344r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
of which is shown in the engraving, is about 
an inch and a quarter across ; its three sepals, 
and two of its petals are alike in color, being 
a greenish buff with darker veins ; the third 
and lower petal, called the lip, is in this 
as in other orchids, 
quite different from 
the other two ; it is 
three-lobed,the side 
lobes embracing the 
stamen and pistil, 
and the middle 
lobe much larger 
than the others, 
(spreading and fan- 
shaped ; this lip 
is pure white, with 
a broad carmine 
blotch upon its ex- 
panded portion, and 
a smaller one on 
the narrower part. 
Like many other 
orchids, the flow- 
ers of this endure 
for a long time. 
This native plant 
is one which can be 
easily cultivated in 
an ordinary green- 
house.and while not 
so brilliant as many 
of its relatives, it cannot fail to be of great 
interest on account of its manner of growth. 
So far as we are aware, our native species of 
Epidendrums have not been offered by florists, 
on land that has been held by actual settlers 
for a hundred years or more past. 
During more than a century, the coal-burners 
have every few years swept down the forests, 
from one end of the State to the other, so were 
Fig. 1.— LARVA OP OAK-BOREB. 
but those who have friends who visit Florida 
in the winter, can readily procure them. 
The Enemies of the Oak. 
ET MRS. MART TREAT. 
The oaks of New Jersey seem to be doomed. 
1 Small matter as to that," is the sneer- 
ing retort. " Did 
New Jersey ever 
produce a sizable 
oak anyway ? " — 
Well that de- 
pends upon what 
you call a sizable 
oak ; it probably 
has never pro- 
duced an oak 
quite equal in 
sb.e to the gigan- 
tic Sequoias of 
California ; but I 
haveseen respect- 
able oaks grow- 
ing in New Jer- 
sey. In Atlantic 
County I have 
found larger 
white oaks {Qiurcus alba), than in an}' Northern 
or Western Slate that I have visited. True, 
this is exceptional, and such oaks occur only 
Fig. 2.— OAK-BORER BEETLE. 
A FLORIDA AIR-PLANT. — (Epidendrum venosum.) 
it not for these exceptional trees, we should 
not know, except by tradition, how large the 
white oak and some other species would grow. 
But now, alas ! when we just begin to appre- 
ciate and realize, how truly 
beautiful these various spe- 
cies of oaks are, when we 
are laying out parks, and 
leaving groups here and 
there to beautify our village, 
we find they are preyed upon 
by at least four enemies — 
two vital ones, the Gigantic 
Borer (Prionus laticollis), 
and the locust borer (Eyletus robinia). 
The former is the larva of the largest 
beetle in the Northern States. Fig. 1 
shows the larva, and fig. 2 the beetle, 
both of the natural size. This borer at- 
tacks all the oaks, but seems to prefer the 
white oak, making its winding paths through 
the wood of the trunks of the trees, weaken- 
have to contend against, is the larva of Dryo- 
campa senatoria. The moth deposits her eggs 
in large patches, on the under side of the leaf, 
which soon hatch, and the young larvas move 
along in a vast colony, devouring the leaves as 
they go. Toward 
the latter part of 
summer, trees are 
often entirely de- 
nuded of leaves, 
and the disgusting 
larvae seem to be 
everywhere present, 
on the lawn, in the 
garden, on the side- 
walk, until one 
shudders at the 
very thought of 
even a walk, to say 
nothing of a seat 
under the oaks. 
Another enemy 
is the Oak-pruner. 
This fellow would 
not be so very ob- 
jectionable if he did 
not prune too close- 
ly, and had sense 
enough to know 
where the pruning 
was needed, but 
like some senseless 
horticulturist, he slashes right and left, withou j 
any regard to beauty or symmetry, and dowfi 
come the twigs, and sometimes quite large 
branches. The workman always falls with the 
Fig. 3.— LARVA OP LOCUST MOTH. 
ing them to such an extent that large trees 
are frequently prostrated by a strong wind. 
The locust borer at present threatens to 
become even more destructive than Prionus ; 
it is the larva of a large moth, (Hyldns robinia) 
and lias proven very destructive to the locust 
groves in the Western States ; but with us its 
preference is decidedly for the oak — the black 
oak (Qucrcus folcala), and the allied species are 
its favorite haunts. Fig. 3 gives the larva, and 
fig. 4 the female and fig. 5 the male moth. This 
morning, June 30th, I found seventeen empty 
chrysalid cases protruding from the trunk of 
one small tree. They seem to be much more 
numerous this season than in any previous year. 
But the most disagreeable of all the pests we 
Fig. 4.— -FEMALE MOTH. 
twigs and goes into the ground to pupate. It 
seems he has sense enough to look out for him- 
self and fall with the twig. Out of 
many hundred freshly fallen specimens, 
I have never failed to find the culprit 
safely ensconsed in the twig. It is the 
larva of some beetle, but I have failed 
as yet, to rear it to the perfect insect. 
[This is probably the insect, a small 
slender beetle, described in Harris' 
Insects as Stenocorius (Elapliidion) pu- 
tutor ; the means of preventing its increase 
is to gather and burn the prunings before the 
Fig. 5.- II U.E MOTH. 
perfect insect comes out to lay eggs for another 
crop, which it deposits in the axils of the 
leaves. — Ed.] Vineland, N. J. 
