garden and Forest. 



159 



more humid and equable climates, and they soon learned 

 that our extremes of moisture and temperature presented 

 new problems in plant and tree culture. 



As early as 1856-7 the stories of dead and dying trees 

 were told over a large part of the west, but a careful 

 comparison of notes will show that many varieties of the 

 orchard-fruits, and of ornamental trees and shrubs, which 

 endured perfectly the extremes of rainfall and of atmos- 

 pheric changes in the early days, are now placed in the 

 tender list. The reasons for this apparent increase of cli- 

 matic rigors of which our early settlers complained is 

 beyond all doubt due to changes wrought by man. 



As stated by Bryant in his work on Forest Trees, the 

 primitive prairies were covered with so dense a growth of 

 grass, that on the lower levels it could be tied over the 

 head of a man sitting on horseback, while sloughs, 

 marshes and drainage-centres were clogged, and the pri- 

 mitive timber of the streams presented real forest condi- 

 tions, The whole country was in condition to hold the 

 June rains and give them off gradually to the summer air. 



At that time we were subject to variations of rainfall 

 ranging from 74^ inches in 1851, to 2^% inches in 1854, 

 but the prevailing westerly winds of such dry seasons as 

 that of 1854 were never known to " fire" the blades of corn, 

 to curl and burn the leaves of fruit trees, or to prevent the 

 deposit of copious dews at night, as they passed over a 

 vast stretch of clothed plain that modified the intensit)' of 

 their heat, and left a part of the moisture they contained. 



Since that time man has wrought changes in the whole 

 aspect of the country. 



A section large enough to make several such kingdoms 

 as are found in western Europe has been turned with the 

 plow, the surfaces of sloughs and marshes have been 

 bared by clearing away the timber and hardened by 

 drainage. During the droughts of 1886 and 1887, our 

 prevailing winds from the west and south-west during 

 the growing season have passed over a relatively dry, 

 heated plain which has drank up their moisture with 

 avidity and raised their temperature to a degree not known 

 thirty )'ears ago. 



Possibly these climatic evils, as Bryant says, may be 

 "mitigated and perhaps wholly removed by planting a 

 due proportion of the country to forest trees," but in the 

 meantime we cannot wonder that we cannot grow some 

 of the field crops and many of the ^'arieties and species of 

 trees and shrubs that thrived with us thirty years ago. 

 Yet eastern readers must not get the impression that we 

 have an approach to desert conditions. The extreme sea- 

 sons we speak of, with light rainfall, extreme heat and 

 aridity of air, followed by cold dry winters, that are so 

 fatal to the larger part of the orchard fruits, ornamental 

 trees and shrubs grown at the east, visit us at rare inter- 

 vals and do n^'t materially affect our agricultural interests 

 when the general results of periods of from five to ten 

 years are considered. 



And even these extreme years permit almost perfect suc- 

 cess in growing the small fruits, the grapes, our native 

 plums, and such orchard-fruits as can endure the extremes 

 of heat, aridity, and temperature of our summer and winter 

 climate, as well as our native forest trees. 



We succeed with the small fruits, the grape and the 

 plum because they are native to our soil and climate, \^'e 

 fail to grow successfully the small fruits, grapes, apples, 

 pears, cherries, forest trees, ornamental trees, shrubs, etc., 

 of western Europe, and their seedlings originated in the 

 States east of us, for the reason that in leaf, bark, and char- 

 acter of cell structure of wood they do not meet our cli- 

 matic requirements. 



But all this does not prove that in due time we shall not 

 conquer the situation by the introduction of the orchard 

 fruits of climates similar to our own. 



We have already a great number of varieties that stand 

 every extreme as well as our Box Elder. If with farther 

 trial they do not come up to our standard of excellence in 

 quality, we can rapidly change them by crossing and 



by selection. We may not materially modify our climate, 

 but we can and shall adapt plants and trees to it as has 

 been done in similar climates of the old world. At another 

 time I will attempt to give some of the peculiarities of 

 leaf, bud, bark and wood, of the ligneous plants that bid 

 defiance to prairie-winds and weather. /. L. Budd. 



Fungus Diseases ot Insects. 



IF the subject of injuries done by insects to plants of 

 various kinds is of interest to horticulturists, it is, as 

 a matter of course, interesting to know about the fungus 

 parasites which destroy the insects themselves. Every 

 one has noticed the '\\'hite fungus which attacks and kills 

 large numbers of house-flies in the summer and autumn. 

 A good deal has been written on this fungus in a popular 

 way, and its specific name, Enipusa musccE, is probably 

 not unfamiliar to many of our readers. The species be- 

 longs to the order EntoniophthorecE, which has been but 

 little studied in this country, and an admirable monograph 

 on the subject, by Mr. Roland Thaxter, published in the 

 Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, con- 

 tains a great many facts of interest even to those who are 

 not in the strict sense botanists. 



Only three species of Empusa had been known hitherto 

 in the United States : Empusa Muses, which kills house- 

 flies ; E. Grj'Ili, which causes epidemics in grasshoppers ; 

 and E. splicsrosperma, on the clover-leaf weevil. Mr. 

 Thaxter describes 26 species of Empusa in the United 

 States, 15 of which are new to science, and, so far as ye( 

 known, peculiar to this country, and 8 which occur in 

 Europe, but not before recognized here. The insects at- 

 tacked were species of several orders, flies, gnats and 

 other Dipfera being most frequently, and Neuroptera 

 (dragon-flies) the least frequently affected. Besides the 

 species of Enipusa, Mr. Thaxter gives descriptions of a re- 

 lated form previously known on the seventeen-year locust, 

 and a curious form on the excrement of frogs, not before 

 found in this country. 



The EiiipuscB have two forms of reproductive bodies, 

 some found on the surface of the insects attacked and 

 others in their internal organs. The nature of the latter 

 has not been very well understood, but the facts stated by 

 Mr. Thaxter form an important supplement to what has 

 previously been written on this point, and it is now plain 

 that this group of insectivorous fungi should be classed not 

 with the white moulds which produce disease in fishes, such 

 as the salmon mould, but rather with the common moulds 

 which flourish on various articles of food in all houses. 

 The discovery of so large a number of fungi of the genus 

 Empusa which attack a surprismgly large number of spe- 

 cies of insects, and the accurate knowledge of their habits 

 and mode of reproduction, recently obtained, would lead 

 us to believe that, at no very distant day, it may perhaps 

 be possible to check the increase of some injurious insects 

 by artificial propagation of the Empusa which prey upon 

 them, and, under suitable conditions, destroy them. 



W. G. Farloiv. 



Foreion 



CoiTespondcnce. 



London Letter. 



THE most valuable Orchid which received a certifi- 

 cate at an April meeting of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society, was a variety of Odoii/oglossum cn'spuin, 

 from Mr. Charlesworth, an importer at Bradford. It has 

 very large and finely shaped flowers, the petals and se- 

 pals exquisitely crisped and almost wholly covered with 

 bright reddish brown blotches. It is the finest variety 

 that has been exhibited this year, and will take equal 

 rank with Veitcliianum, Sanderianuvi and others. It is 

 known as Charlesworth's variety. An Orchid somewhat 

 similar to the striking Odon/og/ossum Rossii, van F. L. 

 Ames, alread}'' described, is 0. Plumeanum. It is sup- 

 posed to be a natural hybrid between 0. cordalum and 



