NOTES FROM CORRESPONDENTS.

Field and Meadow Mosses.-The species affecting these localities. and often by their abundance, doing great damage to meadows, are Bryum argenteum, Lin., Barbula unguiculata, Hed., Archidium Ohioense, Sch., Phascum cuspidatum, Schr., Phascum alternifolium, Brid., and Phascum nitidulum, Schimp. Several others are occasionally found in certaia localities in less numbers. Hypnum polymorphum on clay lands is sometimes quite abundant and injurious. Phascum triquetrum is rarer. Bryum caspiticum, L., Atrichum augustatum, Bean, Funaria flavicans, Mich., and Hypnum salebrosum, Hoff., are rarely found in such situations. Weissia viridula, Brid., in some clay meadows is also found sparingly, and in very low swampy places, Hypnum riparium and Hypnum radicale frequently abound; but excepting the first six species little damage is sustained to the grasses by their presence. Bryum argenteum and Barbula unguiculata are specially obnoxious not alone in these situations, but in gardens and house-grounds where weeds are kept down, having the advantage of growing without much heat; in fact, flourishing most luxuriantly when phenogamous plants are entirely at rest in the winter, they soon possess themselves of the whole territory, and finally choke out many herbaceus plants, and do great mischief to garden shrubbery and even trees. Underdraining would to some extent diminish the evil, but as all mosses grow chiefly during the winter and spring months, when moisture almost continually abounds, no satisfactory remedy will probably ever be applied for this particular evil to agriculture and horticulture. E. HALL. Velvet-leaf (Abutilon Avicenna, Gaert.)-The Indian Mallow, or Velvet-leaf, often so called, and also locally Stamp-weed, from a use formerly of printing butter with its pods, is an annual East Indian plant of the Mallow family. It is a vile weed, already well established in numerous localities in the West, as well as in the older portions of this country. Public attention, if not legal enactments, should be directed without delay to some means of limiting its dissemination, or confining it to its present areas: eradication where established is not practicable, the seeds being apparently imperishable under all conditions to which time can expose them. The writer having carefully attended a small locality for sixteen years, finds the seeds that ripened probably sixteen years ago from a single plant annually making their appearance. The spread of the plant is not necessarily rapid, nor difficult to check. An instance occurs here, where the plant has grown for eight or ten years in a neighbor's garden almost without hindrance, and has not yet crossed to an adjoining field, with only a fence and hedge of weeds between; but the plant, nevertheless, is rapidly extending its areas in the rich cultivated lands all over the West. Farmers are not aware of the pernicious character of the weed or the detriment their farms are subjected to from its presence on them. Fifty per cent. depreciation in intrinsic value would probably be below rather than above the average loss in worth of farms stocked with it. I have seen farms in Central Illinois abandoned apparently on account of the impracticability of profitable cultivation, it being more profitable to cultivate new lands than to own and cultivate farms infested with it; but this easy method will not long be available. Those who have it on their farms cannot be too vigilant to prevent

further dissemination, and those few who are so fortunate as to yet be free from it, cannot use too much watchfulness to keep it off. The plant, like most tropical or subtropical plants, has a wonderful capacity of adapting itself to the situation. It only germinates with a high temperature, and when this and moisture, and other requisite conditions are provided, it commences operations without regard to time or seasons, but is never caught. Suiting itself to the circumstances surrounding it, it invariably accomplishes the object of its existence, i. e., matures seeds. It is a rapid grower, and apparently an exhaustive feeder, and no foreign or native weed is destined to work half the evil to agricul ture if permitted to generally disseminate itself through the rich prairies of the North and West. ATHENS, Ills.

E. HALL.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Plants to Name.-Mrs. B. S. Lake, Colorado.More of those nicely prepared specimens of Rocky Mountain plants. No. 6 is Pentstemon glaber, Ph. The genus Pentstemon is represented by only three species east of the Mississippi; but westward the species become very numerous, and many of them have large and conspicuous flowers. This species is very ornamental, and may be cultivated with perfect success. It is nearly related to the Fox-glove family. No. 7 is the Rocky Mountain Flax (Linum perenne, L.) This, as its name indicates, is a perennial species of flax, growing from Missouri to the Pacific, and also in Europe and Asia. It has a slender, branching stem, two to three feet high, and rather large, bright-blue flowers. No. 8 is Gilia aggregata, Spreng. The Gilias belong to the same Natural Order as the Phlox, and are closely related to that genus. Many of them are very showy. This species has narrow, trumpet-like flowers, one and a half inches long, in loose clusters along a tall, slender stalk. They vary in color from white to bright scarlet. No. 9 is Castilleia integra, Gr. This may be called the Entireleaved Painted Cup. It grows at considerable elevations on the mountains, and with its bright scarlet bracts lights up the mountain sides. Two or three other species there join with it in giving variety and beauty to the scenery. No. 10 is the Alpine Vetch (Astragalus alpinus, L.), a very pretty and delicate plant, growing on the borders of cold mountain streams. It is also found on some mountains in New England, and in Europe. No. 11 is Potentilla pennsylvanica, L. This occurs under a variety of forms at all elevations in the mountains and valleys, and with its grayish-white leaves and yellow flowers has a pleasing appearance. It is doubtful about its ever having been found in Pennsylvania, as would be inferred from the specific name, but it occurs in a few places in New England.

Chus E. Billen, Philadelphia.-Your plants are as follows: No. 1, an exotic Spirea; we have not the means of determining the species. No. 2 is our beautiful native Yellow Lily (Lilium canadense, L.) No. 3 is called Knawel (Scleranthus annuus, L.), a weed introduced from Europe. No. 4 is the Butterfly-weed, or Pleurisyroot (Asclepias tuberosa, L.) No. 5 is a kind of Milkwort (Polygala fastigiata, Nutt.) No. 6 is Slender Gerardia (Gerardia tenuifolia, Vahl) No. 7 is one of the Blazing Stars (Liatris scariosa, Willd.), a beautiful plant, as are the other species of this genus, and well deserving culti vation. No. 8 is the showy Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris, Mill), a troublesome weed in many places. No. 9 is the Hardback (Spirea tomentosa, L.), a handsome shrub. No. 10 is an incomplete specimen of what appears to be Cynthia virginica, Don. These specimens are mostly well preserved, but some of them are on too small a scale, not fully representing the species.

VOL. 2.

Entomological Department.

CHARLES V. RILEY, EDITOR,
221 N. Main st., St. Louis, Mo.

GREAT DISCOVERY-CURCULIO EXTERMINATION

POSSIBLE!

The importance of this subject, the demand for prompt and persistent action, and the absolute necessity of arousing every peach, plum and stone-fruit grower to destroy the Curculio, have led the editor of the Herald, as Secretary of the St. Joseph Fruit-Growers' Association, to issue this extra. Not a single day should be lost, for with united action 500,000 Curculios may be killed in a single day.

There is no doubt on this point. This morning Hon. John Whittlesey called at the Herald office and stated that on the 14th inst. he killed 2,715 Curculios about the roots of 200 trees, and on the 15th, in four hours on the same trees he killed 1,500 by actual count.

Mr. Whittlesey also stated that Mr. Ransom, Mr. Bonelle and himself had in five hours killed upwards of 5,000 Curculios in a portion of three small orchards. That he had himself alone, in two days of eight hours each, killed one-half more Curculios than were ever taken by three men with the old fashioned sheet in a week. Whittlesey is one of the most successful and scientific fruit-growers of St. Joseph, whose word is a bond; but he said, "Do not believe me; go to Mr. Ransom's orchard and see for yourself."

Mr.

Entering Mr. Ransom's orchard, the editor met Dr. Lyman Collins coming out. Dr. Collins is widely known for his successful peach culture.

"Well, Doctor, is it a success?"

"Most assuredly. I tried the experiment on eight of my trees in the evening, and the next morning took 104 Curculios. I am going home to bug my whole orchard in this manner."

Wm. B. Ransom, the discoverer of the new method of exterminating the Curculio, was found on his knees in the back of his orchard examining his Curculio traps. This was at 10 o'clock A. M., and he had already killed 1,357 on 300 trees. The editor stooped down and lifted up a corn cob not six inches long, and found and killed seven Curculios. There is no doubt whatever, that the long desired means of exterm inating the Curculio is discovered.

Such is the burden of a little two-column extra to the St. Joseph Herald, which Mr. J. E.

NO. 8.

Chamberlain, editor of that paper, and Secretary of the St. Joseph Fruit-Growers' Association, sent to us just as our last number was going to press. The subject is of such importance that we can forgive, in an editor, the somewhat sensational heading.

The following account of the method employed we soon afterwards received from the discoverer himself:

Editor American Entomologist: As you are scienced in the matter of Bugs, it may be of some interest to you, and of practical importance to fruit-growers, to know that the Curculiothat pest of all stone fruits-can easily be destroyed, as I am now practically demonstrating.

Last year I discovered that they gathered in pairs on the trunks of the peach trees, where the main branches diverge, and on the under side of the limbs, around the knots and black bark. I determined to watch their movements this year, and learn more of their natural habits, and see if there could not be some more speedy, effectual, and less expensive mode of destroying them than has hitherto been practiced.

Some three weeks ago I examined my trees (peach, plum and cherry) but did not find any. The first of May brought warm days, and the same degree of warmth which expanded the blossoms and the foliage, roused the Curculio to activity in this latitude. After two or three warm days, I went (May 4th) and closely examined my trees, and found small numbers of the little pest on each tree. None were found copulating. The next day was warm, and I found a few in pairs. Next day it rained a little, and turned cold. During the cold days and nights the Curculio stopped feeding on the leaves of the trees.

On the 13th of May it was very warm, both day and night; and next day almost all the Curculios which I destroyed had fed. From their first appearance I searched for them around and under the trees, but found none. But after four days' search, I knew they must be hid under leaves, chips, sticks, stones, or something. I laid myself down and examined more closely, and began to discover the little hump-back rascals.

Now, let me sum up my observations, and my mode of destruction. The warmth that brings out blossoms, brings the Curculios to their natural food and breeding places. They hide anywhere in the orchard where there is a cover. During sufficiently warm days and nights they go the tree-mostly crawling, I presume,—to feed and pair.

I destroy them in this way: By experiment at first I raked everything that they could possibly

hide under from around the tree, and made the soil smooth for a couple of feet around the collar; I then put a few pieces of bark, each two or three inches long and an inch or so wide, down close to the tree. In a few hours I went and examined them. Ah! there the pests were hid! I enlarged the number of traps. Yes, I had the fellows using my houses, as well as eating my fruit! I cleared my orchard under the trees: made smooth two or three feet of the ground around each tree, and put chips, corn-cobs, pieces of old leather, stones-anything to give them shelter-near the butt. The enemy can be attacked in his habitat. Go around any time in the day, turn the traps over, and there the pests are -singly, in pairs and in clusters.

The weather on Friday night (13th) was warm, and the next day (14th) it was hot. Omitted killing one hot day, and next morning, from about seventy-five trees, I killed 1,648 Curculios in just one hour.

I have told my neighbors, and some of them are destroying their Curculios in the same manner. Mr. J. Whittlesey this morning, from under about two hundred trees, killed 2,514 in about two hours. In cool weather I find few, but during the first warm days they swarm. Let this method be unitedly tried, and we can save our fruit. W. B. RANSOM.

ST. JOSEPH, Mich, May 16, 270.

We are really sorry to damp the ardor and enthusiasm of any person or persons, when enlisted in such a good cause, but truth obliges us to do so nevertheless. Of course, Curculio extermination is possible! but not by the above method alone, as our Michigan friends will find to their sorrow. For a short time, early in the season, when the days are sometimes warm and the nights cold, and before the peach blossoms have withered away, we have succeeded in capturing Curculios under chips of wood and other such sheltered situations; but we have never been able to do so after the fruit was as large as a hazel-nut, and the Little Turk had got fairly to work. Our Michigan friends will, we fear, find this to be too truly the case.

This process, furthermore, cannot well be called a discovery, because it was discovered several years ago, as the following item from Moore's Rural New Yorker, of January 28th, 1865, will show:

HOW TO CATCH CURCULIO.-In May last we had occasion to use some lumber. It was laid down in the vicinity of the plum-yard, and on taking up a piece of it one cold morning, we discovered a number of Curculios huddled together on the underside. On examining other boards we found more, so we spread it out to see if we could catch more, and we continued to find more or less every day, for two weeks. We caught in all one hundred and sixty-one. So I think if people would take a little pains they might destroy a great many such pests. These were caught before the plum trees were n flower. What is most singular is, that we

never found a Curculio on a piece of old lumber, although we put several pieces down to try them. They seemed to come out of the ground, as we could find them several times a day by turning over the boards. MRS. II. WIER.

JOHNSONVILLE, N. Y.

But though Mr. Rausom can not properly claim to have made a new discovery, and though this mode of fighting will not prove sufficient to EXTERMINATE the Curculio, yet we greatly admire the carnestness and perseverance which he has exhibited. In demonstrating that so great a number of the little pests can be entrapped in the manner described, Mr. R. has laid the fruitgrowers of the country under lasting obligations to him. It is a grand movement towards the defeat of the foe, and one which, from its simplicity, should be universally adopted early in the season. But we must not relinquish the other methods of jarring during the summer, and of destroying the fallen fruit; for we repeat, that the Plum Curculio will breed in the forest.

We are fast becoming perfect masters of this stone-fruit scourge. Already, through the kindness of Dr. Trimble, we have been enabled to breed several specimens of the first and only true parasite ever known to infest it; aud, by a series of experiments now making, we hope, Deo volente, to be able to definitely clear up every mooted point in its history before Nature dons another wintry garb.

P. S.-About a week after the above article was in type, we found the following in the columns of the St. Joseph Herald of the 28th May:

66

At a meeting held on Monday, the 23d inst., at Benton Harbor, Dr. LeBaron, State Entomologist of Illinois, said: 'The object for which I came to Benton Harbor was to collect some of the insects for future examination. I wish to secure and take home some of the larvæ to rear and observe their habits. From the habit of the curculio gathering under chips, not having been observed in Southern Illinois, I thought they might be a new kind. Besides the plum or peach curculio, there is another kind called the apple curculio, which we thought might be the one you are taking. Yet the difference is so slight that we have not been able to discover which it is. I shall take some home and carefully compare them. I would be glad if any of the audience would send me the larvæ of any new insects they discover, with the leaves on which they are found, for examination."

Dr. Hull, of Alton, State Horticulturist, said: They had heard of the new discovery, and had come over to investivate the curculio. He had never before heard, and knew nothing of this mode of destruction, and was surprised and gratified. It was certainly a great discovery. He thought it could not be the plum curculio, which he once thought were identical, until Dr. Walsh sent him his specimens and made clear

the difference. The apple curculio spreads with extraordinary rapidity, and destroys the greater part of the apple crop of Illinois. The plum curculio stings, but does not breed in the apple; the apple curculio makes a round cut, difficult to see with the eye. The worm remains where the egg was laid until it matures, when it comes out and goes into the ground. He hoped this would turn out to be the apple curculio. It is the apple or plum curculio, for only one kind has been seen to-day. Curculio can not fly under a temperature of 70 degrees. They fly against the wind; but as yet he had been unable to determine the extent to which they migrate. Whether this be the apple or plum curculio, a great discovery has been made."

All which verily surprised us. What! the combined entomological and horticultural wisdom of Illinois not able to distinguish between the Plum and the Apple Curculio? Dr. LeBaron, so far as we are aware, has never claimed to be acquainted with the Apple Curculio, and we believe it is of quite rare occurrence around Geneva; he might therefore justly be cautions in the matter. But what shall we say of Dr. Hull, who has so often spoken of the Apple Curculio, and dwelt upon its habits, before horticultural bodies; and who must have slain such hosts of the Plum Curculio with his powerful and ponderous machine. Not able to distinguish between these two insects? Why, they differ more in the eyes of an entomologist than a sheep does from a cow!

The snout of the Plum Curculio (Conotrachelus nenuphar) hangs down like the trunk of an elephant; it is short, stout, and does not admit of being stretched out horizontally forwards; and, as may be seen by referring to our Figure 92, is scarcely as long as the head and thorax together, and can be folded back between the legs, where The Plum there is a groove to receive it. Curculio is broadest across the shoulders and narrows behind, and moreover, the black sealingwax-like, knife-edged elevations on the back, with the pale band behind them, characterize it at once from all our other fruit-boring snout-beetles.

The Apple, or Four-humped Curculio (Anthonomus quadrigibbus, Say), is a much smaller insect, with a snout which sticks out more or less horizontally and cannot be folded under, and which is as long as the whole body. This insect has narrow shoulders and broadens behind, where it is furnished with four very conspicuous It has humps, from which it takes its name. neither the polished black elevations nor the pale band of the Plum Curculio. In short, it differs generically, and does not attack the peach.

If the St. Josephites were a wine-growing, instead of a peach-growing people, we might, in our own minds, have been able to account for

EXPLANATION OF FIGURE 143.-(a) Larva, dorsal view, with fun-shaped appendages spread; (b) púpa, dorsal view; (c) same, lateral view; (d) same, ventral view; (e) thoracic proleg of larva; (f) manner in which the circular rows of bristles are arranged at anal extremity-all the figures being enlarged.

The culture of fish, and especially of the Trout, is attracting deserved attention in this country, from many persons who are at all favorably situated for carrying it on. The idea of propagating fish artificially is comparatively modern, and when we reflect on the success of the enterprise, notwithstanding those who first talked about it were looked upon as idle theorists; we yet have faith that, some of these days, certain beneficial and parasitic insects will to some extent be propagated and introduced into one country from another-utopian and chimerical as the idea may now appear to most persons.

To-day fish-culture has grown to be a most important and lucrative business in some parts of Europe, and it is fast acquiring importance in this country. It is an art yet in its infancy, and the few enterprising men who embark in it, in this country, will naturally meet with adverses, and must gradually perfect their art by dear-bought experience. Anything which will lead to a better understanding of the obstacles which render the business precarious, will therefore tend to perfect the art, and must be welcomed by those interested.

On page 174, under this same caption, we published an account of a worm which, by spinning a web in the water, proved very de-, structive to young trout in certain breeding ponds in the States of New York and Ohio. On page 211 we stated that this worm was the larva of a Two-winged Fly, belonging to the genus Simulium.

The habits of these larvæ are not yet completely known; and, as everything that bears upon the subject will prove interesting, and aid future observers, we make room for the following original observations of two of our correspondents. Mr. Seth Green, of Mumford, N. Y., says:

We find these larvæ exclusively upon stones in swift-running and rippling water. In a state of rest, fastened by the "sucker" at the end of the tail, they stand erect and move around with a circling motion of the head. They move from place to place by fastening the "tubercle" which is under the thorax, and by bringing up the tail end to it. The thread comes from the head end, but whether from the tubercle or not, my glass is not strong enough to discover. I think that this larva leaves a thread wherever it goes. At any rate, while putting those I sent to you into the bottle, they invariably dropped from the stick, leaving a thread behind them by which they could be lifted and moved from side to side in the water; and as, in taking away the stick, the thread became fastened upon the mouth of the bottle, we saw three or four at once actually climbing up these threads-not so fast as a spider would, but still at a pretty good pace.

Writing of the same larva, Sara J. McBride, also of Mumford, N. Y., says:

When about to change its position, it works for a few seconds with its maxillæ against the substance to which it adheres, and then, placing the last segments of its body firmly on the place thus prepared, moves its head off in another direction. Every time it moves its head, it leaves in the place a silken thread, something like a spider's thread, but much more delicate and fine. After it has been in one place a short time it leaves a "web," which is uneven and irregular in its angles and outline. When frightened this larva remains suspended in the water by means of its thread.

I have never observed it feeding on any aquatic plant, and so conclude its nourishment must consist of animalcules. Whether its web is for the purpose of securing its food, or the natural result of moving its head from place to place, I cannot ascertain. It exists in the larva state in running water, during the winter months, and spins a cocoon for its pupa of a conical shape, and closed at the lower end.

Upon two occasions we have received specimens of this larva from Mr. Green; but each time the water became so foul during the transit that the larvæ soon perished, and we were consequently unable to breed the perfect fly. While these larvæ were in our possession, we

made sundry observations on their peculiarities; but the article which follows, from Baron Osten Sacken, on the transformations of the genus, is so exhaustive, that we content ourselves with presenting the life-like drawings at Figure 143. The slight differences in form between our figures of the pupa and those of Verdat may be accounted for, either by a difference in species or in maturity. We will also premise that our pupæ, like Verdat's and Scheffer's, had four principal branches and eight tracheal filaments, each side; that the silk is spun from the mouth (apparently from lower lip), and that the fanshaped organs either serve to spread the webnets, so as to entangle the animalcules which form this insect's food, or, what is more probable, serve, as do the cilia of many other small animals, to form a vortex by the rotary motion of the head observed by Mr. Green; and the animalcules, thus engulfed in this miniature mælstrom, are irresistably drawn towards the mouth.

Aside from its curious transformations, and this newly-discovered destructive habit in the larva state, this genus possesses an unusual

Where breeding ponds can be so protected as to prevent these flies getting at the water during the summer, it follows that the young fish will not be troubled with the web of the larvæ; but it is doubtful whether any such protection can be given in the majority of cases. We shall be glad to publish any further observations on the habits of these larvæ that may be made by parties possessing the proper facilities for study, and will add that, according to Osten Sacken, besides this spinning larva of Simulium, that of the genus Chironomus seems to weave the earthy sheath in which it lives, and that of Tanypus moves about in a light spun sheath, according to Lyonnet.

By a strange oversight we omitted the name of Cyrus Thomas in our list of contributors published last month. Mr. Thomas was, many years ago, well known as a writer on Illinois entomological subjects, and, knowing that he is with us, heart and hand, in our work, we owe him an apology for this oversight.