NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



461 



also that when the destruction of injurious insects is most needed — that 

 is, at the period of greatest agricultural activity and before the parasitic 

 insects can be depended upon to reduce the pests " — it becomes 

 apparent that " the nature of the food, the amount consumed, and the 

 relation this bears, from an economic standpoint, to the harm done 

 by some species when adult, is not solely a question of interesting 

 curiosity on the part of the bird-lover, but one that has a definite 

 bearing on the success or failure of the produce of the land." — A. S. 



Broad Bean, Black Fly of. By F. V. Theobald (Jour. Bd. 

 Agr. vol. xix., Nos. 6, 11, pp. 466-476, 914-922). — The Black Fly, 

 14 Blight," or " Collier " of broad beans {aphis mmicis, Linn.) appears 

 to originate from winter eggs on docks, to which the aphides seem to 

 pass regularly each autumn. 



On the other hand, the aphis which attacks mangolds and other 

 members of the Chenopodiaceae, and which is regarded as belonging 

 to the same species (A. rumicis), seem to winter upon spindle trees 

 (Euonymus europaeus). In the summer it passes from the spindle 

 trees on to field poppies, and thence on to mangolds, and in the autumn 

 it returns to the spindle trees. — A. S. 



Cabbage. By L. C. Corbett {U.S.A. Dep. Agr., Farm. Bull. 433 ; 

 April 1911 ; 11 figs.). — This deals with the cultivation of the cabbage 

 both as a market-garden, and as a farm crop, the methods to be adopted 

 in the north differing widely from those found successful in the south. 

 The subject of winter storage is also dealt with. — A. P. 



Cacti, Ornamental. By Charles Henry Thompson (U.S.A. Dep. 

 Agr., Bur. PI. Ind., Bull. 262 ; Dec. 1912 ; plates). — Some practical 

 hints on the cultivation of Cacti, compiled by the botanist in charge 

 of the Succulent Collection in the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, 

 for the benefit of the American amateur. Though Cacti are, with 

 the exception of a few species of Rhipsalis, strictly indigenous to the 

 Western Hemisphere, it is only lately that much interest has been 

 taken in their cultivation there. All the available manuals have 

 been written with a view to European conditions, and are not entirely 

 applicable to America. This bulletin describes the propagation of 

 Cacti from seed, vegetative reproduction, grafting, and gives advice 

 on culture and the treatment and prevention of diseases. 



The writer enumerates the uses of the Cactus, in many species as a 

 fruit-bearing plant ; the ornamental work which may be made of the 

 woody core of a few ; its adaptability as a hedge plant in climates 

 where it can live out of doors all the year, and its decorative value. 



He concludes with a list of practically all the varieties now culti- 

 vated in America under the following heads : — 



1. Columnar forms of Cacti (over 6 feet, from 1 to 2 feet, less than 

 1 foot high). 



2. Globose forms (more than 1 foot in diameter, from 3 inches 

 to 1 foot in diameter, less than 3 inches). 



