April ]C, lt91. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
303 
but it may be useful to record the ways iu which I worked them out 
so successfully. 
The American Blight (^Scldzoneura lanigerai). —Some years ago this 
pest was introduced in our gardens by some new varieties of Apples 
received from France, and within a short period nearly the whole of our 
young Apple trees all over the nurseries were infested. We pDssessei 
at that time the now well-known English insecticide Gishurst com¬ 
pound, or sort of soap, made up with nicotine or some other poisonous 
substance, and which had proved to be very effective in destroying 
green and black fly, thrips and scale in our greenhouses and gardens. 
I decided at once to try it on the Apple blight, and proceeded as 
follows : — 
A lump of Gishurst was dissolved in water in such a proportion as 
to obtain a thick liquid of the consistence of od paint. A strong 
painter’s brush was provided, and one of our ass’s^ants was appointed 
to the work. He was to examine every Apple tree, and to look oir every 
side and corner after the aphides, which at the beginning of the spring 
are clustered in the crevices of the stems or on the under side of the 
young twigs, and apparent enough by the white down or wool which 
covers their bodies. 
The man was ordered to touch firmly, and to brush with the paint 
every visible white spot, and to go from tree to tree all over the ground. 
The trees being young, and not above 8 feet high, were examined and 
brushed, where necessary, in a relative short time. We began on a 
Monday, and arranged that the same man should do the same work 
every Monday morning for his first work. 
After two or three operations many clus'rers or nests had already 
disappeared, and a strip of bast was put as a mark on 
every tree which still showed signs of the presence of 
the insect. This spared much time afterwards, and 
by taking away the mark from the healed trees the 
number of invalids to be bnished diminished every 
week, and at the beginning of August the last infected 
trees were cleaned, and since that time our nurseries 
have been completely free from the pest. It was ex¬ 
tirpated at a trifling cost and not too much laboirr. 
The Coehchafer {Melolontha vidgavis').-—One of 
the most troublesome and voracious insects which in'est 
many gardens and nurseries in Belgium and in France, 
is Cc-rtainly the grub or maggot of the cockchafer, 
which in France is called vev hlanc (white worm), and 
in Belgium vet maai (fat grub). It is specially plentiful 
in the neighbourhood of plantations where Beech, 
Hornbeam, and Oak trees are abundant, and as the 
grub remains quite three years in the ground before it 
makes its metamorphosis into a cockchafer the number 
accumulates, and their ravages must be enormous. 
We were troubled with this plague for many years, 
and tried different ways to master it. We hunted and 
killed the cockchafer as much as we could, and paid 
sometimes one franc for every hundred. We dug all 
the beds where the young plants and trees were dying 
from the attacks of the grubs which wandered under 
the ground from root to root. We caught i>art of them, 
but these and other means were of little avail, as the 
whole of the land was infested, and the grubs scattered 
in every part of the ground. 
riG. 5(5. I had observed that certain birds were very clever 
in finding the cockchafer, especially the rook, the 
magpie, and the starling; but the rook and the 
magpie are shy, and do not like to descend iu gardens and nurseries 
where men are working. The starling, on the contrary, is not afraid 
to reside and to live near buildings and habitations. The birds like 
to make their nests in places having but a small oponing, through 
which they can fly in and out. A wooden box about 8 inches square, 
with a hole the size of a crown piece in the middle of the front side is 
what they prefer, especially when the box or case is fixed on a pole some 
8 or 10 feet high, and not too near any tree. 
I prepared in this way a few boxes the first year, and a pair of 
starlings did not wait long before se’ecting one of them for their habita¬ 
tion. The second year the other boxes were occupied, and the third 
year I planted half a dozen more on poles about 50 yards apart, and all 
of them became inhabited the same year. Since that time more than 
100 boxes have been placed in different parts of the grounds, some of 
them 600 yards from the first installation, and in every case they have 
been occupied by a family of starlings. 
The pairing time of these birds is about the end of March, and they 
lay five to six eggs, which are hatched in about eighteen days. The 
young ones remain a long time under the care of their parents, and are 
exclusively fed with insect food. This period coincided precisely with 
the season at which the cockchafer is crawling from under the ground to 
make his appearance and fly in the wide world. 
In watching one of our box nests occupied by young starlings it is a 
pleasure to observe the parents arriving at short intervals, and present¬ 
ing their offspring with a fat morse), which in reality is a cock¬ 
chafer deprived of its wings, head and claws. 
I have reason to believe that every family of starlings consumes at 
least fifty cockchafers in one day, and as the chasing goes on for weeks 
the slaughter of chafers must be enormous. The fact is that since our 
installation was completed young grubs are no more to be found in our 
grounds, and I feel confident that with our 200 nesting boxes, giving us 
a yearly supply of clever combatants, we shall be in a ve^'y short time 
completely released from the cockchafer plague.—C harles Van Geert, 
Antwerp, 
[All visitors to Mr. Van Geert’s extensive and highly interesting 
nurseries of trees and shrubs at C.almpthout must have observed the 
nesting boxes to which he refers, one of which we reproduce from a 
sketch by an English tourist.] 
BOMBAY GARDENS. 
(^Continued from page 241.) 
The Mango Tree, which rarely in Bombay is seen to assume that 
perfect shape by which it at once attracts the attention in the jungle or 
along the country roads, is still very attractive by the beauty and 
varying colour of its leaves, in which tints of pink, violet, mauve, 
coppered, and all shades of green are of no rare occurrence, while the 
individually inconspicuous flowers when covering the tree with their 
masses are very effective. The Spathodea campanulata, with its large 
brilliant scarlet flowers in great clusters, is still too rare in Bombay 
gardens. The Indian Ijaburnum (Cassia fistula) with its large drooping 
sprays of pure yellow flowers, is a most beautiful object, lar surpassing 
the English Laburnum in beauty. The Lagerstrmmias, with their large 
fringed mauve, pink, or white flowers, are universally admired, but are 
far surpassed in gracefulness by the Lagerstrmmia parviflora of our 
hills, which I hope ere long to see commonly established in Bombay 
gardens. The Sterculia urens with its large hand-shaped leaves is not a 
bad substitute for our Plane trees at home. The Michelia champaca, 
the sacred pila “ Champa,” is famed for its strong scented yellow flowers, 
which are much used by native women for adornment of their hair, thus 
occasionally serving a double purpose, that of ornament and that of a 
powerful insecticide. The Plumieria acuminata, another “ Champa, 
with its handsome strong scented white, yellow, and often pinkish- 
tinteil flower’s is a general favourite. A dark red-flowered, scentless kind 
has lately been introduced. 
The most striking tree of our gardens is perhaps the Lettuce Tree 
(Pisonia alba), which cannot fail to attract attention by the splendid 
effect of its bright yellow foliage, nowhere I believe so perfectly 
developed as in Bombay. The Kurranj Tree (Pongamia glabra) 
reminds us very much of our Beech tree at home, when producing its 
light green new foliage in the hot weather. Bombay can only boast 
of a few handsome specimens of the Tamarind tree, which grows to so 
great perfection up country. Some fine specimens of the beautiful 
Jack Tree (Artocarpus integrifolia) and of the Bread-fruit Tree (A. 
incisa), which perhaps has no rival in beauty of foliage, are occasionally 
met with, as also of the wild Mangostcen (^Garcinia xanthochymus), 
distinguished by its extremely handsome pyramidal growth, and the 
Putranjiva Roxburgh!, to which the drooping branches covered with 
handsome foliage and white nuts lend a peculiar charm. Among other 
common trees the country Almond (lerminalia catappa), with its 
regularly whorled branches and handsome large leaves, the Si k Cotton 
tree, with its pricklv stem and branches and dark crimson flowers, the 
Undi (Calophyllorn'inophyllum), with its glossy foliage and handsome 
sweet-scented white flowers, are sufficiently common to be noticed, while 
the beautiful scarlet flowered Cordia sebestana is perhaps the most 
appreciated tree of all in Bombay, and the Malayan Rose-apple 
(Eugenia molucana), when its branches are loaded with bright purple 
flowers is well calculated to attract attention. Of trees of more recent 
introduction I shall but mention a few which promise to become favourite 
inhabitants of our gardens. 
The Rain Tree (Pithecolobium Saman) with its handsome glossy 
foliage and pink flower clusters vicing in beauty with the indigenous 
“ Lu ei ” (Albizzia stipulata), a tree that ought, sooner or later, to find 
a place in our gardens ; the Peltophorum ferrugineum of perfect shape, 
with dense handsome foliage and beautiful yellow flowers succeeded by 
shining brown pods ; Solanum maroniense, the Potato Tree, with large 
prickly leaves, and handsome, large, dark violet flowers changing to pale 
lilac'; the Australian Oak (Grevillea robusta), with silvery grey finely 
cut leaves ; the Star Apple (Chrysophyllum Cainito), of graceful droop¬ 
ing habit, with dark green leaves which are golden brown beneath; and 
the Australian Bottle Brush Flower, Callistemon speciosus. The only 
representative of the order of Coniferas, which to such a great extent 
assist in the adornment of our gardens at home, are two or three kmds 
of Araucaria (A. Cunninghami), A. Cooki, A. Bidwilli, and a few i^inds 
of Thuja and Cupressus, but neither of them succeed well enough to 
deserve general cultivation. The allied Casuarinas are, however, cominon 
in Bombay, and are often trimmed into quaint pyramids and other 
ngainly shapes. , -kT • 
The Palms form a conspicuous feature in Bombay gardens. JMotfiing 
an rival the beauty[of a young healthy Cocoa-nut Palm, with its graceful 
^athery arched leaves. The common wild Date Palm with its spiny 
reyish densely tufted leaves is frequently very effective, specially when 
oung and the magnificent head of large fan-shaped leaves crowning 
ae stems of the common ” Brab ” or Palmyra Palm is very picturesque 
he Fishtail Palm, Caryota urens, is at once graceful, peculiar, and 
ighly ornamental. Its long drooping clusters of flowers and fruds, 
rtinating from the stem, arc a feature that strikes all strangers with 
milder and surprise. The Betelnut Palm has often been called the most 
raceful of Palms, and is when loaded with its bright scarlet fruits, in 
ruth, a striking object. The Oreodoxa regia, the Ptychosperma Cur- 
ioghamiana (Seaforthia elegans), the Oil Palm (Elai guincnsis), Livis- 
