February 6, 1888. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
115 
flowers, and ought to be grown in hundreds of gardens for decorative 
purposes ; at least that is the opinion of —A Thinker. 
WINTER DRESSING FRUIT TREES. 
( Continued from page S6 .) 
Parasites. —Apart from insect parasites there are some in 
the vegetable kingdom which depend for their existence upon 
plants of various kinds. No doubt there are predisposing causes 
to their attacks, but this is little understood. We know that 
unhealthy growth in trees renders them more susceptible to the 
attacks of insects and fungi, and we are equally aware of their 
presence on trees that are considered healthy, and that trees and 
plants under the most favoured conditions of soil, climate, and 
skilful treatment are liable to be attacked. Mildew may not 
cause much anxiety in the winter season, but we may safely 
anticipate a recurrence of the evil on trees that have been 
attacked by it in the past, as it will have left spores, if nothing 
else, behind, and to destroy those is quite as important as the 
developing fungus. 
Perhaps the most fatal substance to fungi or vegetable life is 
sulphate of zinc, but, except in the hands of the scientific, it is 
best left a'one. There is nothing unsafe in the old remedy— 
sulphur, and I consider it much better to use sulphur water 
than flowers of sulphur. It is readily made by putting 7 lbs. of 
sulphur vivum or black sulphur in an iron copper or pan con¬ 
taining 3 gallons of water, adding a piece of quicklime about the 
size of a man’s fist, stir well up, and boil for fifteen minutes, 
then add 9 gallons of water and again boil for thirty minutes, 
keeping it stirred all the time. Allow it to cool, then take off 
the clear liquid and place it in bottles, keeping it corked for use. 
As a winter dressing apply it in a pure state, and after the 
foliage appears use it as a mixture of 1 pint to 3 gallons of 
water. To trees at rest it may be applied with a brush or be 
syringed; during growth it can be readily applied with the 
syringe. If, after the mixture has been boiling fifteen minutes, 
we add 2 lbs. of softsoap and 1 lb. of the strongest shag tobacco, 
the 9 gallons of water as before, and boil half an hour, allow it 
to cool and strain through a hair sieve, we have an admirable 
insecticide, which if placed in a stone bottle well corked will 
keep for years. The application should be 1 pint to 3 gallons of 
water at a temperature of 90° to 120°, syringed on freely. 
Moss and Lichen. —These are regarded as due to bad 
drainage, wet land, and moist c imate. They are very in¬ 
jurious to the health and vigour of the trees, and should be 
destroyed. Old trees may have the trunk and the larger 
branches scraped, and this will remove many of the parasites, 
and they may then be brushed over with brine sufficiently strong 
to float an egg. The smaller branches should be dusted whilst 
they are wet with quicklime. Small trees are readily dusted 
with lime after rain, a coarse bag on a pole being a ready means 
of applying it, whilst a sulphur duster will answer for small 
trees, Gooseberry bushes, &c. The lime ought to be fresh 
slaked, and will destroy the moss and lichen, which will come 
off by degrees, leaving the bark smooth and clean, and the health 
of the trees will be improved accordingly. 
Birds. —Where these abound it will be necessary to do one 
of two things—viz., kill the birds or make the buds obnoxious 
to them. Bullfinches feed almost exclusively on the young buds 
of trees in spring, and sparrows are in bad repute for a similar 
reason. The bullfinch is certainly very beautiful, but in a 
gardening point of view it has little practical value, and is not 
confined in its bud-eating propensities to Gooseberries, but it 
will also take the big buds of the Pear and Apple, together 
with Plum buds and the best of the fruit crop. About 
tbe orchard and fruit garden the bullfinch is not seen when 
insects are active; all it cares about is buds and the seeds 
of Raspberries. The green linnet takes some buds, but wbat of 
the sparrow ? Well, i have found him the best and most con¬ 
fiding of friends. How many small caterpillars and aphides a 
pair of sparrows clear off our crops in a season! It is possible, 
no doubt, to have too many of them. I thought so last year 
when I found they paid particular attention to the buds of our 
Gooseberry bushes. They ate some of the buds, but they left 
them after the bushes were syringed with Fir tree oil, and the 
bii’ds lived to devour myriads of insects, Where birds take the 
buds of fruit trees dress the trees with petroleum as soon as 
their attacks are observed—a wineglassful to 3 gallons of water, 
keeping it mixed as advised, and whilst keeping off birds it will 
act as a destroyer of insects.—G. Abbey. 
Why are Early Bulbs so Late this Year?—T his question has 
beei asked me, and I have askei myself, Where are our usually preco¬ 
cious Snowdrops, single and double ; Crocus in variety ; Narcissi, double 
Roman, Paper White, Stella, Gloriosus, and the beautiful little dwarf 
N. minimus, which usually shows just now over the surface ? With a 
warm southern sloping aspect, where the bulbs were matured early, I am 
quite unable to understand the matter. I am aware others, too, are sur¬ 
prised, especially considering the splendid ripening summer and autumn. 
Except some Empress or Crown Anemones tbe borders are still colourless, 
though I should have expected the reverse.—W. J. M., Clonmel. 
CYCLOBOTIIRA ALBA. 
The plants formerly placed in the genus Cyclobothra are now by 
common consent merged in Calochortus, the present species taking the 
name originally conferred on it by Douglas, of Calochortus albus. Having 
put this fact on record it may, however, be more convenient to the 
readers of a popular journal like the present if the better-known name 
be retained in connection with the following description of this pretty and 
interesting hardy bulb. 
The Cyclobothra alba is a bulbous plant growing about a foot high, 
with one radical leaf of considerable length (much longer than is repre¬ 
sented in our figure), and from three to five shorter ones upon the stem, 
from each of which proceeds a lateral shoot bearing two flowers (some¬ 
times, however, there is but one), with a pair of leaf-like bracts at the 
base of the peduncles. It is only strong bulbs which will produce the 
number of blossoms shown by our artist; usually there are but six upon 
the same stem. The flowers are drooping, of a globular form, and about 
1^ to 2 inches in diameter. The three petals are extremely convex, and 
have their edges closely approximated, being rarely separated to a greater 
degree than shown in our figure. In colour they are of a silky white, 
with a tinge of green near the base ; they are bearded on their inner 
surface with long white hairs, which, under the microscope, have a 
flattened ribband-like form. The three sepals are of a membranous tex¬ 
ture, oval-pointed form, and of a pale green with a tinge of purple. 
The curious nectariferous cavity which characterises this genus is well 
seen in the present species, appearing as a linear or oval depression in the 
petal, at a short distance from the base, and secreting a sweetish fluid. 
The stamens are six in number, with the yellow anthers attached by 
their base to the filament, as in the Tulip. The ovarium is oblong, 
bluntly triangular, with intermediate furrows, and terminating by three 
short spreading stigmas. Seeds of an oval form, wingless, and of a 
purplish-brown colour. It flowers from midsummer to the middle or end 
of July. 
The Cyclobothra alba is quite hardy, but the bulbs suffer from exces¬ 
sive wet; when planted in the open borders it should therefore be covered 
with a small handlight or empty pot during long-continued rains in 
autumn and winter. It does well in a mixture of peat and sandy loam, 
and should be planted in a warm well-drained border. If the bulbs arfl 
