Jan, 18—In the past we always referred to the Butterfly ower (Schtzanthus) as the housemaid's bugbear: we remember that the delicate {lowers used to fall all over the place after the Plants had been in the house for a few days, It was fairly diMeult to got them off the carpets, However, we now feel that we did the plant en injustice: there is a far worse culprit, We had a few pots of that native of the East Indies Moschosma riparium in the house a day for so ago and what a mess the flowers made!
arrival, the nettle-like-leaved plant looked very charming with its terminal spikes of small whitish flowers. Whether the eats were attracted by their "musk odour or not, we do not know but we do know that the small fowers were all over the room in a short space of time Perhaps the cats did assist the Sowers to fall from our plants; but, all the sime, we feel that the moschosma is not one of the best plants to use for house decoration. We notice that the soreatled Japanese Plum blossom is makin Ame display in many local gardens these days: despite the fact that this tree Is called Prunus Japontea by some people, It is native to Chine. Wilson refers to it as Prunus salicina and it was adopted as China's National Flower some time ago, This tree often blooms unseen in many gardens, it flowers at a time when it is generally nicer to sit near the fire than walk around the garden: this year weather conditions are different from usual and in those gardens where the tree is planted against an evergreen background, it is very protly. It is not a tall grower and it is Hable to be hidden, in time, by spanese Apricot (Prunus Mume) their appearance in all the flower ps, trained into various shapes by tying down, the flowers of the latter species are Scented and most decorative. Those who do not ike trainied plants in the house, are advised to cut all the strings: we always do this and the plants are then quite attractive—W.J.K.
Jan, 19.—"Tommy" saw pieces of paper being tied around the trunks of some trees the other day and naturally, had to. ask innumerable questions concerning them. He found that many fof the caterpillars. that attack fruit, trees in Spring are bred from eggs deposited by female moths during the Winter and that, as these moths have imperfectly developed wings, they Jcannot fly. They get over the difficulty, however, by crawling, and up the tree they go to lay their eggs 1m positions where the caterpillar to [come will find nice fresh opening buds available to satisfy its ravenous appetite, The people "Tommy" was watching were tying three inch wide strips of grease-proof paper, tightly around the trunks a few feet above ground level, and on this they were smearing grease. It looked ordinary car grease; it probably was, for this is quite as efficient as some of the more expensive substances on the market and it is for some of the special pre= it they the bark. Inthe event of rough-barked trees being. "banded," putty "or clay is applied before placing the paper in position to make certain that the moth cannot make its way behind the paper. Some ywers scrape the bark smooth for the same reason. Grease banding has been carried out for ages all over the world and if the grease is periodically ren along, it is a very successful method of keeping trees free from many flowering, trees in our having a grease band placed trunks, for few of us take the trouble to apply kerosene emulsion spray during the winter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.