1S77. ] 
THE AMERICAN BLIGHT.-CROTON QUEEN VICTORIA. 
257 
“ The plants are very subject to scale, which must be diligently sought for, 
or it will do serious injury, as also green-fly, and if there is a thrips in the house, 
it will find them, getting under the rim of the mouth. These must have no 
quarter, as if not exterminated quickly, they will destroy the pitchers before 
they have lasted half their time. The largest form of S. Jlava^ of which I never 
saw any but the plant I grew when with Mr. Micholls, and some half-dozen bits 
that were taken from it, is far the finest, and totally different from the others, 
being almost deciduous, dying down in the winter, except a few short leaves 
about nine or ten inches long that do not pitcher. All the species are a good 
many years before they acquire their full strength from small plants.—T. Baines.” 
THE AMERICAN BLIGHT. 
FIND' that this ti^oublesome aphis can be readily exterminated by the use 
of common train-oil. 
Some of the best kinds of dessert Apples are here trained to a low wall, 
with an east aspect, and had for several seasons been much infested with this 
pest, while several remedies had been resorted to, without, however, effecting a cure, or 
at all mitigating the evil. Early in March last, the trees were unnailed from the 
wall, and pruned as usual, but before they were again secured to the wall they 
were thoroughly painted over with train or fish oil. This was applied with an 
ordinary paint-brush. The trees had much the appearance of having been var¬ 
nished, and some apprehension was felt as to the safety of the bloom-buds, which 
were considerably developed at the time the oil was applied. The trees were, 
however, again secured to the wall, and the result has proved all that could be 
wished. Not a bud appears to have been injured ; the trees have a clean and 
healthy appearance; not a vestige of the Blight is to be perceived; and 
the fruit they have borne this season has been finer than usual.—P. Grieve, 
Culford. 
CROTON QUEEN VICTORIA. 
handsome variety is offered by Mr. B. S. Williams, of the Victoria 
Nursery, Holloway, as “ the first hybrid Croton which has been raised in 
this country.” Whether this be so or not, it is certainly a very fine Cro¬ 
ton, and one which we believe will make its way among cultivators. “It is 
the result of a cross between C. Weismanni and C. interruptus. It far exceeds 
in beauty any of the imported species offered up to the present time. It is of 
medium growth and free branching habit, a most desirable feature in the forma¬ 
tion of good specimens. The leaves, when well matured, aVe from 9-in. to 12-in. 
long, and about 2-in. broad, oblong-lanceolate. The ground colour is of a rich 
golden-yellow, beautifully mottled with green; the midrib and the primary veins 
are of a rich magenta colour, changing with age to a vivid crimson ; the margin 
of the leaf is unequally banded with carmine, often extending as far as the mid¬ 
rib, and so harmonising with the rich yellow as to produce a gorgeous effect.” 
