416 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 184. 



day." To complete this part of its history I quote again from 

 the diary, June 26th : " Rose-bugs nearly gone ; can find only a 

 few, which appear moribund." On June 28th: "Can find 

 no more rose-bugs." This agrees with observations of 

 former years. The rose-bugs continue here for about one 

 month.- 



On June 4th Professor Smith came here again, provided 

 with various chemicals which we hoped might be destructive 

 or repellent of the insects, but we found nothing destructive 

 to the bugs which was not ruinous to the plant. In Bulletin 

 82 of the New Jersey Experiment Station, Professor Smith tells 

 more of the life-history of the rose-bug than has been known 

 to entomologists. He confined a number of the insects in a 

 glass fruit-jar, partly filled with loose sand. They burrowed 

 down in this several inches, where they built a cell, laid their 

 eggs and then returned to the surface. 



Whether they again go down to deposit another batch of 

 eggs is yet not known. It has hitherto been believed that the 

 rose-bug oviposited near the surface of the ground, and that 

 the larvas burrowed, as do those of the potato-bug. Observa- 

 tions this year prove this belief to be wrong. The mature 

 beetle burrows some inches below the surface, there lays her 

 eggs, and then the larva?, when hatched, continue to go 

 deeper. Perhaps the insect does not begin to reappear until 

 developed into the fully matured beetle. Then these come 

 forth in constantly increasing numbers for about two weeks, 

 when the rose-bug invasion may be considered at its height. 

 From this time the older bugs seem to be nearing their limit 

 of life, and doubtless the death-rate increases till the last bug 

 dies. The life of an individual bug does not endure for a 

 whole month. This is the length of time from the appear- 

 ance of the first specimen to the disappearance of the last one. 

 Professor Smith's bulletin enumerates a long list of chemical 

 poisons which proved of no use against the enemy, and the 

 experience here of Dr. Kellogg and myself with pyrethrum, 

 sludgite, hot water, and many other remedies, if fully written 

 out, would make an entertaining story. Up to this time, how- 

 ever, no practical way of combating these pests is known to 

 me — that is, I am not yet sure of any way, but I will venture to 

 suggest a plan which offers some promise of success. 



When, as Special Agent for Department of Agriculture, I 

 began experiments for the prevention of grape-diseases, I ob- 

 served that where the " Bordeaux mixture was used the 'rose- 

 bugs departed." I think Professor Riley mentioned this in 

 one of his bulletins. Subsequent observations did not confirm 

 this statement ; but, per contra, these applications of the copper 

 solutions were made a little too late to be protective against 

 the insects. I was called away, and did not spray my vines 

 until they were nearly out of blossom. During this time the 

 rose-bugs did most of their damage. 



This year I made the application of the copper mixtures as 

 complete as might be. I bought two Eureka sprayers, and 

 sprayed my vines every ten days from the time the buds 

 opened until August 23d. 



The north section of my vineyard was left unsprayed, because 

 I had not time to go over it. The rose-bugs pervaded my 

 vines, but only on the unsprayed section is the loss total. No 

 grapes are left there, but on the sprayed vines there is a full 

 crop, free from harm of rose-bugs or of rot. 



But these trials must be made for successive years before 

 we can be sure that we have a real preventive. The rose-bug 

 is capricious. It may bring ruin to a vineyard this year, and 

 leave the same unharmed the next year. Yet, I am strongly 

 disposed to believe in the Bordeaux mixture, early applied, as 

 a repellent to the rose-bug. 



I find the Eureka sprayer the best machine to use. Other 

 Knapsack sprayers are nearly as good. Any of them are bet- 

 ter than the horse-power machines. 



Vineland, N.J. - A. W. Pearson. 



Notes on American Plants. 



PHE Monardas, or Horse-mints, of which we have several 

 *■ species, are quite attractive plants when in flower, and 

 their flowering season is usually a long one. They are erect 

 in habit, usually more or less branched toward their summits, 

 and quite odorous. M. didyma, commonly called Oswego 

 Tea or Bee Balm, is by far the handsomest species, having 

 large heads of cardinal-red flowers, which, in some forms, are 

 quite as rich in color as the Cardinal Flower {Lobelia cardi- 

 nalis). I doubt if this species is anywhere so abundant as M. 

 fistulosa (Wild Bergamot), which, in some portions of Illinois 

 and Missouri, is very common along the railroads and in fal- 

 low fields. Though this is not so attractive a plant as the Bee 

 Balm, it is well worthy of cultivation, bearing an abundance 



of light purple flowers, which are durable and pretty. It had 

 commenced to bloom in favored situations by the 3d of July, 

 and now, more than a month later, it appears to be in its 

 prime. Some plants are not yet in flower, and it seems as if 

 its season of bloom would extend over a period of eight or 

 nine weeks. 



Sabbatia angularis, which flowers the last of July, is one of 

 our handsomest wild flowers. It usually grows about eighteen 

 inches high, is much branched, and bears an abundance of 

 rose-pink flowers a little less than an inch across and deli- 

 ciously fragrant. It is a variable plant in size, sometimes only 

 six or eight inches high, and bearing a single flower, and, 

 again, at the other extreme, it may be nearly three feet high, 

 much branched, and with an abundance of bloom. Its natu- 

 ral home seems to be in rich moist soil. 



Lepachys columnaris is a pretty species of the Composite 

 family, its height is about eighteen inches, and it branches 

 from near the base. The disk or centre of the flower is 

 columnar, nearly or quite an inch long. From its base pro- 

 ject the numerous bright yellow rays which, though shorter 

 than in the other species (Z. pinnata), have the same half- 

 drooping habit which gives the flower a peculiar and attractive 

 appearance. 



Helianthus mollis, a species of Sunflower scarcely three feet 

 high, with simple leafy stems and large yellow flowers three 

 inches wide, is common in dry soil in western Illinois and Mis- 

 souri. The flowers when open usually face the horizon, which 

 makes them more conspicuous. It is quite attractive when in 

 bloom, and will live in any ordinary soil in the sun. 



Primula Mistassinica, one of our rarest and most delicate 

 little Primroses, is proving a fine plant in cultivation, where it 

 attains a much larger size and produces larger and handsomer 

 flowers than when growing wild, tt is an early bloomer, and 

 is, I believe, usually past flower by the middle of June, but in 

 our nursery the past season it not only began blooming early, 

 but continued to flower at intervals all summer, and several 

 plants are now blooming in the middle of August. It needs a 

 light loamy or sandy soil, with partial shade. 



Habenaria ciliaris (Yellow-fringed Orchis), a native of wet 

 sandy soil from New England to Florida, is one of the most 

 attractive of this genus, and flowers about the middle of 

 August. It grows from one to two feet high and bears a thick 

 spike of orange-yellow blossoms. It is a good plant for the 

 drier portions o£ the sand-bog. 



Calochortus Bonplandia7ius is a Mexican species, which at- 

 tains a height of a little more than a foot, and bears in long 

 succession four to eight handsome bell-shaped pendent flow- 

 ers, dark purple and light green outside, and yellowish purple 

 within. The flowers are over an inch long by nearly three- 

 fourths of an inch in diameter. It is a strong and healthy- 

 growing species, though probably not hardy, and should be 

 wintered in the cellar. Unlike any other Calochortus I have 

 seen, it bears numerous little bulblets in the axils of its leaves, 

 like the Tiger Lily, by which it evidently propagates itself. 



Charlotte, Vt. F. H. Horsford. 



Garden Phloxes. 



"\ VARIETIES of P. maculata and P. paniculata, and com- 

 * aionly known as the Decussata varieties, are indispen- 

 sable at this season of the year, and they, together with Sun- 

 flowers — perennial and annual — are now among the showiest 

 border-plants. Owing to the ease with which they may be 

 propagated, and the thoroughness with which they take care of 

 themselves, gardeners often become careless about preserv- 

 ing the best varieties true to name. Seedlings spring up pro- 

 fusely about old plants, which, if not carefully watched, will 

 gradually crowd out the parent plant, and, as seedling varieties 

 rapidly revert to the purple-colored type, one not infrequently 

 sees, in neglected borders, masses of Phloxes of this color 

 alone. On the grounds of Mr. Fewkes, of Newton Highlands, 

 Massachusetts, I lately saw some particularly fine Phloxes 

 among fifty or more varieties in his trial grounds. I selected, 

 as very distinct, Panama, Snowflake, Josephine Gerbeaux, 

 Beldonville, Saison, Liervalle, Superba and Delicata. Fifty 

 years ago Phloxes were grown as potq^lants for conservatory 

 decoration, but, while beautiful, their period of usefulness 

 was of short duration, owing to the fugacious character of the 

 corollas. Where Phloxes are made a specialty, and grown in 

 masses, frequently of one color, the practice is to strike cut- 

 tings in spring and grow the plants in six-inch pots until they 

 attain considerable size. It is easy then to plant and so 

 arrange them to have a good even-surfaced bed when in 

 bloom. Raising Phloxes from seed is a very interesting pas- 

 time and should be popular with amateurs. They self-fertilize 



