the national nurseryman 
283 
In our estimate of the apple crop of the 
APHIS AN year given in the August issue, mention 
EPIDEMIC OF was made of the invasion of New York 
I9°9 apple orchards by aphids or more com¬ 
monly known as plant lice. There 
appears to be a particular strain of this minute insect enemy 
for every class of plant which we grow, whether it be wheat, 
timothy, apple, cherry, pear or plum. In the nursery it is 
controllable by laborious spraying and dipping methods 
using an oil or other contact spray, but in the orchard the 
problem is much more difficult. This was the case in New 
York and Pennsylvania the past summer. It is usual for 
the pest to disappear early in July but this year the dry 
weather conditions were so favorable that it hung along into 
August. The net result has been a material shrinking of 
the promised apple crop of the region. It does not seem 
probable that-Western New York will turn out more than 
fifty per cent of a full crop and much of the diminution is to 
be charged to our minute enemy of the sucking habit. 
fruit and plant N°t* s 
THE HARDY HYDRANGEAS 
Besides the varieties of Hydrangea hortensis (H. 
Hortensia) not hardy in our northern latitudes there are 
now known four different hardy forms of Hydrangea which 
have all or nearly all of their flowers converted into large 
and showy sterile ones. These four forms belong to three 
different species and can be easily distinguished by the 
characters given in the following descriptions: 
1. Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora (Sieb.). 
This differs from all other forms in the shape of its inflores¬ 
cence which is pyramidal 
in outline, up to 12 inches 
in height and up to 9 
inches in diameter at 
the base; the individual 
flowers are about 1 inch 
in diameter with obovate 
or oblong-obovate ob¬ 
tuse sepals, white at first, 
later tinged more or less 
purplish. It grows into 
a large shrub or even 
into a small tree and 
H. paniculata grandiflora 
flowers in August and 
September, later than any of the other forms. It was intro¬ 
duced from Japan about 40 years ago and is now a well 
known shrub much planted for its showy and late flowers. 
2. Hydrangea cinerea sterilis (Rehd.). Ihis dif¬ 
fers from all the other forms in that its leaves are furnished 
on the under side with a rather dense covering of hairs soft 
to the touch. Like the two following forms it bears its 
flowers in large flattened clusters broader than high or 
sometimes almost sub-globose, 6 inches or perhaps more 
in diameter. The individual flowers are about Jj an inch 
broad with oval or roundish obtuse sepals. Like the follow - 
ing forms it is a many¬ 
stemmed bush scarcely 
growing higher than about 
four feet and producing 
every year new shoots from 
the roots; it blooms in 
July. It is not yet in the 
general trade and was found 
but a few years ago in the 
nursery of E. Y. Teas of 
Centerville, Ind., among 
plants of H. arborescens 
grandiflora the origin of 
was probably collected wild 
3. Hydrangea arborescens grandiflora (Rehd.). 
In habit and in shape of the flower clusters it resembles the 
preceding form, but its leaves are 
glabrous and the individual flowers 
larger and of different shape. The 
clusters are from 5 to 8 inches in 
diameter and the individual flowers 
are to 1 inch broad with ovate 
or oval sepals pointed at the apex, 
white at first and usually changing 
finally to greenish white. The 
leaves are ovate or nearly so and 
rounded or slightly cordate at the base. This plant has 
apparently been in cultivation in a few private gardens for a 
long time, but only secretly has it been offered to the trade, 
sometimes under the name H. arborescens alba grandi¬ 
flora or H. arborescens sterilis. 
4. Hydrangea arborescens sterilis (Torrey & Gray) 
This closely resembles the preceding form, but the indivi¬ 
dual flowers are smaller, about ^ to inch broad with 
oval or rounded sepals furnished at the rounded apex 
usually with a small bristle-like point. The leaves are 
longer and narrower, more oblong in out¬ 
line and narrowed or rounded at the base; 
they resemble in shape those of the second 
form, but are glabrous. This form is ap¬ 
parently not now in cultivation; it is 
known only from an herbarium specimen 
collected more than 70 years ago in Penn- H - arborescens stenhs 
sylvania, whether from a cultivated or wild plant is not 
apparent from the label. 
THURLOW’S GERMAN IRIS 
German Iris is one of the specialties of T. C. Thurlow & 
Co., West Newbury, Mass, and they have taken the first 
prize for a number of years at the Massachusetts Horti¬ 
cultural Society. Their land seems particularly well suited 
for growing the Iris, being a light, rich loam which gives a 
strong root growth. They do not use manure but apply a 
liberal dressing of meadow muck which promotes a strong 
healthy growth without any of the rot which proves 
disastrous to Tris. 
which could not be traced, 
somewhere in Ohio. 
H. arborescens grandiflora 
