544 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 195. 







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anthers or fragments of leaves. In shape it is irregularly 

 ovoid and is about 6mm. by 3.5mm. The change to pupa 

 takes place about three days after the cocoon is completed, 

 and the moth usually appears eighteen to twenty days after 

 pupation. The pupa is 5mm. in length, somewhat robust, and 

 is slightly yellowish in color, with sutures and tip brownish, the 

 latter being quite dark. A peculiar pad or flap-like projec- 

 tion occurs on the side of the fifth abdominal joint (e and g). 

 The cremaster is produced, notched at the tip and armed with 

 six long, hooked hairs or spines (Fig. 84/). The adult insect is 

 about 5mm. long, and expands from 13 to 14mm. The gen- 

 eral color is grayish yellow, inclining to saffron, the primaries 

 being somewhat darker. The wings are marked (Fig. 85) 

 with transverse bands of 

 dusky shade, and each wing _ v \ 



has a discal spot. The head 

 is dark brown, with the 

 antennas, including a large 

 spot on the vertex, yellow- 

 ish. The under surface is 

 nearly concolorous, the 

 dark bands being less dis- 

 tinct, and the discal spot 

 more intensified. The 

 fringes are concolorous with 

 the ground color and with 

 black dots beyond the veins. 



This insect has become a 

 source of positive alarm in 

 the department herbarium 

 on account of its rapid mul- 

 tiplication and the harm it 

 occasions. It behooves bot- 

 anists to be on the lookout 

 for it and to adopt such 

 measures as will ensure im- 

 munity from it, if dry speci- 

 mens are being received 

 from Mexico and the south- 

 west, or from herbaria in 

 which it is known to occur. 

 The custom of poisoning 

 dried plants with corrosive 

 sublimate to protect them from various enemies, such as 

 book-mites, Psoci, etc., should give immunity from the 

 attacks of this insect if the poison has been thoroughly 

 applied. If to the corrosive sublimate a quantity of arsenic 

 is added the protection will be more effectual. I would also 

 recommend, as very useful in disinfecting herbaria of this and 

 other pests, an air-tight quarantine box of zinc or galvanized 

 iron in which the plants may be temporarily placed and sub- 

 mitted to the fumes of bisulphide of carbon, which are very 

 sure -to destroy all insect life. Effective steps have already 

 been taken to prevent the sending out from the department 

 of any infested specimens in future. 



The fact that this insect has appeared in dry plants from 

 the comparatively arid western regions may furnish a clue 

 to its original habit. It is presumable that it normally feeds 

 on the dead or dried plants of Mexico and adjacent arid re- 

 gions, and that it has simply adapted itself to the somewhat 

 similar conditions prevailing in herbaria. 



This is the first true Geometrid, so far as I know, recorded 

 as feeding on dry and dead vegetation. In the Pyralidina a 

 number of species are known to be not only truly carnivorous, 

 feeding on other insects, but also to feed upon grass and re- 

 jectamenta as well as dead leaves. Some Tineina are also 

 known to have similar habits, while in the Deltoid group of 

 the Noctuids several genera are known to feed on dead leaves. 



The illustrations, which have been prepared for Insect Life, 

 are used by permission of the Honorable Edwin Willits, As- 

 sistant Secretary of Agriculture. 



Washington, D. C. L. V. Klley. 



Fig. 85. — Carfihoxera ptelearia, n. sp. 

 a, larva in natural position ; b, cocoon on 

 dry leaf ; c, moth, with egg at its 

 lower right-hand corner. All enlarged. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



New Orchids. 



Catasetum Naso, Lindl. — The female flower of this singu- 

 lar species has now appeared in the Kew collection on a 

 plant which has produced males only in former years. It 

 is about the size of those of the other sex, the color light 

 green, with a narrow purple margin to the lip. — Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, August 29th, p. 242. 



L^lia-Cattleya x Nysa, Hort. — A hybrid raised in the 

 collection of Messrs. James Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, be- 



tween Cattleya gigas and Lcelia crispa. The flower is pale 

 lilac, with the front of the lip deep crimson. It was ex- 

 hibited at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on 

 August 25th last. — Gardeners' Chronicle, August 29th, p. 254. 



Neobenthamia gracilis, Rolfe. — A very interesting new 

 genus of Orchids, allied to Bromheadia, which flowered at 

 Kew in February, 1890. The plant is a native of tropical 

 Africa, and was sent from Zanzibar, by Sir John Kirk, in 

 1884. It is of a peculiar straggling habit, as if it grew 

 among bushes and availed itself of their support. The 

 leaves are distichous, drooping, and about six inches long, 

 and the short racemes are borne at the ends of the branches. 

 The flowers are white, the lip with a yellow midline, and 

 a row of rosy purple spots on either side. — Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, September 5th, pp. 272, 273, fig. 33. 



Cypripedium x Macfalanei, Kranzlin. — A. hybrid raised in 

 the collection of Messrs. F. Sander & Co., of St. Albans, 

 from C. X calophyllum (itself a hybrid from C barbatum 

 and C. venustum), fertilized with the pollen of C. Spicerianum. 

 It bears much resemblance to the pollen parent, with some 

 characters derived from the mother plant in the petals and 

 leaf. — Gardeners' Chronicle, September 12th, p. 300. 



Kew. 



R. A. Rolfe. 



Plant Notes. 

 Some Recent Portraits. 



In the Gardeners' Chronicle for October 3d the cones and 

 flowers of the noble Himalayan Fir (Abies Webbiana) are 

 figured. This tree, which is remarkable for the silvery 

 whiteness of the lower surface of the leaves and for its 

 great dark purple cones, succeeds fairly well in some of the 

 southern counties of England. It seems perfectly at home 

 in many gardens on the shores of the Italian lakes, and there 

 are several flourishing specimens in California. Unfortu- 

 nately, it will not thrive in the eastern states, although pos- 

 sibly in some parts of Georgia and Carolina it will be able 

 to support our eastern climate. 



The October 1st issue, of the Revue Horticole contains a 

 colored plate of a fruiting branch of Ficus siipulata. This 

 is the plant which is found in almost every greenhouse 

 under the name of F. repens, where it generally only 

 reaches its juvenile state when it is a vine with small 

 leaves, climbing by rootlets developed from the slender 

 stems. At the end of several years, when it becomes adult, 

 it changes its character entirely and develops robust erect 

 branches, producing large, oval, oblong, obtuse, petioled 

 leaves and violet-colored figs the size of the ordinary edible 

 fig. The fruit is produced sparingly, although it seems 

 that in the south of France, in the open air, it is not an un- 

 usual occurrence to find the plant in its adult state, and 

 more or less covered with fruit. 



F. siipulata has been known in gardens for more than a 

 hundred years. It is a native of Japan and southern China, 

 extending at least as far south as Hong Kong, and it is 

 probable, therefore, that it will succeed in some parts of 

 the southern states, and certainly in southern California. 

 It is needless to say that in its young state it is one of the 

 very best of all evergreen climbers to cover the back walls 

 and other waste places in greenhouses which it is desirable 

 to clothe with vegetation. The fruit is not edible. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Cattleya Warocqueana. — Last year I stated in a letter to 

 Garden and Forest that this Cattleya, which had been in- 

 troduced by M. Linden, and described by Mr. Rolfe, was 

 a form of C. Gaskelliana. This statement produced a 

 protest from M. Lucien Linden, who declared that in 

 the opinion of competent judges there was no difference 

 between his C. Warocqueana and the autumn-flowering C. 

 labiata. At that time I shared the view of many authorities 

 here with regard to this Cattleya, namely, that while it was 



