26 BULLETIN 333, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
OEXAMENTAL PLANTS. 
F. C. Pratt states that at Sabinal. Tex., on July 11. 1910. some 
small pieces of Opiuitia infested with Mimorista larva? were entirely 
covered with soil galleries by termites. Many insects were found. 
It was also noticed that the galleries were extended to the healthy 
plants. Most of the small pieces were shriveled, but this condition 
was primarily due to the termite attack. This injury to ornamental 
cacti has occurred many times before. 
On August 24. 1915. at Jacumba. Cal.. F. P. Keen found workers 
and soldiers of Hamitermes sp. feeding on the surface of the rind of 
Yucca, where protected by the leaf bases, which are closely appressed 
to the stalk. The insects worked between the rosette of leaves and 
the flower stem. Jacumba is near the International Boundary Line 
and in a desert region. 
At Washington. D. C. termites (L. flavipes) constructed earthlike 
tunnels around a wooden fern box in a window of a school building 
in October. 1915. When the insects came to a hole in one corner 
of the box — bored to allow the excess water to drip away — they 
suspended hanging tubes down through this hole. These were about 
3 inches in length and 1-J inches in width at the bottom — the widest 
point. The opening at the bottom, through which the antennae of 
the workers and soldiers could be seen projecting, was about J inch 
in diameter. The shape of these tubes was somewhat like a funnel 
but the flare was not quite so marked. Termites infest the roots and 
stems of ornamental plants, in gardens or potted. 
E. S. Tucker states that on July 30, 1909, at Dallas, Tex., termites 1 
occupied the hollow roots of a weed. Leptilon canadense. The insects 
had effected entrance through a hole in the root. On September 29. 
1911. at "Wellington, Kans.. according to E. O. G. Kelly, termites 
had attacked stems of cocklebur. utilizing the entrance hole made 
by Papaipema nitela Hbn. At Colorado Springs, Colo., on March 7, 
1915. at an elevation of 6.100 feet, live termites 1 were noted by 
G. Hofer in the dead stem of the common thistle. 
PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
PREVENTIVES. 
PROTECTION OF WOODWORK IX BITLDIXGS. 
The fact that the beams, as " joists.'' i; studding." r stringers." 
etc.. of the basement are embedded in concrete is only a partial 
protection. In the settling of the house concrete is almost sure 
1 Leucotermes sp. 
