flowers, borne so lavishly in June, remind us 
of a heavy shower of snow. The C. Amurense 
is a newer and rarer tree by far, and later- 
blooming by some four weeks. Recently it 
has gained a little prominence as a garden 
flowering tree, but I should say undeservedly. 
It is in bloom with us now, and last week I 
saw a good many trees of it iu bloom around 
Boston. The flowers are in terminal panicled 
racemes and of a dirty or purplish-white color, 
and without any of the elegance or beauty 
peculiar to those of our Yellow Wood. But 
the tree is perfectly hardy and blossoms while 
quite young, say three feet high. 
*** 
Spir iE as. —What I used to know as S. cal¬ 
losa, I found at the Arnold Arboretum the 
other day, labeled 8. Japonica, and was in¬ 
formed that S. callosa alba aud 8, c. Fortunei, 
are henceforth to be identified as forms of S. 
Japonica. The elegant Bpirma arieefolia was 
named Spirma discolor var arimfolia, and 
what I have always known as Reeves’s Spiraea 
(S. Reevesiana), was christened Spiraea Can- 
toneusis. But when it came to the multitude 
of Spiraeas in the way of S. tomentosa and S. 
salicifolia, t ceased to notice their names. 
*** 
The Yellow-leaved Spir ea has never 
found much favor in my eyes (although I 
have grown it for several years), because of 
its awkward form, but this season it is behav¬ 
ing pretty well ; its loaves are deep green, 
pretty, clean and numerous; its habit is bush¬ 
ier than before, thanks to my knife, aud since 
the 10th of July its branchy shoots are termin¬ 
ated by panicles of somewhat pretty, but not 
at all conspicuous, white flowers. It is more 
of a curiosity than an ornament. It is hardy 
enough, I think. 
*** 
Mountain Laurel (Kalima latifolia).—A 
year ago last October Mr. Dawson, of the 
Arnold Arboretum, dug up some hundreds of 
little plants—six inches high or thereabout— 
of these in their native woods, brought them 
home and planted them thickly in nursery rows 
in a sheltered plot. They have done well, and 
now are nice little bushy plants, about 10 
inches high. It is a difficult matter to get 
wildings to take kindly to garden culture, and 
we often fail entirely with them, and mostly 
because we secure too big plants or do not cut 
them back enough. It is with the Mountain 
Laurel as it is with rhododendrons and most 
other ericaceons plants—if we get wild plants 
we should select very small, young seedlings 
and from rather dry, sandy or gravelly ground 
rather than moist, mossy earth. It is a curious 
fact that although ruuny of our woods and 
mountains teem withMouutain Laurels,andro- 
medas and rhododendrons, these are among 
the dearest shrubs in cultivation, and simply 
because of the difficulty iu getting up a stock 
of salable plants of them. 1 know a nursery¬ 
man in Massachusetts who buys his young 
Kalmias in England aild grows them on for a 
year or two before he sells them. He tells me 
he can get up a stock of salable plants bettei^ 
cheaper and quicker in this way than by 
bothering with wild plants, big or little. 
*** 
Nicotiana affinis. — Horticola, p. 479, 
asks me if I ever had any seedlings of this 
lovely flower, that had lost their fragrance or 
whose flowers assumed u purplish tinge. No, 
never. Some years ago I used to grow about 
25 or 80 distinct kinds of tobacco plants, most¬ 
ly species, from the miserable green-flowered, 
weed}’ kinds to the massive aud showy rose- 
colored sorts, all near together, aud saved my 
own seeds, but so far as N. atiinis was con¬ 
cerned, 1 never perceived any inclination to 
“roguery/' nor, although I sent a good deal of 
seed of it to Europe, have 1 heard from there 
of anything other than the normal form. But 
don’t the potato bugs just love it 1 How de¬ 
lightful it is to walk out (n the garden in the 
cool of the evening, when this affinis tobacco 
and evening primroses are at their brightest, 
aud the atmosphere is redolent with the breath 
of the Nicotiana affinis, sweet peas, migno¬ 
nette, stocks and heliotrope 1 
*** 
Rosa ruoosa.— Mr. Parnell reports that 
his large plant of this has been killed in the 
ground. At Andover in Massachusetts I know 
that this rose has survived, and apparently 
without injury, a temperature of 25“ to 80° 
below zero. But I have often ohserved in this 
and other roses, Oak leaved Hydraugeas, priv¬ 
ets, and many other shrubs, a tendency to die 
off in whole or part, which is as likely to oc¬ 
cur iu Summer as Winter. Altogether, I am in¬ 
clined to regard Rosa rugosa as perfectly hardy 
here. With us it was the earliest garden rose 
to bloom, but it was superseded, by some nine 
days, by Rosa alpiua vnr glaudulosa, which is 
a gem of a single foreign wild rose. But, 
apart from Rugosa, we have not gone crazy on- 
single-flowered roses, home or exotic, as we 
have on single dahlias. 
arises from a puncture in which no egg was 
deposited. Both males and females partake 
of the apple for nourishment, aud both cut 
regular punctures for this purpose. I have 
seen a male feasting at the same puncture for 
nearly half an hour, occasionally moving 
his beak from end to end of the crescent cut, 
and constantly oscillating his antenna!, not by 
a quivering, but by a slow, vertical waving 
motion, touching the fruit with the end, and 
then raising it. This is a very common mo¬ 
tion with all insects when partaking of agree¬ 
able food. 
Where a puncture is, and no egg is deposited, 
the injury is no greater than that caused by 
cutting through the peel with the thumb nail. 
The wound very quickly heals over perfectly: 
but a scar, sometimes very much larger, is left 
not always regular in shape, but when so, 
usually of the form of an out-spread fan (Fig. 
882, c). A remarkable modification of this 
blemish occurs very frequently on particular 
varieties, such as Northern Spy, Twenty- 
Ounce, Peck’s Pleasant and Ben Davis. It is 
a very pronounced protuberance or rus- 
sety wart (Fig. 882, d), shaped usually like the 
half of a cockle shell. In these fruits, the 
punctures of the weevil, whether made for 
eggs or not, generally produce these knots, 
which are also due, quite frequently, to acci¬ 
dental injuries, the attack of fungus, etc. 
We know that many of the larva- survive 
and reach their full growth in apples and pears 
which fall to the ground in May aud June. 
The plum, cherry and peach are still more 
frequently attacked by the pest, and when 
they fall to the ground, carry with them vast 
numbers of the larvaj whose ravages caused 
their downfall. These facts at once suggest 
to every attentive orchardist, a means of 
destroying the young of the weevil, by turn¬ 
ing swine and sheep into the orchards tc eat 
the fallen fruit, thus securing the destruction 
of these mischievous pests, and at the same 
time affordiug a supply of cheap food to the 
animals. The practice has been adopted with 
profit for a long time by some; and has been 
repeatedly commended in the columns of the 
Rural and other agricultural papers, and it 
is rather strange that it has now been univer¬ 
sally adopted by all who grow fruit and keep 
sheep and swine. When these are not kept, 
hens kept in the orchard, will pick off a great 
many of the pests. As matters now stand, 
the wild animals that used to live on such 
food are entirely absent, the domestic ones 
that like it are fenced out, and thus the insects 
are actually protected. If every orchard of 
cultivated fruits ou the farms were inclosed 
so that they could be constantly pastured by 
swine and sheep, and all the useless wild cherry 
and apple trees, as well as hawthorns, iu woods 
and along fences, highways aud byways, 
were exterminated, these insects could be 
kept under control, aud the number of 
blemished fruit would be greatly reduced. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
THE WILD PLUM PHYTOPTUS. 
PROFESSOR A. J. COOK. 
1 have just received from Mr. F. A. Snell, 
Milledgeville, Illinois, some leaves of a wild 
plum tree, which grows in his yard, the upper 
surface of which is thickly set with slender, 
teat like projections which are hairy, 8% m. 
m. (one-fourih inch) long, light-green at the 
base and scarlet at the tips. Many will have 
noticed such galls, or excrescences, on the 
leaves of our Sugar aud Soft Maples. Those 
on the Sott, Maple are shorter and more wart¬ 
like, while those on the Hard Maple are even 
longer, taper at both ends, and are not hairy. 
The color of those on the Soft M aple is also 
scarlet, and there is a tinge of the same color 
in those on the Hard Maple. Close inspection 
of the under side of the leaf show's a small hole 
which leads into the gall. Indeed, the gall 
seems to be aD excessive grow th of the leaf, 
which results in a slim, tubular opening on 
the under surface. Thus hairy leaves, like 
those of the plum, would have hairy galls, 
while smooth ones, like those of the Hard 
Maple, would have smooth galls. Fig. 879 
shows a plum leaf covered with these galls, 
which have been, not inaptly, compared to 
nine pins. 
If we examine the inside of this hollow 
tube with a high magnifying power, we will 
find great numbers of mites, which are the 
cause of the galls. To the unaided vision, 
these mites appear like mere white specks. 
Highly magnified, they show a complex and 
very interesting structure. Mites are the 
lowest of the spiders, and usually possess eight 
legs, though as larvae or when first hatched 
from the egg, they have only six. The com¬ 
mon and very harmful red spider is a good 
example. These gall mites belong to the genus 
Phytoptus and are very abnormal in struc- 
546 
THE BUBAL NEW-YOBKEB. 
ture, as they have but four legs; yet their 
general resemblance to other mites leaves no 
doubt as to their relationship. The irritation 
by the mites causes the excessive growth and 
deformity of the leaves. Soon these turn 
yellow and show that the whole tree is suffer¬ 
ing from the presence of the pests. The dis¬ 
gusting disease known as itch in human beings 
Fig. 879. 
is caused in similar way by a mite. Quite 
likely the plants have the itch, and not being 
able to scratch off the cause, the disease 
spreads and may produce death. A very 
vigorous Soft Maple iu our college apiary 
was attacked by these pests some years since, 
and has been much injured. From this tree, 
I observed the spread of the mites to trees 
near by. As the minute mites crawl out of 
the galls on the lower surface of the leaves, 
they may be blown or carried by birds to 
other trees. 
In the twelfth Illinois Report Mr. H. Gar- 
man has given a very interesting chapter on 
REMEDIES. 
Mr. Snell stated that his wild plum trees 
were badly attacked, and that he bad some 
young tame plum trees near by, and he wish¬ 
ed to know if these latter were in danger. I 
wrote him that unless valuable, he bad better 
cut and burn the wild plum trees; that though 
the mites might not attack the cultivated 
plum trees, yet, owing to the close relation of 
the two sorts, there was danger that they 
would. He informs me that he acted at once 
on the suggestion, and the wild trees are al¬ 
ready burned. From the natural history and 
habits of these mites, as given above, we see 
that the only way to proceed against them is 
to cut down aud burn affected trees, or to 
prune off and burn twigs that bear the dis¬ 
eased leaves, or else pick off the leaves as soon 
as galls appear. From what I have observed 
there can be no doubt of the power of the mites 
to effect great damage, 
Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich. 
florintllitmL 
RAYS. 
Idesia rOLYCARPA. —Perhaps after we get 
old, hard-wooded specimens of this, we can 
depend on it as being Lardy; but in its young 
state, we certainly cannot. Some seven years 
ago I had it between eight and uine feet high, 
near Boston; it had withstood with little in¬ 
jury two Winters, but in the third Winter, it 
was killed outright. Last year we had sev¬ 
eral plants, small, and three to four feet high, 
and among them one old, tough stemmed one, 
which 1 transplanted to a permanent place on 
the lawn. None of them were protected in 
Winter, and in Spring, I found that all, ex¬ 
cept the old, tough stemmed one, were killed 
outright, and it was partially hurt. Since 
then, another has sprouted from the root. It 
is a very distinct tree, with large, cordate, 
handsome leaves, and, when in thrifty con¬ 
dition, it grows with the vigor of a young 
, Catalpa. **# 
these Phytoptus mites. He describes several 
new species, as P. acericola, on the Hard 
Maple, aud P. abnormis, ou the Linden He 
describes, with illustrations, P. quadripes 
Shimer, P. pyri and P. thujae, which works 
on Arborvitic. P. pyri works on the pear in 
this country and Europe, and is the only one 
attracking fruit trees, which is mentioned by 
Mr. Garinan. 
So far as I know, the plum gall mite is a 
new species, and I have placed it in my notes 
Phytoptus prunifolii. It is white and only 
.2 mm. (008 inch) long. Fig. 380 shows a 
side view, and Fig. 381 a ventral view. I 
have carefully examined these drawings, 
Pterostyrax hispida has a promising 
future as a hardy, handsome-leaved, under¬ 
sized tree. We have two plants set out some 
years ago, and never protected in any way; 
and I find that they are of fast growth and 
keep their leaves late into the Autumn, and are 
perfectly hardy, at least so 1 should consider 
any tree that would survive uninjured the 
fearful Winter of ’84-’85, which this Pterosty¬ 
rax did. 
*** 
Stuartia pentaoyna— We have some 
large bushes of this lovely shrub, which have 
been in bloom since the second week in July. 
The flowers are large and white, with a pur¬ 
plish center, and at a distance they have a 
Fig. 381. 
Fig. 880. 
made by Mr. Gillette, and find them very 
accurate. 
As will be seen, the body is divided by from 
55 to 62 stritie. There are seven pairs of hairs 
whose length and position are well shown in 
the illustrations. Within the body the im¬ 
mense eggs may often be seen. These are 
also seen within the galls, and lack but little 
of being as large as the parent is broad. The 
opening of the oviduct is plainly visible just 
at the anterior edge of the striae. The four 
legs and rostrum, or snout, are readily seen. 
Each leg has five joints, a terminal claw, be¬ 
neath which is a brush, and two hairs, as seen 
in the illustration. The hollow rostrum with 
labium and chelicerae—these latter organs do 
the gouging—can be seen only with a very 
high power. At the posterior end of the 
body is a prominent sucker, which aids the 
legs in the act of creeping. As will be seen in 
Fig. 381, the posterior dorsal hairs are very 
much longer than any of the others. These 
resemble an old-time whip, in which the lash 
is twice as long as the stalk. Each hair 
rises from a short tubercle. 
telling effect, and remind us of single white 
camellias. The Stuartias remain in blossom 
for several weeks. Blooming as they do in 
July, they are doubly valuable. I find this 
is hardy enough. 
*** 
Japan Judas Tree—T he tips of the young 
twigs were winter-killed, otherwise the plants 
appeared uninjured. 
*** 
Styrax Japonica —To Mr. Parnell I would 
say that not only were our plants of Styrax 
Japonica killed to the ground, but so too were 
our Styrax Americana. [The first was killed 
at the It. G.—Eds. ] 
*% 
Stuartia Japonica.— Of this rare shrub, 
we have a thrifty young plant set out two 
years ago. It is healthy, vigorous, and ap¬ 
parently quite hardy. It has not blossomed 
with us yet. 
*** 
Cladrastis Amurense. —Most of us are 
familiar with our Yellow-Wood (C. tinctoria), 
whose drooping panicles of fragrant white 
