18 



Communications for this department must reach the Editor 

 on or before the 10th of the month. 



23^The Editor cannot answer letterB for this department pri- 

 vately. 



A Grape-vine Enemy. — J. Stavffer, Lancas- 

 ter, Pa. — In the December number of the Garden- 

 er s Monthly, on page 364, 1 notice the figure of a 

 caterpillar under the article 'Insects in the Orchard.' 

 My attention was arrested by this figure, being very 

 desirous to know what Dr. Houghton had to say 

 about it. As, however, no allusion is made to the 

 cut, I am at a loss to know why it leads the article. 



The cut, however, is an accurate figure of a 

 mischievous scamp brought to me, in the first in- 

 stance, by a neighbor, who detected him in the act 

 of biting off a bunch of young Grapes, in July, 

 which accounted for other bunches found under the 

 vines previously. 



This caterpillar looked, about the anterior por- 

 tion, like a young bull-dog-pup, of a light brown 

 color, with a series of blue spots encircling the rear 

 of the enlarged and confluent segments, elevated 

 with the 3 pair of pectoral feet drawn in, and the 

 two blank segments almost in a perpendicular line 

 with the first pair of pro-legs, just as represented by 

 the cut above referred to. 



I noticed the expulsion of the stink-horn (or Nu- 

 cial fork) from the nape, behind the head proper, 

 and by that, knew him to be the larva of a Papilio. 



It was on the 23rd of July, 1861, I put him into 

 a box ; on the 25th t found him suspended by a 

 bridle and entering into the chrysalis state, which I 

 also figured. On the Tth of August I heard a noise 

 in the box ; on opening it I found the imago : and 

 it proved to be what is called the Papilio glaucus : 

 — the black, blue, and yellow spotted swallow-tailed 

 butterfly. 



The under side of the wings show markings simi- 

 lar to that of the Papilio tiirnus ; which latter, how- 

 ever, is yellow with black bands, and looks like a 

 different species, which I have also raised from 

 larvse taken from the spice bush and sassafras, and 

 this is of a green color, and otherwise, very distinct 

 in appearance and habit from the former. 

 I Nevertheless, {■ome respectable Entomologists 

 assure us that the one is the male and the other the 

 female. It may be true that the male and female 

 diff'er in color. Yet the conviction is forced upon me 

 from the difference of the larva and their habits, 

 that they are two distinct species, — whatever others 



may say of them as being seen under circumstances 

 to prove them to be of diflferent sexes. 



I can not understand how it is that those found 

 on the Grape are of a larger size, different in color 

 and form, should develop one sex, and those on 

 the spice bush, that of the other sex. Separate 

 and distinct trials with the same results confirm me 

 in my views. 



Nevertheless, having knowledge of the evidence 

 advanced, and equally conclusive on the other side 

 of the question, I am desirous to hear from others 

 who have taken the trouble to collect the larvae and 

 breed the imago. 



Will Dr. Houghton inform us whether he de- 

 tected his larvae feeding on the Grape-vine? I 

 would caution Grape growers to have an eye to this 

 insect. Several facts have come to my notice that 

 it is very injurious to vines by cutting off the young 

 bunches of Grapes; though, as yet, seen but in a 

 few localities. 



T could furnish you with a drawing of the larvse, 

 (which you have however,) the chrysalis, and the 

 perfect insect. 



[ v\ e ought to explain that we were so patheti- 

 cally impressed with the plaintive recitals of the Doc- 

 tor's struggle with insects, and other woes and ills 

 of fruit culture, that our ' 'heart was too full for utter- 

 ance" in the usual way, by a note at the foot. We 

 therefore selected the portrait of the^'horriblest" bug 

 we knew of and put it at the head of the article, alike 

 to express the depth of our feelings,and give ourread- 

 ers a foretaste of the soul-harrowing ideas which they 

 would undergo in the article to follow. 



Dr. Houghton is in no degree responsible for its 

 appearance there, — but he will thank us now for it, 

 if he has not done so before, since it has brought 

 from Mr. Staufi'er this full account of the doings of 

 a formidable enemy to the Grape-vine.] 



Hybrid Ferns — " Student'' writes: ''In are- 

 cent number of the Gardener s Monthly you speak 

 of Hybrid Ferns. As I understand Botany, Ferns 

 belong to the Cryptogamic plants, or that class 

 which has no stamens or pistils. How can there be 

 hybrids in such cases?" 



[When the order of Cryptogamic plants was so 

 named, it was supposed they had no organs of im- 

 pregnation, which are of comparative recent discov- 

 ery — first noticed, if we mistake not, by Nageli in 

 1844. HybridFerns,liowever,had been known before, 

 without any understanding of how it was accom- 

 plished. Gymnogramma Mertensii, for instance, 

 was raised in 1837, between Gymnogramma chryso- 

 phylla and G. Calomelana. It is believed, indeed, 



