NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
159 
THE TEMPLE SHOW, 1900. 
Among the distinguished visitors this year we noticed Her Majesty 
the Queen of Sweden, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Her 
Royal Highness the Duchess of York, the Duchess of Devonshire, the 
Marchioness of Breadalbane, the Countess of Warwick, the Countess of 
•Galloway, Lady Burton, Lord Wantage, Lord Amherst of Hackney, Lady 
Plowden, Lady Lawrence, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the 
Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Medway, Mr. Leopold Rothschild, 
Miss Balfour, Mrs. Creighton, i^c. The Queen of Sweden most graciously 
sent a message through Lady Breadalbane expressing the very great 
pleasure she had experienced in seeing the flowers, and assuring the 
Council how much she was gratified with the attention which she had 
received. 
GREEN LICHEN, c^c, ON FRUIT TREES. 
In many gardens, after the fall of the leaf, the Apple and Pear trees 
especially may be noticed with a green powdery lichen completely cover- 
ing the branches and stems, not only making them look very unsightly, 
but crippling the trees by preventing the bark from performing its proper 
functions. It would be difficult to say exactly what is the cause of the 
lichen, but too much damp in the air or the soil is certainly favourable 
to its increase, as also is stag-nation of air, such as is often met with in 
overshadowed or overgrown gardens. The best remedy we have met 
with is to spray the trees when they are at rest (say in December or 
January) with a mixture of 1 lb. of caustic soda and 1 lb. of crude potash 
dissolved in 10 gallons of boiling or very hot water ; and if the spraying is 
done before the mixture has become quite cold its action will be all the 
more thorough. A heavy spraying is not needed ; it is only necessary 
to just wet the trees to thoroughly cleanse them. Great care is needed 
in using the spray ; stout leather gloves should be worn, and something 
tied round the junction of coat sleeves and gloves to protect the wrists, 
for though the mixture is absolutely harmless to tree bark it burns the 
human skin badly. It is needless to add that the operator should be very 
■careful to observe the way of the wind, so as not to get spray blown back 
in his face. This mixture will not only thoroughly cleanse the trees of 
lichen and such like, but it will kill any American blight (woolly aphis) 
that is still above ground, winter moth, and other such insect pests. It 
is also a capital wash for walls on which fruit trees are trained, in which 
case a rather forcible spray should be used so as to penetrate into the 
holes in the bricks and cracks in the mortar ; but note that it must only 
be used as a spray when the trees are at rest in the winter, as the leaves 
will not stand it, but it is grandly effective against American blight if 
used with a brush on the trunks of the trees, in the summer, without 
letting it fall on the leaves. 
