28o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 173. 



where no one thought that trees could be made to live at all, 

 is not to be despised. Some of the other trees have grown 

 almost equally well, but were not so large to begin with, so 

 they seem less important. 



In that same April the generous friend who furnished us 

 with the large Willow and Silver Maple, kindly sent us, in ad- 

 dition, a dozen moderate-sized trees which he was disposed to 

 think would grow faster than the larger ones, and these were 

 placed somewhat at random on the lawn, for they came 

 unexpectedly, and had to be set without much reflection, 

 so that some of them have had to be moved again. 



And here we will honestly admit that the landscape-gardener 

 would have been of great use to us, for the lack of experience 

 gives one a feeling of uncertainty about the result of even his 

 best-considered arrangement, which is often disquieting. 



We know for one thing that we have too many trees too 

 near together, because we never dreamed they would all make 

 up their minds to live, and we discover that after taking great 

 pains to make a tree grow, we cannot make up our minds to 

 disturb it for fear it will be in the way in the future, and so we 

 postpone the evil day. Possibly they will do better in their 

 wind-swept situation for not being widely separated, and for 

 the next generation, which will be unrestrained by our senti- 

 ments, we have provided some small Elms that ought to be 

 good trees by the time the short-lived Maples are beginning to 

 shuffle off their mortal coil. We know that the least enduring 

 of them will outlive us, unless we emulate old Parr and the 

 Countess of Desmond, 



Who lived to the age of a hundred and ten, 

 And died by a fall from an Apple-tree then. 



All we ask is that they will hurry to shelter us from the burning 

 afternoon sun, to which our front is exposed, and when their 

 task is done, the noble Elms, which are "a hundred years 

 growing, a hundred years standing, a hundred years dying," 

 shall be our monument when this house, like its ancient 

 predecessor, shall have crumbled to ruin. 



Impatient as we are to achieve miracles of growth, we 

 might forget how much our little trees are doing were it not 

 for a photograph taken in 1888, which shows them scudding 

 under bare poles, that makes their present height quite 

 imposing by contrast. 



In the five years which we claimed of our critics in the be- 

 ginning, we are now sure that all air of newness will have 

 gone from the knoll, which, even the second summer, 

 astonished the passers-by, who were most of them unused to 

 the results that can be attained by unremitting exertions. 



Against these trees we have no charges to make of either 

 stubbornness or ingratitude ; given the conditions, the results 

 are all, and more than all, we had a right to expect. The only 

 ones that have not been what we could wish are the Hemlocks, 

 which object strenuously to the dry, windy situation, and only 

 live under protest. In vain do we plant nursery trees with 

 good roots, they dwindle and pine, and refuse to profit by 

 their advantages. -If Garden and Forest will give us any 

 advice about treating them, we will gladly follow it. Out of 

 over forty trees planted on the lawn and its slopes, they are 

 the only ones that fail to give satisfaction, and we desire to 

 get the better of them if possible. 



No evergreen is so graceful and suggestive of wild wood- 

 land ways as this feathery denizen of the forest, that seems to 

 shrink from the companionship of man. The perfume of its 

 boughs reminds one of camps in the woods, of canoes, of 

 Indian guides, and silent solitudes. For me it has ever a pe- 

 culiar and elusive charm, and I cannot come in my wander- 

 ings upon some majestic old tree beside a granite boulder, as 

 it loves to grow, without a thrill compounded of association 

 and admiration. The Hemlock seems to possess every beauty 

 that a tree can have : its form, whether it be symmetrical with 

 youth, or gnarled and twisted by age, is always impressive and 

 noble ; the murmur of its boughs is tenderly musical, its fra- 

 grance exquisitely wild and aromatic ; its very shyness has a 

 charm that seems to breathe distinction, and, best of all, it is 

 perennially green, so that its blue shadows on the snow give 

 one of the loveliest tones in a winter landscape. 



Why, then, since I woo it with such tender affection, such 

 anxious care, does it refuse to grow for me ? Possibly it is 

 killed with kindness, and some wholesome neglect may be 

 what its shy soul desires, for I notice that the little ones in the 

 swale, half-smothered in grass, do not die, though left 

 wholly to their own wayward devices, while the pampered 

 specimens on the lawn lift bare and ragged branches to the 

 sky, from out their luxurious beds of mulching, and are pain- 

 fully disappointing and uncertain. 



Hingham, Mass. M. C. RobbinS. 



Weevils in Leguminous Tree-seeds. 



THE beetles kno'wn as weevils, belonging to the genus 

 *- Bruchus, are known to live during their early stages in 

 the seed of various plants, especially those of the Leguminosce 

 or Pea family. The Pea and the Bean-weevils are examples 

 too well known to gardeners, grain-growers and dealers. 



While many species of weevils attack the seeds of plants 

 which are not at present of great economic value, their ravages 

 in the seed of leguminous trees and shrubs in various regions 

 must often be very considerable. Some of the arid, as well as 

 the morefertile, parts of our south-western states and territories 

 and of Mexico are characterized by several genera and species 

 of leguminous trees, which comprise the principal arbo- 

 rescent vegetation over large areas. Aside from the uses to 

 which the wood is put, the fruit of these trees is sometimes of 

 much value to the native inhabitants of the region. This fruit 

 is often seriously infested by weevils of several species, four 

 of which Mr. C. E. Faxon has drawn for the accompanying 

 illustration, together with several of the pods infested. 



An idea of the abundance of these pests may be derived 

 from the fact that out of hundreds of seeds Mr. Faxon some- 

 times found difficulty in getting a perfect one and its embryo 

 for illustration in the "Silva of North America." 



A better knowledge of the weevils affecting these trees will 

 probably show other species besides those already known. 



Although each is usually confined to one kind of food-plant, 

 the same species of weevil sometimes attacks the fruit of 

 leguminous trees belonging to different genera. These insects 

 undergo all their transformations within the fruit, and, when 

 mature, the beetles cut small round holes in the seed, or 

 through seed and pod, and make their escape. 



The pods and seeds of the screw bean {Prosopis pubescens) 

 are ground into a sort of flour and used as food by the natives 

 of Arizona and New Mexico. These pods often contain great 

 numbers of the little grubs, which afterward develop into the 

 small weevil named Bruchus desertorum* or the Bruchus of 

 the desert. 



The color of this is ashy-red above and gray beneath. The 

 wing-covers are splashed and dotted with yellowish red or 

 darker markings, which vary extremely in different individuals, 

 being almost entirely absent in some. It is about one-tenth of 

 an inch long. 



Perhaps, the presence of large numbers of these insects in 

 the screw bean gives it an added richness and flavor when 

 ground and cooked. The screw bean is also said to be in- 

 fested by Bruchus uuiformis, a large, ashy-reddish colored 

 species much like the next. 



The Mesquit {Prosopis juliflora), often a most characteristic 

 tree of arid areas in Arizona and Mexico, has its pods infested 

 by Bruchus prosopis, a grayish brown species, with dark mark- 

 ings above, and about a sixth of an inch long. The fruit of 

 this plant, known also as Prosopis or Algarobia glandu- 

 losa, is eaten by Indians, and even by white men, but is 

 chiefly valuable as food for horses, which eat both beans 

 and pods. 



From fruit of Cercidium Torreyanum, sent to the herbarium 

 of the Arboretum, four quite different-looking species of 

 weevils have been taken. ■ Bruchus amicus came out of seed 

 received from Texas. It is among the largest of the Ameri- 

 can species of the genus, sometimes measuring a fifth of an 

 inch in length. This beetle is densely covered with a silky 

 gray pubescence, which, when rubbed off, leaves the surface 

 smooth and black, or reddish black. Seed of the same plant 

 collected in Arizona was found to be infested by Bruchtts 

 pruininus and by great numbers of B. limbatus. 



The first of these two is black, but is so covered by a fine 

 silky pubescence that it has a bluish gray appearance. It is 

 about two-thirds as large as B. amicus, to which it has some 

 resemblance. It is said to occur on the " Ironwood-tree " of 

 Arizona, which may mean the Olneya Tesota, but I have not yet 

 found it in seed of this tree. 



Bruchus limbatus is a small, stout, black species, with a 

 broad red stripe on each wing-cover. This red stripe is varia- 

 ble in shape in different individuals, and it is usually more or 

 less constricted in the middle. Large specimens are about 

 one-eighth of an inch in length. A package of the beans of 

 Acacia Greggii, sent from Arizona, proved to be utterly ruined 

 by these beetles. Not a bean contained less than half a dozen 

 of the insects, while twelve or fifteen was a common num- 

 ber, and each emerged by a separate hole. 



* Technical descriptions and references to original descriptions will be found in 

 a paper entitled, "A Revision of the Bruchida ot the U. S.," by G. H. Horn, M.D. 

 Transactions of the American Entomological Society., Philadelphia: vol. iv., pp. 

 311-342. 



