THE HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



319 



the crown with lanceolate-acuminate scales, erect 

 stipes, and ovate-acuminate leathery fronds, nine to 

 eighteen inches long, by four to eight inches broad. 

 This species extends from the West Indies and 

 Mexico to ChiU and South Brazil. 

 ^ £. unilaierale, with a geographical distribution 

 similar to the last-named, has an elongated caudex, 

 slender . erect stipes, and thia-textured lanceolate 

 fronds six to twelve inches long, by one and a half 

 to two inches broad. 



Cultivation. — The first-named species does well as 

 a stove-plant, but wiU thrive in an intermediate 

 house ; it is often inserted in the crowns of dead 

 tree-fern stems, and soon makes a pretty object 

 when so treated. The other species succeed either 

 in the intermediate house or cool fernery. The 

 smaller growers require peat ; the others do better 

 in fibrous loam. They aU like shade, plenty of 

 moisture when growing, and are by no means averse 

 to watering or syringing overhead. 



Tlie Hemitelias.— Compai-atively few of the 

 thirty species of Semitelia are known to cultivation, 

 and of these the following five— of which the first 

 and fourth are green-house species, and the other 

 three require stove treatment — are the best and 

 most distinct. The Semitelias are mostly tropical 

 and arborescent, with the habit of Cyathea. As they 

 form a kind of connecting link between that genus 

 and AUophila, they are not always easy to recognise. 

 Their cultural requirements are the same as AUo- 

 phila and Cyathea, therefore the reader is referred to 

 those genera for notes on cultivation. 



H. Capensis is not solely a South African plant, as 

 might be inferred from the name, but also occurs in 

 Brazil and Java. It is a fine tree-fern, with thin 

 twice or thrice-cut fronds and unarmed stipes, scaly 

 at the base. The stem attains a height of twelve or 

 fourteen feet. 



H. horrida, a native of the "West Indies and New 

 Grenada, is another arborescent species, but with 

 stipes beset with strong prickles, and clothed with 

 deciduous scales ; the fronds are very large, pinnate, 

 seven to ten feet long, by two to four feet broad. 



S. setosa, from Brazil, has ample tri-pinnate, rather 

 firm fronds, glabrous and green on both surfaces. 



S. Smithii, perhaps the most desirable of the 

 group, is an unarmed species of tree-like habit ; the 

 lower portion of 'the stipes are densely clothed with 

 rigid, elongated, serrulated scales, and the glabrous 

 fronds are bi-pinnate. A native of New Zealand. 



ff. speciosa, from New Grenada, has rough stipes, 

 and ample, pinnate, very long, satiny fronds, the 

 extremity of which is only pinnatifid ; when young, 

 they are clothed with glossy, chestnut-coloured 

 scales, with a verj' pale narrow^ fringe. 



THE HAUDY PEUIT GARDEN. 



By D. T. Pish, assisted by Wihiam Cakmichael. 



DISEASES AND INSECTS AFFECTING TEE APPLE. 



FORTUNATELY the Apple, under skilful treat- 

 ment, is almost exceptionallj' free from both- 

 It is chiefly when injured by mismanagement, or 

 starved or cropped into weakness, that either disease 

 or insects gain much of a foot-hold, and cause serious 

 injury. Hence, our advice to prevent disease by 

 good management, and grow out or off insect pests 

 by the same sensible means, is the best that can be 

 given, and may save much future trouble, and the 

 serious injury or loss of the trees. Doubtless, soil 

 and climate are powerful factors in the production 

 of disease, and also frequently invite, as it were, 

 the attacks of insects. But these do not equal in 

 their evil influence the greatest producing cause of 

 both — mismanagement. 



The chief causes of disease, and also of insect 

 ravages among Apple-trees, are the two extremes of 

 grossness and weakness of growth. Just as a well- 

 balanced circulation is the best antidote to disease 

 among ourselves, so is a happy mean of vigour 

 among trees. This happy condition ought to be • 

 aimed at by every Apple-grower ; for prevention i3 

 not only better, but so very much easier than cure, 

 ii maxim that extends to all the diseases and insects 

 among fruit-trees, and, indeed, plants in general. 

 The skilful fruit-tree doctor of modern times be- 

 lieves less and less in surgery, medicine, or special 

 nostrums, and more in fortifying, and so establish- 

 ing the natural forces of the trees as to render them 

 proof against disease, and also insect pests. No prac- 

 tical man who has carefully noticed his Apple or other 

 fruit-trees, but must have noticed how disease and 

 insects invariably link their forces together to their 

 injury or destruction. So close is the correlation of 

 these destructive forces, that it is often difficult to 

 say which has taken the lead; but they act and 

 react, and coalesce together in the work of destruc- 

 tion vfith a faithfulness of comradeship worthy of a 

 better cause. Insects follow swiftty on the heels of 

 disease, and the disease seems further strengthened 

 by the destructive agency of the insects ; and so on 

 in a duality of mischief tiU the trees ai-e disfigured 

 or destroyed. As a rule, probably, disease takes the 

 lead, and hence the reason of dealing with this first, 

 chiefly by way of prevention, as already pointed out, 

 and should that have been too late or failed, then by 

 way of cure. 



Caxiker. — Only three diseases of the Apple de- 

 serve prominent notice: canker, mildew, andAmerican 

 blight, which may be treated of as a disease as well as 

 an insect. Canker is, or rather has been — for it is far 



