550 
THE GARDENING WORLD. April so, 1892 . 
THE HERBACEOUS BORDER. 
Choice Plants in Flower. 
Tulipa Leichtlinii. — There are several of the 
smaller-flowered species of Tulip which are very 
interesting as well as beautiful, notwithstanding their 
relatively small size when compared with the florists’ 
Tulip and other races of T. Gesneriana. They may 
be grown in sandy soil in the open border, or upon 
the rockery, where their peculiar beauty will be more 
appreciated than when grown alongside of the more 
gaudy forms of T. Gesneriana. That under notice 
presents a peculiar combination of colours, the 
segments being creamy-yellow becoming almost 
white, while the three outer segments are of a bright 
red with a white margin on the outer face. The 
stem bears one flower and two or three linear, 
channelled, glaucous leaves. 
Tulipa biflora. — The flowers of this species are 
below the middle size for a Tulip, and although two 
is the usual number on a stem, they vary from one 
to five, as may be seen in the nursery of Messrs. 
Barr & Son, Long Ditton, Surrey. The normal 
number of segments to the perianth is six, but 
curiously enough they vary here from eight to ten, 
which surely must represent exceptional vigour. 
The flowers are pale yellow with exception of the 
external face of the outer ones, which are green, more 
or less shaded with purple. The bulbs were recently 
introduced from Affghanistan by Capt. Nelson, of 
Godaiming. 
Iris reticulata Nelsoni. —The falls of this 
variety are spathulate, bright deep blue and marbled 
with blue, white and yellow along the centre and 
down the claw. The standards and stigmas are 
bright blue shaded with purple towards the base. 
The flowers are brighter even if somewhat smaller 
than those of the type. 
Corydalis cava albiflora. —The size of the 
flowers and the abundance with which they are 
produced renders either this or the type very 
ornamental in spring. The inner petals of the white 
variety have a black block on the inner face at the 
apex, otherwise there is nothing to mar their purity, 
and although this shines through faintly it cannot be 
detected except on close examination. The ease and 
certainty with which this may be grown should also 
recommend it to those making a collection, because 
when once established it can take care of itself. 
Anemone coronaria Queen of the South.— 
This is a wild form collected in the south of France, 
and is more easily grown than the numerous improved 
garden forms. A. c. syriaca from Palestine, and 
so named by the Dutch, is precisely identical with 
the above, and so is President Carnot, of Messrs. 
Damman & Co., of Italy. The flowers are of large 
size, and consist of six to seven broadly oblong, 
blunt, brilliant scarlet sepals, fading into rose at the 
base, and forming a ring round the black anthers. 
Anemone nemorosa Robinsoniana. — The beauti¬ 
ful soft blue flowers of this variety are very charm¬ 
ing, whether the plant is grown in patches by itself 
or in association with the type and its various forms. 
It delights in a little shade, more particularly if a 
little moisture can be secured in that way, but by 
the use of peat may be grown anywhere with full 
exposure to sunshine. The various forms of A. 
nemorosa associate well with Ferns in the hardy, 
outdoor fernery, where the conditions as to moisture 
are present; and as the leaves of the Anemone die 
down in summer the thick shade of the Ferns does 
not injure them. 
Trillium sessile californicum. —The flowers 
of T. sessile are stalkless, and seated close down upon 
the leaves. The three inner segments or petals are 
purple in the type, but in the variety under notice 
they are white. The three leaves are roundly ellip¬ 
tic, and variously blotched with dark olive green on 
alight green ground. It should be planted in peaty 
soil, or in that containing a considerable amount of 
decaying leaves or vegetable matter. The Ameri¬ 
can Wood Lilies are all interesting in their way, 
owing to their neat habit, quaint flowers, and the 
leaves which in several species are blotched. 
Fritillaria pallidiflora. — The flowers of this 
Fritillary are bell-shaped and of a pale yellow, as 
implied by the specific name, and finely spotted with 
black internally. The stems are generally from six 
to nine inches high, and clothed with short but broad 
oval or lanceolate, glaucous leaves, so that the plant 
on the whole is both pretty and interesting. The 
number of flowers on a stem varies according to the 
strength of the plant, and although they are not 
showy, yet there is something about them which col¬ 
lectors of hardy plants cannot fail to admire. The 
bulbs should be planted in sandy soil, and in the 
front row if growm on the herbaceous border. We 
noted all of the above in the nursery of Messrs. Barr 
& Son. 
Anemone fulgens. — The continuously cold 
weather of the past winter has prevented the early 
flowering of this fine species, making it contempor¬ 
aneous with others which we are accustomed to see 
in April. When we have a mild autumu it comes 
into bloom in November and also gets very fine 
again in February provided the weather is mild. In 
any case we have few flowers in the early part of 
the year to compete with it in brilliancy. The fleshy, 
creeping rhizomes may be planted in any good 
garden soil, even out in the open, but a little shelter 
from the north and east would be beneficial rather 
than otherwise, and serve to protect the blossom 
when it makes its appearance early in the year. The 
cluster of black stamens in the centre contrasts well 
with the scarlet sepals. 
SPRAYING WITH 
ARSENIC COMPOUNDS. 
The only insecticide sprays which are at all 
dangerous to use are the arsenic compounds, and even 
here the danger is greatly exaggerated by those not 
conversant with the facts. Paris green and London 
purple have for many years been extensively used 
in this country as insecticides, and a case of fatal 
poisoning from their use as such has never been sub¬ 
stantiated. The only danger lies in having the 
poison about a farm or plantation in bulk. In th e 
early days of the use of Paris green against the 
Colorado potato-beetle a great deal of opposition 
was developed on account of the supposed danger, 
and only recently the sale of American Apples in 
England has received a set-back owing to the sup¬ 
posed danger of arsenic poisoning from their 
consumption. The question as to whether arsenic 
may be absorbed by the growing plant in any degree 
was long ago settled in the negative by the best 
chemists in the country. Dr. William McMurtrie, 
formerly chemist of this department, in 1878 showed 
that even where Paris green was applied to the soil 
in such quantities as to cause the wilting or death of 
the plants, the most rigorous chemical analysis 
could detect no arsenic in the composition of the 
plants themselves. Other experiments in a similar 
direction by Prof. R. C. Ivedzie, of the Michigan 
Agricultural College, confirmed these conclusions. 
It is safe, then, to assume that the only way in which 
fruit or vegetables can convey the poison to the con¬ 
sumer will be through the very minute quantity of 
arsenic left upon the edible part of the plant. 
Against the possibility of such an effect the following 
facts may be urged :—- 
(1) It would seem at first glance that tfce use of an 
arsenical poison upon a plant like the Cabbage would 
be very unsafe to recommend, yet Paris green and 
London purple are used upon this crop to kill the 
several species of leaf-eating worms which are so 
destructive to it, and an absolute absence of all 
danger where the application has been properly 
made has been recently shown by Prof. Gillette, of 
the Agricultural Experiment Station of Colorado, by 
the following veductio ad dbsurdum : 
* * * Where the green is dusted from a bag in 
the proportion of 1 ounce of the poison to 100 ounces 
of flour and just enough applied to each head to 
make a slight show of dust on the leaves, say, for 
twenty-eight heads of Cabbage, 1 ounce of mixture, 
the worms will all be killed in the course of two or 
three days, while the average amount of poison on 
each head will be about one-seventh of a grain. 
Fully one-half of the powder will Dll on the outside 
leaves and on the ground, and thus an individual 
will have to eat about twenty-eight heads of Cabbage 
in order to consume a poisonous dose of arsenic, 
even if the balance of the poison remained after 
cooking 
(2) In case of spraying Apple orchards for the 
codling-moth there is scarcely a possibility of injury 
to theconsumer of the fruit. A mathematical compur 
tation will quickly show that where the poison is used 
in the proportion of x pound to 200 gallons of water 
(the customary proportion) the arsenic will be so 
distributed through the water that it will be impossi¬ 
ble for a sufficient quantity to collect upon any given 
Apple to have the slightest injurious effect upon the 
consumer. In fact, such a computation will indicate 
beyond all peradventure that it will be necessary for 
an individual to consume several barrels of Apples at 
a single meal in order to absorb a fatal dose even 
should this enormous meal be eaten soon after the 
spraying and should the consumer eat the entire 
fruit. 
(3) As a matter of fact careful microscopic exam¬ 
inations have been made of the fruit and foliage of 
sprayed trees at various intervals after spraying 
which indicate that after the water has evaporated 
the poison soon entirely disappears either through 
being blown off by the wind or washed off by 
rains, so that after fifteen days hardly the minutest 
trace can be discovered. 
(4) In the line of actual experiment as indicating 
the very finely divided state of the poison and the 
extremely small quantity which is used to each tree. 
Prof. A. J. Cook, of the Michigan Agricultural Col¬ 
lege, has conducted some striking experiments. A 
thick paper was placed under an Apple tree which 
was thoroughly sprayed on a windy day so that the 
dripping was rather excessive. After the dripping 
had ceased, the paper (covering a space of 72 square 
feet) was analyzed and four-tenths of a grain of 
arsenic was found. Another tree was thoroughly’ 
sprayed, and subsequently the grass and clover 
beneath it was carefully cut and fed to a horse with¬ 
out the slightest sign of injury. 
The whole matter was well summed up by 
Professor Riley in a recent lecture before the Lowell 
Institute, in Boston, in the followdng words 
The latest sensational report of this kind was the 
rumour, emanating from London, within the last 
week, that American Apples were being rejected for 
fear their use was unsafe. If we consider for a 
moment how minute is the quantity of arsenic that 
can under the most favourable circumstances, remain 
in the calyx of an Apple, we shall see at once how 
absurd this fear is ; for, even if the poison that 
originally killed the worm remained intact, one 
would have to eat many barrels of Apples at a meal 
to get a sufficient quantity to poison a human being 
Moreover, much of the poison is washed off by 
rain, and some of it is thrown off by natural growth 
of the Apple, so that there is; as a rule, nothing left 
of the poison in the garnered fruit. Add to this the 
further fact that few people eat Apples raw without 
casting away the calyx and stem ends, the only parts 
where any poison could, under the most favourable 
circumstances, remain, and that these parts are 
always cut away in cooking, and we see how utterly 
groundless are any fears of injury and how useless 
any prohibitive measures against American Apples 
on this score.— Bulletin of the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture. 
-- 
THE GOJSEBERRY 
CATERPILLAR. 
One of the most persistent enemies of the Gooseberry 
is undoubtedly the caterpillar. It is th,e progeny of 
the magpie moth (Abraxas grossulariata), which 
deposits its eggs upon the foliage, and from them is 
hatched in September a slightly hairy coloured cater¬ 
pillar, spotted with black, and marked with orange 
along the sides, and which forms a loop in walking. 
It feeds upon the leaves during autumn and spring, 
devouring all but the petiole, and often entirely- 
defoliating both Gooseberry and Currant bushes. 
It changes into a pupa in May- or J une, and in about 
three weeks afterwards the perfect insect makes its 
appearance. Handpicking the caterpillars at an 
early stage of their growth is one good method of 
stopping their ravages, and, still better perhaps, 
burning the leaves on which the eggs are laid, are the 
troublesome means by which this destructive pest 
may be got rid of. O d Donald Beaton once stated 
that pouring ammoniacal liquor diluted with water 
over the bushes, was the easiest mode of destroying 
the caterpillars, but, as he was careful to remark, the 
strength of the liquor varies greatly, and therefore it 
is advisable to ascertain by experiment the least 
amount of dilution which will not prove injurious in 
the sun to the leaves. 
I notice that one of your gardening contemporaries 
calls attention to a Yorkshire practice of placing a 
bush of furze in the centre of each tree before the 
caterpillars were likely to attack the leaves. The 
writer states this has proved a good remedy, and he 
