334 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 496. 



tion should have been so universally neglected by American 

 planters. 



There is some bond between the Arrow-wood and 

 Kinnikinnik, Cornus sericea, which it might be well to 

 remember in planting, for they seem to thrive together 

 when at home, and I have never found the latter in dry 

 ground, except in company with the Arrow-wood. Unlike 

 the Kinnikinnik, also the other blue-berried Viburnums, 

 the fruit of the Arrow-wood is not very attractive to birds. 

 Old mountaineers have told me that the berries were 

 never eaten, but there is every reason to think they are 

 mistaken. 



The specimen from which the illustration on page 3^3 

 was taken is not very large, being about seven feet high, 

 but it grows in a swampy meadow remarkable for line 

 Viburnums, and especially for beautiful Black Haw-trees ; 

 but the whole place is doomed, as the lower end is already 

 the dumping-ground of a rapidly growing city. It would 

 be interesting to know in round numbers how many, or 

 rather how few, persons know our native Viburnums. The 

 interest in naturalizing native plants is not yet widespread, 

 and this curious limitation in the planting of shrubbery 

 seems to be due to mental and not financial reasons. The 

 average city or suburban dweller feels that he has per- 

 formed a noble act when one Hydrangea and two Carolina 

 Poplars proclaim aloud his lack of individuality, while in 

 the country the same process of mind results, perhaps, in 

 a purple Althea and some Marigolds. The rural mind 

 ought not to be held responsible for such manifestations of 

 taste, for drudgery of the hardest kind soon kills the 

 eesthetic instinct that almost every one possesses early in 

 life. Country children are often marvels of observation, 

 and, though slow to narrate, they are passionately fond of 

 flowers. In some of the most primitive places the little 

 children make wreaths the livelong day, and garlands 

 often serve the purpose of all other toys. As they grow 

 older the boys' power of observation takes a practical turn, 

 while it is slowly crushed out of the girls, until a new love 

 of the common and distorted replaces the earlier and 

 better taste. 



It is the dreadful monotony of country farm-life that 

 retards all movements toward improving conditions, and 

 so long as the great majority of countrywomen on farms 

 spend their lives in depressing drudgery as they do, it is 

 useless to look for any improvement of external condi- 

 tions. Just so soon as they realize that a " wild " bush like 

 the Arrow-wood is as worthy of preservation as a purple 

 Althea or a mildewed Lilac there will be a great interest 

 aroused that will tell in every village ami country lane. 



Harrisburg, Pa. M. L. Dot k. 



Entomological. 



The Influence ol Environment on the Life History 

 of Insects. 



IT is not so long since that it was assumed that the life 

 history of an insect being once carefully made out, 

 work with that species was done ; and remedial measures 

 once ascertained they need only be restated again and 

 again until all were familiar with them. Acting upon this 

 assumption, which at the time was entirely justified, 

 station bulletins were printed all over the country repeat- 

 ing well-known life histories and well-known means of 

 checking injury. So much of this was done that considerable 

 adverse criticism was aroused, and when some of the ento- 

 mologists attempted to verify old accepted knowledge, it 

 was objected that there was an unnecessary and undesir- 

 able duplication of work. So matters remained for a time, 

 until it was gradually forced upon the worker that his con- 

 stituents made altogether too many failures to be satisfac- 

 tory to him or to them. To prove his case he tried his own 

 recommendations, where he had the necessary time and 

 opportunity to do so, and in many instances failed as com- 

 pletely as did his farmer friends. Sometimes these failures 



were made by men that had succeeded perfectly in earlier 

 days, in other fields, and they repeated their experiments 

 yet more carefully a second season before they would 

 believe in their own results. Observations carried on dur- 

 ing the course of the experiments also indicated an alto- 

 gether unexpected amount of variation from the published 

 histories of many species, and an astounding difference in 

 the amount of resistance to poisons, either external or inter- 

 nal. It is hardly necessary to go into much detail here ; 

 but from all sides come accounts of varying and sometimes 

 contradictory results, which seem to demonstrate the neces- 

 sity of studying each destructive species of insect in each 

 distinct environment. 



The notes on the codling moth by Mr. Card, in the issue 

 of Garden and Forest for August 4th, emphasize that point. 

 Mr. Card refers to Professor Washburn's results in Oregon, 

 but does not mention the more detailed observations of 

 Mr. Shngerland in New York on the same subject. His 

 own observations differ greatly in some respects from those 

 made by the gentleman just cited, and they will not do at 

 all for New Jersey. Observations made in Germany indi- 

 cate a yet different habit from any observed here, and the 

 situation in California will prove yet different. 



Mr. Card places much stress, and rightly, on the fact that 

 in Nebraska Apples blossom, set and even close the calyx 

 cup before the moths appear or the eggs are laid. In 

 New Jersey that is not so. It is almost impossible 

 to find an unhatched pupa in the orchard after the 

 blossoms begin to drop. In our state there is nothing 

 t>ut larvae to be found in the cocoons until the first 

 spell of warm weather that starts the sap in the trees and 

 induces a swelling of the buds. Then, almost over night, 

 everything enters the pupal stage, and this is usually short 

 — much less than the duration of blooming-time in an 

 Apple orchard. But even in New Jersey differences exist. 

 Near New Brunswick there is positively a single annual 

 brood only. South of Burlington County there is at least a 

 partial second brood, and the practice that would prove 

 perfectly satisfactory in one locality would be distinctly 

 imperfect in the other. The truth is that insects, like all 

 other creatures, adapt themselves to their surroundings, 

 and that their habits and life histories are different in even 

 slightly different localities. I have never seen the egg of 

 a codling moth on a leaf, and I believe none has been pre- 

 viously recorded. Nevertheless, I do not for a moment 

 discredit Mr. Card's observation. 



We have a similar set of experiences with insecticides. 

 Insects which succumb readily to kerosene in the Atlantic 

 states defy it absolutely in Colorado, while we are just as 

 likely to find the food-plant much more sensitive to it. 

 Washes that easily destroy the San Jos6 scale in California 

 are ridiculously ineffective in the Atlantic states. This 

 very scale is changing its life history and habits in the east 

 materially in several directions. I will venture the predic- 

 tion that in half a dozen years it will not be considered a 

 first-class pest in New Jersey, though I would not like to 

 extend this prophecy to localities with which I am less 

 familiar. 



The point of all this is that we must begin afresh our 

 studies on the life history of many of our common insects, 

 with special reference to the locality where the study is 

 made. There will be some duplication of labor, but the 

 work will be comparatively easy because of what has been 

 already accomplished. I am certain that in some cases 

 our practice will be completely changed, and some con- 

 fusing and distracting results will be satisfactorily ex- 

 plained. 



It has been too much the practice, perhaps, to consider 

 discrepancies between the results of recent and older ob- 

 servers as proof of the superior accuracy and reliability of 

 the former, but it is worth while to inquire in all cases 

 whether both have not been correct and whether the differ- 

 ences are not due to the varying conditions in the insects 

 themselves and their surroundings. 



New Brunswick, N.J. John B. Smith. 



