THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
Ill 
lin*TS avoid soil or situations likely to be infected. This is 
rather vague and not reassurin,;)^ advice to the prospective 
^?entian grower. However, it -is quite possible that the 
disease is less frequent in localities where the gentian is 
found growing wild, so that these suggestions apply more 
directly to those sections where the plant is rare, or want- 
ing. As the fungus is a greenhouse pest it mav be well to 
avoid setting out seedlings in soil devoted to cultivated 
^'^''ti* 1 ■ 1 ]• 
attack. The most persistant, and inischiveous of these 
are certain aphids, which gather about the tap root, and 
rob the plant of itsjnices. The depredations of these pests 
may be averted or checked Ijy the cautious application ot 
unleached wood ashes about the plants. A mild solution 
of kerosene emulsion mav be dei)ended upon to kill the 
a;.hids and also the plants unless skillfully handled. Quite 
attacks, fall victims to the 
stroy the seeds as the\' are g 
the tenders cotyk-dons, after l 
start. A species of ant also n.: 
swollen seeds from th.- seed b: I _ , . ..... . .,- 
given, not wit!i a view to di.scouraging the cultivation of 
th.^ gentian, but rather they are offered as a partial expla- 
nation for the frequent failures attendin^^ the efforts of 
those who have endeavored to grow the plant. 
Aiken, M<L 
A WORD ^OK ^losses. 
BV DR \V.\I \V[IIT\IAX lUILEY 
FTER all the wild flowers have gfrue: wh.-n we can no 
• «- longer, after dilig-nt searcli, find even the siider-like 
yellow blossom of witeh-h.azel in the woods, or "butter 
and eggs" in the meadows, we turn for consolation to the 
mosses. These, like the poor, we have always with us. 
