306 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
bulbs from California stood the past severe 
winter near New York, and this spring flower¬ 
ed vfgorously. The Quamash will not please 
those who value a plant in proportion to its 
-showiness, as it is rather modest in appearance, 
though a very neat and interesting plant. In 
some of the valleys of the far west the plant is 
so abundant, that the Indians resort to them at 
the proper season, and the tribe—at least the 
female portion of it, spends some time in collect¬ 
ing and preparing the roots. A hole is made 
in the ground and lined with stones, in which a 
fire is built; when the stones are heated, the 
fire is swept out and the bulbs placed in the 
hole, covered with branches, and then with 
earth. The cooked roots are then beaten into a 
paste and dried to use as food during the win¬ 
ter. The eastern Quamash, as we recollect it, 
is a somewhat showier plant than the western, 
though not quite so large, and we would advise 
those who live near where it grows to transfer 
the bulbs to their gardens. 
-— -- -—«*■-= -- - 
The Rocky Mountain Bramble. 
When the expedition to the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains, commanded by Maj. Long, returned in 
1821, the botanist, Dr. James, brought home 
dried specimens of a raspberry or bramble, of 
which the fruit, according to him, was “ large 
and delicious.” Dr. Torrey, finding that it was 
a new species, named it, upon the strength of 
Dr. James’ notes, Rubus deliciosus, he not at 
that time knowing that every fruit met with by 
an explorer is, if not absolutely repulsive and 
uneatable, “ delicious.” Major Long himself 
greatly excited the fruit-growers of that day 
by his accounts of the excellence of a grape 
found on the same expedition, which was some 
years afterwards cultivated, and found to be 
no better than any other wild grape. The 
■stories of explorers in regard to fruit must 
be accepted cautiously, as everything tastes 
good to a hungry man, who has lived for 
months on salt pork and “ hard tack.” In this 
case “ Delicious Raspberry,” as we may trans¬ 
late Rubus deliciosus, is a misnomer, as its fruit 
is not only not delicious, but only barely edible. 
There has long been a fine old specimen of this 
shrub on the rockery at the Botanic Garden at 
Harvard University, and when Prof. C. S. Sar¬ 
gent assumed the directorship of the garden, 
he was struck with the value of the species as 
an ornamental plant. It has a graceful habit, 
neat foliage, and in spring produces an abun¬ 
dance of pure white flowers upon the shoots of 
the preceding year. While the flowers are not 
very lasting, their great abundance, large size, 
and individual beauty, commend it to all lovers 
of flowering shrubs. The size and shape of 
the flowers and leaves are shown in the en¬ 
graving, which is from a drawing by a lady, 
who would not care to have her skill as an 
artist publicly acknowledged. The shrub will 
probably flourish in any garden soil, but its na¬ 
tural habitat being rocky hill-sides, it is espe¬ 
cially adapted to the rock garden. The seeds 
of the old plants at Cambridge have been 
saved, and sent to various gardens at home and 
abroad, though they do not seem to have grown 
very generally. Mr. Dawson, the propagator 
at the Arnold Arboretum, (Jamaica Plains,) has 
succeeded in raising two lots of seedlings, and 
we may expect to see the plant before long 
quite generally distributed. 
Egyptian Beet.—A year or two ago impure 
seed was sent out, and there was much disap¬ 
pointment : this season we had the real thing, 
from both Peter Henderson & Co., and B. K. 
Bliss & Sons. No one has ever eaten beets in 
perfection, until he has tried the Egyptians. 
Take them young, not over two inches through, 
and they cook to balls of crimson jelly, dress 
them with Jersey butter, and enjoy beets glori¬ 
fied, nor let any profane good gifts, by suggest¬ 
ing, much less applying, vinegar. By sowing 
a short row every week, we have young tender 
beets all the season, and provide for a supply 
of beet greens, which, in the hot months, when 
spinach can not be had, are a most welcome 
substitute. 
The Harlequin Cabbage Bug. 
Cabbage growers in the northern states think 
they have to contend with a sufficient number of 
insect enemies, but those who live in southern lati¬ 
tudes, have one which in both beauty and destruc¬ 
tiveness, far excels those of colder districts—the 
Harlequin Cabbage Bug. This insect first became 
prominently known about 10 years ago, from 
accounts that were sent of its destruction in 
Texas ; whether it is gradually traveling northward, 
or has been of late more noticed than formerly, we 
can not say, but it is found in Kansas, and only a 
short time ago we received specimens from Virginia, 
from which the large figure, showing the bug much 
over twice its natural size, was made ; the other 
figures, a, the larvae, b, the pupa, and c, the eggs, 
being taken from our friend Riley’s Fourth Report 
on the Insects of Missouri. Popularly any insect 
is called a bug, while entomologists restrict that 
name to insects of the sub-order, Hemiptera, which 
includes the chinch-squash-bed—and other well 
known bugs, and in this disagreeable company is 
found our really beautiful and sweet-scented Harle- 
HABI.EQUIN CABBAGE BUG. 
quin. The eggs shown at c, much magnified, are in 
rows of about half a dozen, and appear like light 
green, or white, minute barrels, with dark lines for 
hoops, and a spot for the bung-hole. When ready 
to hatch, the young Harlequin pushes the head out 
of its barrel, and steps forth as a larva, which grows 
to the size of the line by the side of a. In this 
state the color is greenish and black ; in these 
the pupa, b, is active, and differs from the larva in 
having some orange color, and other changes. 
Finally comes the perfect insect, which, in order to 
show its beautiful markings, is much enlarged. 
The light spots in the engraving, are of a rich 
orange color, and the dark parts, blue-black, all 
handsomely polished. As our specimens came pre¬ 
served in alcohol, we could uot observe the pleas¬ 
ant odor it is said to give off—but this is the only 
agreeable quality the insect possesses ; it not only 
exhausts the plant by sucking the juices, but ap¬ 
pears to actually poison it; the late Dr. Lincecum 
wrote that half a dozen mature insects will kill a 
cabbage in a single day. It attacks other plants 
of the same family, such as radishes, turnips, etc., 
and is one of the worst pests of the southern gar¬ 
dens. No remedy other than hand-picking has 
yet been found, and domestic fowls and birds gen¬ 
erally let them alone. Its systematic name is 
Strachia histrionica. 
A Sure Remedy for the Currant Worm. 
The ravages of the currant worm were extensive 
last season, in many places taking every leaf, and 
blighting every bunch of fruit. Many, after fight¬ 
ing the enemy with their fingers, or with hellebore 
applied in powder for a few days, gave up in. 
despair. We subdued three successive generations 
of these worms last season, and we give our ex¬ 
perience for the benefit of the multitudes, who are 
suffering this summer. The worms made their ap¬ 
pearance in May, attacking the gooseberries first, 
probably because they first showed their leaves. 
The gooseberries were stripped of every leaf before 
we noticed their depredations. We applied powder¬ 
ed hellebore from a dredging box soon after the 
worms showed themselves upon the currant bushes. 
This is effectual, but it takes a long time to go 
through a row of the bushes, even in an ordinary 
garden. With the most faithful application some 
worms will be likely to escape the poison, and pro¬ 
vide for the next generation. By constant watch¬ 
ing we kept the enemy under, and saved a portion 
of the crop. Later in the season we thought of ap¬ 
plying the poison in a liquid form, and found it not 
a tithe of the labor and much more efficacious than 
the dry. We take about two ounces of the white 
hellebore for an ordinary ten quart water pail. 
Pour a quart or two of boiling water over the pow¬ 
der ; after standing a few minutes, fill up with cold 
water and apply the liquid with a garden syringe. 
The large nozzle is much better than the rose for 
delivering the liquid. You can throw a stream of 
water twenty feet or more through the bushes with 
a good deal of force, and this will distribute the 
spray quite evenly over all the leaves. Every worm 
that is touched by the liquid dies, and drops from 
the leaves after a few hours. Ordinarily, a single 
thorough application will clean the bushes and save 
the crop of fruit. This spring the worms made 
their appearance, the stock having no doubt come 
from adjoining gardens, where nothing was done 
last year to destroy them. A single application of 
the liquid hellebore, (and mind it must be white and 
not black hellebore), costing about five cents, and 
the labor of fifteen minutes, completely cleaned the 
bushes, not a worm is visible, and a fine crop of 
fruit is promised. The currant is the best of all 
our acid fruits, easily raised, and much needed in 
its season in every home. It seems a pity to give 
over the bushes, which are found in almost every 
garden in the country, to the worms, when they 
can be so easily saved. A pound of white hellebore, 
costing about forty cents, will clean any ordinary 
garden, and keep it clean for a season. If applied 
in the liquid form with a good syringe, the whole 
labor need not exceed an hour. There is great 
satisfaction in seeing clean bushes and clean clus¬ 
ters, and though it may be an evidence of depravity, 
we confess to a feeling of consolation at the sight 
of the enemy, stupified, coiled up, and laid out in 
r5ws upon the brown earth. We always did have a 
private interpretation of Cowper’s sentiment about 
“ needlessly setting foot on a worm.” * 
— h i i - 
The Injury to Plants by Forcing. 
BT PETER HENDERSON. 
In an article written for the Agriculturist some 
time ago, I referred to a disease which was very 
destructive among many of the older varieties of 
monthly carnations, or pinks, which we have been 
forcing for the last 20 years. I then suggested that 
the trouble was in consequence of this excessive 
forcing, which had so lessened the vitality of the 
plants, that disease followed whenever the condi¬ 
tions were slightly unfavorable, such as too wet or 
too dry a soil. Since then, our observations have 
shown that nearly all the varieties of roses in use 
for forcing for winter flowers are similarly affected. 
About the first of May this year I planted out in 
the open ground Safrano, Bon Silene, Douglass, 
Mareschal Niel, and four other varieties, which had 
been used for forcing during the winter. At the 
same time we planted out over 30 varieties of other 
tea-roses, that had been grown during winter in a 
