October 12, 1912 



THE GARDENERS* MAGAZINE. 



777 



be started at the end of September, and 

 should certainly be finished early in Octo- 

 ber, if the first of the moths that go up the 

 trees are to be captured. In short, it is no 

 good thinking that grease banding is a job 

 that can be done at any time when other 

 Tork is not pressing, and more than one 

 grower has condemned it as being useless 

 when the fault has been his own, through 

 being too late. 



Thirdly, it should not be thought that 

 grease banding is proof against the attacks 

 of every insect pest that fruit-tree life is 

 heir to. It can only be a remedy for insects 

 that crawl up the trees, and it only needs 

 the exercise of a little common sense to 

 realise this, so it is no good blaming the 

 grease bands if the trees in the spring are 

 attacked by pyslla or aphis. 



Lastly, there is the matter of the grease. 

 It is often recommended that ordinary cart 

 grease will do, and so it will, so long as it 



so that it runs down the trees this is wait- 

 ing the material. 



Let me say, in conclusion, that grease 

 banding is one of those operations in which 

 you must take so much on trust. In a 

 season or district when or where winter 

 moths are not prevalent, and few' insects 

 are captured, so much the better, but the 

 risk is always there, and why take it, when 

 for a small outlay one has at hand the best- 

 known remedy for preventing the ravages 

 of the winter moth caterpillar.^ H. 



NEW ZEALAND BURS OR 



AC-^NAS^ 



Carpeting plants are very useful, as well 

 as highly ornamental, and among the peren- 

 nials which have come into favour for 

 covering bare spaces, such as those which 



foliage, only those are named that can 

 be procured in the form of seeds. This 

 species also may possibly be purchased in 

 seeds, but th^ writer has not seen them 

 oflFered. A pretty New Zealand bur is 

 Acfena argentea, said to be a form of A. 

 microphylla, with charming, silvery -green 

 foliage and little burs. It is a good grower 

 and to be recommended. A, inermis is 

 another good one, this having nice green 

 leaves, and is a good carpeting for the 

 border or the rockery. 



In A. microphylla we have another pretty 

 acfena, and one that has for long been 

 a general favourite. It has pretty foliage, 

 moss-like in its general ap]>earance, and 

 with burs which have showv little scarlet 

 spmes. In a mass those give a really beau- 

 tiful effect, and the writer well recollects 

 one mass of several yards square in a low, 

 moist spot in a famous garden, where this 

 was remarkably pretty. A. sanguisorba is 



HKRBACEOUS BOEDER IN THE FEIARY GARDEN 



k^>t»ps sticky ; but it dries too quickly, and 

 becomes iisoU^ss if tin* w hole work of smear- 

 iJig IS nui gone over agnin. My advice is 

 to do the thing well by using one of the 

 t^^xcellent i)repared greases that are now on 

 the market, ami rniuiin .sticky as long as 

 the bands are on tlu^ trees. I am opposed 

 to the custom of smearing the grease 

 <^lirectl\^ on the bark, because paper bands 

 are cheap enough ; they are easily attached, 

 **an i)e ju.st as easily removed, and there 

 |s no possible danger of damage being done 

 *> the bark. Grease banding is not so effi- 

 ^'^^^'Hiiis on bush tre(^s close to the ground 

 J**^ standnnls with clean stems. The 

 ^^finds slionid be in ])osition by the time I 

 ^^"^ve stated, and it may be necessary to do 

 ^ second smearing after Christni;rs t<» <a])- 

 ^"I'p any moths that go up in th.^ early 

 ^I'Miig. Jf ji hinli-olass ("i-casr is iisod. !iot 



are left after the foliage of spring-floww- a very free grower, and useful on the 



ing bulbs has died down, are the acpenas, or rockery. 



New Zealand burs. These are, as a rule, These a<ienas are really very easy to 



rapid-growing plants, covering the grouml cultivate, aiid will gi ow almost anywhere, in 



with neat leaves, of the characteristic form sun or in shade, in dry soil or a moist, peaty 



of the rosaceye, the natural order to which one, in the Ixirder, on the rockery, or be- 



they belong, and afterwards bearing nume- tween stones in paths and flights of rough 



rous heads of inconspicuous flow^ers, some 

 of them having pretty spines. These, by 

 the way, are the cause of the name of 

 bur," and they prove pests indee<l 

 in the sheep-farming districts of New Zea- 

 land, by clinging to the fleeces of the 

 animals, and being practically impossible of 

 removal without leaving the little hooks in 

 the wool, which is considerably reduced in 

 \alue by their presence. 



A lart^o number of mcichms are imw in 

 cultivation, but, with the <*xccptioii of one, 

 \. Hu< hariani, which cannot well l>e omitted 



steps. They are increased by cuttings off 

 the trailing stems, which root as they grow, 

 or by means of see<ls. which can be bought 

 and sown under glass in spring, or in drills 

 in the open garden in May. Thcst^ are 

 quite hardy everywhere almost in the 

 I'nited Kingdom. S. A. 



i.s requirinl, and if it is i)lastcred on because of the beauty of its pea-green 



CHKYSANTHKMrMS.— For full instnicMons on 

 the Ciilturo of Chry.s.a.nthomiim« in bwk or 

 borders for srai^lt^n or ;rro<'nhous<K <Woration^ r(^ad 

 the Second Edition of Chrtsanthkmums for GvIRDev 

 AND Greenhouse, by D. B. Crane, price 2fi. 6d. net; 

 or by post 2e. ICd.^ from W. H. and L. CoUingridge, 

 148 and 149, Aideregate Street, London. 



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