August 3, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
93 
older leaves. We must in fact anticipate an attack in accordance 
with the season, and be prepared for resistance. 
Leaf blight in the Cherry, Plum, and Pear may all be treated 
to advantage with the same mixture, but for fruit trees several 
dressings are necessary, and should all bo applied before the fruit 
has quite set, in order that it may not be tainted and ruined in 
colour. The first dressing could be applied just as the leaves begin 
to open, and the second directly the blossoms begin to fall. When 
the second dose is given, 4 ozs. of Paris green added to every 
50 gallons of Bordeaux mixture effectually destroys insects and 
grubs. 
Before real progress can be made the Eclair will have to rank 
as one of the most important requisites of the garden. It is 
equally useful for insecticide and fungicide work. It ought to 
supersede the syringe for dressing trees upon walls with the well- 
known and admirable solution of quassia chips and softsoap, and it 
should prove invaluable in the application of kerosene and other 
emulsions to Onion beds with the object of scaring and finally 
extirpating that terrible pest the Onion fly.— Edward H. Smith, 
Warminster. 
INSECTS OF THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
{Continued from page 25.') 
Our flower beds and frames furnish a home to a host of those 
small and singular insects which have been dignified into an order 
and called the Thysanura. Science has puzzled itself about their 
place in Nature ; some would join them to the centipedes or the 
Crustaceans ; some think them akin to crickets or dragon flies ; 
others put them near the spiders and mites. Entomologists 
generally have taken no heed of them, gardeners are mostly 
unaware of their existence ; but the microscopist rejoices over 
them, for the scales of these insects furnish him with very capital 
test objects. Formerly the whole group were also called the 
Springtails. This name, however, was found to be only suitable 
for part, as they do not all jump or leap, and so they have been 
divided into the Thysanura proper, and the Collembola. There 
are other differences, too, besides the presence or absence of the 
peculiar springing apparatus. All of them show a dislike to light, 
hence we have difficulty in getting acquainted with their habits ; 
but the Thysanura like warmth, and occur upon dry walls, or in 
earth and substances not very moist, while the Collembola seem to 
flourish in damp places, and they suffer nothing from the effects 
of cold. It is the Collembola that we chiefly meet with in gardens, 
since they feed upon decaying leaves, or any kind of vegetable 
matter undergoing change, also upon some fungi, and they occur 
upon growing plants ; sometimes they swarm in our frames, being 
partial to succulent species. Collembola, though from their minute 
size they are frequently unnoticed, infest some of the flower beds, 
attacking leaves near the soil, the crowns or bulbs of plants, as well 
as some roots, and weaken, if they cannot kill. On the other hand, 
it is in their favour that they help to decompose substances which 
become then valuable as manure. 
As in all true insects, the body is, amongst the Collembola, 
divided into three sections—head, thorax, and abdomen ; the head 
bears the antennie and mouth organs, the six legs are attached to 
the thorax, and the abdomen has the saltatorial appendage, with its 
catch and spring. Some have the skin protected by scales, and 
others are hairy. Upon the heads of some are a number of round 
colourless points, which have been taken for eyes, but which are 
really organs of tonch. The simple eyes are behind the antennae, 
and form two little groups, one each side of the head. At the 
mouth we find a pair of fine feelers or palpi and a pair of jaws, 
which are long, and strengthened by horny muscles ; within the 
mouth is a double and complicated system of teeth, which the 
insects use far too effectively sometimes upon young leaves and 
tender rootlets. Amongst these little creatures a few species 
occur that are blind, yet they, in spite of this disadvantage, move 
about with activity and decision ; probably their antennae are 
specially sensitive. Some species have not the leaping apparatus 
that most possess, which has the form of r sort of fork, having a 
spring and catch. When we see one of them jump, it appears to 
us a wonderful display of muscular force perhaps, yet it is not so 
much by effort that it is made as by the elasticity of the spring, 
and in this way force is economised. Sir John Lubbock has 
remarked that many people might suppose that in these insects, 
and in some of similar habit, the condition of inactivity was one of 
repose, though the muscles might be ready to move at the slightest 
impulse, but he thinks the position of rest is one of high tension, 
there is then a conflict of opposing forces, which for awhile balance 
each other. He takes, for comparison, the case of certain Orchids, 
where the part of the flower which insects visit is not close to the 
pollen, yet the plants depend on insects for fertilisation. In 
Catasetum there is found a long sensitive (process, which overhangs 
the place where insects are likely to settle, so that when they arrive 
it is almost certain they will touch it. Immediately they do this 
the flower starts into action, and throws its pollen masses in the 
direction of the insect, with such force that they will travel 2 or 
3 feet. It is evident, therefore, that the plant is on the qui vive, 
just as an insect might be, waiting to put forth its power at the 
moment it is needed. 
Returning to the Collembola we notice the singular fact that 
species which are leapers, and those which cannot leap because they 
possess no spring, are often to be found in company under the 
same piece of board or amidst a little pile of decaying leaves. 
More than that, some of those having the ability to jump occur 
in localities where leaping performances are hardly possible. The 
present season, owing to its dryness, has not been favourable to the 
increase of the insects ; one who has studied their habits reports 
that they are speedily killed by a weak solution of salt. Smyn- 
thures fuscus, about one-tenth of an inch in length, is one of the 
largest of the tribe, and feeds chiefly on fungi upon trees, fences, 
or elsewhere. Its relative, S. viridis, which has green eyes and 
red antennse, prefers lawns and borders, where it occurs from May 
to September. The species of Papirius are very active, running and 
jumping gracefully ; they have globular bodies and long antennae, 
in colour some are brown, some black and green. It appears that 
in the summer they frequent damp wood, but during the winter 
months they may be sometimes detected on the leaves of evergreens 
and other plants in gardens. 
In the genus Degeeria hairs replace scales ; some of these hairs 
are club-like, and others resemble a bow, and have even a seeming 
notch at the end, representing that to which the string is attached. 
They have sixteen eyes, and the body is prettily mottled. Upon 
some of the old-fashioned wooden edges to flower beds which one 
comes upon now and then the Degeerias occur abundantly, above 
and beneath the soil. Orchesella cincta is also without scales. This 
is a common species amongst dead leaves, which it helps to disin¬ 
tegrate ; in colour it is black, barred with yellow, sometimes 
entirely black. Larger than most of its kin is Tomocerus longi- 
cornis, named from its long antenna. It is well equipped in lead- 
coloured scales, and can brave the cold of winter, even when severe. 
The species of Seira are scaly, some of them dark hued, some 
have bright metallic tints ; they are rather partial to conservatories 
and hothouses. One that is rare, called S. curvicollis, has a thorax 
projecting over the head, which gives the insect somewhat of the 
aspect of a hippopotamus. Lipura fimitaria requires no leaping 
apparatus, since its life is passed in feeding upon the roots or 
underground stems of plants ; it is white and velvety, short-legged 
and stout, quick in movement, though we often turn up small parties 
of them when digging or hoeing. Quite different in colour is Anoura 
muscorum, being dark purple, about one - fourteenth of an inch 
long, dotted over with points arranged in rows (as a magnifying glass 
shows us), the mouth has a sucker and not jaws. It seems to lodge 
under the bark of shrubs, and in the joints or hollows of stems, 
but does not appear to be particularly hurtful One more species I 
may mention which occurs in damp earth, but has a preference for 
the warmer corners and sides of our beds ; this is Campodea staphy- 
linus, a soft white, narrow-bodied insect, having neither scales nor 
eyes, and which many persons might regard as a mite.— 
Entomologist. 
EASTERN LILIES. 
Under the above title, which has the merit of comprehensiveness, 
are included the Liliums of the Levant, of Siberia, Persia, India, China, 
and Japan. L. candidum, one of the most beautiful and perhaps thenaost 
familiar of Lilies, is Levantine, davuricum or umbellatum is Siberian, 
giganteum cordifolium is a native of the Himalayas, tigrinum comes 
from China, while auratum, longiflorum, and speciosum are of Japanese 
extraction. The American Lilies are for the most part interesting 
hybrids, and the Bermuda Lily, Lilium Harris!, is just the Japanese 
longiflorum, as I learn from Dr. Wallace of Colchester, somewhat modified 
and improved in appearance and productiveness by tropical cultivation. 
But it is not more impressive, as experience has proved to me, than 
Lilium longiflorum giganteum, which comes to this country direct from 
Japan. This variety, though its name is somewhat similar, must not be 
confounded with the great Himalayan giganteum, which I must confess 
to have found somewhat disappointing. I planted it in a finely sheltered 
and otherwise congenial situation last November, and attended inost 
faithfully to the instructions of Dr. Wallace regarding its cultivation, 
yet, owing perhaps to the exceptional dryness of the summer, it only 
attained to a height of 4 feet. It, however, produced several magnificent 
blooms (ivory white with violet-crimson streaks), which was undoubtedly 
a great consolation. Nevertheless, I think this Lily is over-estimated, 
when I compare it with the much more beautiful Lilium auratum 
or Golden-rayed Lily, which is now in full bloom. Its^ flowers 
are unusually large with me this year, being in many instances 
12J inches in diameter. Among other species that grow luxuriantly 
with me are candidum, davuricum, croceum, tigrinum, Thunbergianum 
