September 2, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



415 



introduction. Against a south wall this was one of the earliest 

 plants in my garden to start, making growth in late January. 



Phytolacca decandra.— This is a truly regal plant, with 

 smooth, erect crimson and purple stem, branching upward at 

 the top, with ovate leaves and white flowers, followed by ra- 

 cemes of purple berries, and yet it is only the Pokew r eed ! 

 Never until some bird dropped the seed at the side of my 

 water garden, where it has grown into a large specimen, had 

 I noticed the beauty of this common wayside weed ; but there 

 it stands, growing out of the Irises, quite holding its own, in 

 stateliness and distinction, among the best exotics. 



Elizabeth, N.J. 7- N - Gerard. 



a depth of some three inches, and disposed to burrow more 

 deeply. When a number of larva? were placed on loose soil 

 in a quart-can they soon went beneath the surface, and con- 

 tinued until they reached the bottom of the can. Instinct car- 

 ries them below reach of frOst, and possibly the alarming 

 increase of these bugs for the past three years is due to a suc- 

 cession of mild winters ; the ground never having been frozen 

 more than two inches in depth. Almost weekly during the 

 winter of 1S90-1891 I renewed search for the larvae and found 

 them always a little deeper, until they had reached a depth of 

 rive or six inches. 



The larva resembles a small white gfxfh, is about a half- 



Fig. 67. — Fence-cornet' in Illinois. — See page 410. 



Experiences with the Rose-bug in 1891. 



THIS insect {Macrodactylns subspinosus), of which much has 

 been already said in Garden and Forest, appears here 

 in annually increasing numbers, and seriously threatens our 

 fruit-crops, and especially the grape. Over a wide area in 

 southern New Jersey it has this year devoured the grapes, the 

 blackberries and several other fruits. In the autumn of 1890 

 I undertook to trace its life-history. In October and Novem- 

 ber I dug in the soil of my farm and found the larvae there at 



inch in length, and is coiled into a ring, with head and tail 

 meeting. I do not find them in wet and heavy ground. 



On Monday, May 25th, 1891, Professor John B. Smith, Ento- 

 mologist of New Jersey Experiment Station, came here, and 

 we dug for the rose-bugs and found, in the same square 

 yard of soil, the larva, the pupa and the fully developed in- 

 sect. This explains the constant increase of rose-bugs during 

 their term. They do not all appear at once, but come out in 

 succession. 



On May 27th my diary notes : " Found the first rose-bug to- 



