THE CULTIVATION OF PYRETHRUM AND MANUFACTURE OF the POWDER. In accordance with an announcement in the March number of the NATURALIST, the editor of this department has sent out the seed of two species of Pyrethrum, viz: P. roseum and P. cinerariafolium, to a large number of correspondents in different parts of North America. Every mail brings us some inquiries for further particulars and directions to guide in the cultivation of the plant and preparation of the powder. We have concluded, therefore, that such information as is obtainable on these heads will prove of public interest, and we shall ask Professor Bessey's pardon for trenching somewhat on his domain.

There are very few data at hand concerning the discovery of the insecticide properties of Pyrethrum. The powder has been in use for many years in Asiatic countries south of the Caucasus mountains. It was sold at a high price by the inhabitants, who successfully kept its nature a secret until the beginning of this century, when an Armenian merchant, Mr. Jumtikoff, learned that the powder was obtained from the dried and pulverized flower-heads of certain species of Pyrethrum growing abundantly in the mountain region of what is now known as the Russian province of Transcaucasia. The son of Mr. Jumtikoff began the manufacture of the article on a large scale in 1828, after which year the Pyrethrum industry steadily grew, until to-day the export of the dried flower-heads represents an important item in the revenue of those countries.

Still less seems to be known of the discovery and history of the Dalmatian species of Pyrethrum (P. cinerariæfolium), but it is probable that its history is very similar to that of the Asiatic species. At the present time the Pyrethrum flowers are considered by far the most valuable product of the soil of Dalmatia.

There is also very little information published regarding either the mode of growth or the cultivation of Pyrethrum plants in their native home. As to the Caucasian species we have reasons to believe that they are not cultivated, at least not at the present time, statements to the contrary notwithstanding. The well-known Dr. Gustav Radde, director of the Imperial Museum of Natural History at Tiflis, Transcaucasia, who is the highest living authority on everything pertaining to the natural history of that region, wrote us recently as follows: "The only species of its genus, Pyrethrum roseum, which gives a good, effective insect powder, is nowhere cultivated, but grows wild in the basal-alpine zone of our mountains at an altitude of from 6000 to 8000 feet." From this it appears that this species, at least, is not cultivated in its native home, and Dr. Radde's statement is corroborated by a communication of Mr. S. M. Hutton, Vice-Consul General of the U. S. at Moscow, Russia, to whom we applied for seed of this species. He writes that his agents were not able to get more than about half a pound 1 Report Comm. of Patents, 1857, Agriculture, p. 130.

of the seed from any one person. From this statement it may be inferred that the seeds have to be gathered from the wild and not from the cultivated plants.

As to the Dalmatian plant it is also said to be cultivated in its native home, but we can get no definite information on this score, owing to the fact that the inhabitants are very unwilling to give any information regarding a plant the product of which they wish to monopolize. For similar reasons we have found great difficulty in obtaining even small quantities of the seed of P. cinerariafolium that was not baked or in other ways tampered with to prevent germination. Indeed, the people are so jealous of their plant that to send the seed out of the country becomes a serious matter, in which life is risked. The seed of Pyrethrum roseum is obtained with less difficulty, at least in small quantities, and it has even become an article of commerce, several nurserymen here, as well as in Europe, advertising it in their catalogues. The species has been successfully grown as a garden plant for its pale rose or bright pink flower-rays. Mr. Thomas Meehan, of Germantown, Pa., writes us: "I have had a plant of Pyrethrum roseum in my herbaceous garden for many years past, and it holds its own without any care much better than many other things. I should say from this experience that it was a plant which will very easily accommodate itself to culture anywhere in the United States." Peter Henderson, of New York, another well-known and experienced nurseryman, writes: "I have grown the plant and its varieties for ten years. It is of the easiest cultivation, either by seeds or divisions. It now ramifies into a great variety of all shades, from white to deep crimson, double and single, perfectly hardy here, and I think likely to be nearly everywhere on this continent." Dr. James C. Neal, of Archer, Fla., has also successfully grown P. roseum and many varieties thereof, and other correspondents report similar favorable experience. None of them have found a special mode of cultivation necessary. In 1856 Mr. C. Willemot made a serious attempt to introduce and cultivate the plant1 on a large scale in France. As his account of the cultivation of Pyrethrum is the best we know of we quote here his experience in full, with but few slight omissions: "The soil best adapted to its culture should be composed of a pure ground, somewhat siliceous and dry. Moisture and the presence of clay is injurious, the plant being extremely sensitive to an excess of water, and would in such case immediately perish. A southern exposure is the most favorable. The best time for putting the seeds in the ground is from March to April. It can be done even in the month of February if the weather will permit it. After the soil has been prepared and the

1 Mr. Willemot calls his plant Pyrèthre du caucase (P. Willemoti Duchartre), but it is more than probable that this is only a synonym of P. roseum. We have drawn liberally from Mr. Willemot's paper on the subject, a translation of which may be found in the Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the year 1861, Agriculture, PP. 223-331.

seeds are sown they are covered by a stratum of ground mixed with some vegetable mould, when the roller is slightly applied to it. Every five or six days the watering is to be renewed, in order to facilitate the germination. At the end of about thirty or forty days the young plants make their appearance, and as soon as they have gained strength enough they are transplanted at a distance of about six inches from each other. Three months after this operation they are transplanted again at a distance of from fourteen to twenty inches, according to their strength. Each transplantation requires, of course, a new watering, which, however, should only be moderately applied. The blossoming of the Pyrethrum commences the second year, toward the end of May, and continues to the end of September." Mr. Willemot also states that the plant is very little sensitive to cold, and needs no shelter, even during severe winters.

The above-quoted directions have reference to the climate of France, and as the cultivation of the plant in many parts of North America is yet an experiment, a great deal of independent judgment must be used. The plants should be treated in the same manner as the ordinary Asters of the garden or other perennial Compositæ.

As to the Dalmatian plant, it is well known that Mr. G. N. Milco, a native of Dalmatia, has of late years successfully cultivated Pyrethrum cinerariafolium near Stockton, Cal., and the powder from the California-grown plants to which Mr. Milco has given the name of "Buhach" retains all the insecticide qualities and is far superior to most of the imported powder as we know from experience. Mr. Milco gives the following advice about planting-advice which applies more particularly to the Pacific coast: Prepare a small bed of fine, loose, sandy, loamy soil, slightly mixed with fine manure. Mix the seed with dry sand and sow carefully on top of the bed. Then with a common rake disturb the surface of the ground half an inch in depth. Sprinkle the bed every evening until sprouted; too much water will cause injury. After it is well sprouted, watering twice a week is sufficient. When about a month old, weed carefully. They should be transplanted to loamy soil during the rainy season of winter or spring."

Our own experience with P. roseum as well as P. cinerariafolium in Washington, D. C., has been so far quite satisfactory. Some that we planted last year in the fall came up quite well in the spring and will perhaps bloom the present year. The plants from sound seed which we planted this spring are also doing finely, and as the soil is a rather stiff clay and the rains have been many and heavy, we conclude that Mr. Willemot has overstated the delicacy of the plants.

In regard to manufacturing the powder, the flower heads should be gathered during fine weather when they are about to

open, or at the time when fertilization takes place, as the essential oil that gives the insecticide qualities reaches, at this time, its greatest development. When the blossoming has ceased the stalks may be cut within about four inches from the ground and utilized, being ground and mixed with the flowers in the proportion of one third of their weight. Great care must be taken not to expose the flowers to moisture, or the rays of the sun, or still less to artificial heat. They should be dried under cover and hermetically closed up in sacs or other vessels to prevent untimely pulverization. The finer the flower-heads are pulverized the more effectually the powder acts and the more economical is its use. Proper pulverization in large quantities is best done by those who make a business of it and have special mill facilities. Lehn & Fink, of New York, have furnished us with the most satisfactory powder. For his own use the farmer can pulverize smaller quantities by the simple method of pounding the flowers in a mortar. It is necessary that the mortar be closed, and a piece of leather through which the pestle moves, such as is generally used in pulverizing pharmaceutic substances in a laboratory, will answer. The quantity to be pulverized should not exceed one pound at a time, thus avoiding too high a degree of heat, which would be injurious to the quality of the powder. The pulverization being deemed sufficient, the substance is sifted through a silk sieve, and then the remainder, with a new addition of flowers, is put in the mortar and pulverized again.

The best vessels for keeping the powder are fruit jars with patent covers or any other perfectly tight glass vessel or tin box.

In the next number we will give some account of the different ways in which the powder may be used to destroy insects.

TREES ATTRACTive to ButterfLIES.—Mrs, A. E. Bush, of San José, Cal., writes: "I have been to Monterey, and was fortunate enough to see the 'butterfly tree,' or trees, as there are three of them. These trees are the Monterey pine (Pinus insignis Dougl.), and are probably over one and a half feet in diameter, and completely covered with live butterflies. To say that there were as many butterflies as leaves upon the trees would not be a very great exaggeration. I saw them in the morning when it was cool and they could not fly very well, and picked up a dozen from the grass in a few seconds. A lady resident informed me that for the twelve years she had lived there the appearance had been the same."

HUDSON BAY LEPIDOPTERA.-Mr. J. Jenner Weir, in the May number of the Entomologist (London, England), has an article on the Lepidoptera Rhopalocera of Hudson's bay, drawn from specimens obtained in two years' collecting in that dreary region by Mr. Walton Haydon. There are seventeen species of butterflies belonging to ten genera, all the genera but one occurring in Great Britain. The list includes Vanessa antiopa, Pyrameis car

dui, P. atalanta, Pieris oleracea, Argynnis ailantis, A. myrina, Vanessa milberti, Grapta faunus, Lycana lucia, Colias erytheme, var., keewaydin, Argynnis lapponica, A. tarquinius, A. bellona, Papilio glaucus var. turnus, Limenitis arthemis var. lamina, and Phyciodes tharos. Mr. Weir concludes his paper with the following remarks: "The collection of which I have now given a description, small as it is, is not wanting in interest. It is surprising to contemplate the time which must have elapsed since the three identical with European species had a common ancestor, and yet the difference now existing is too slight to consider them even varieties of each other. A former connection with Europe by the Faröe islands, Iceland and Greenland no doubt existed, and during one of the periods of mild Arctic climate the transmission of species from one continent to another was effected. We are so in the habit of calling this hemisphere the old world, that it does not occur to us that it is just as likely that Vanessa antiopa passed from America to Europe, as that the converse was the case."

Unfortunately the three species referred to (Vanessa antiopa, Pyrameis cardu and P. atalanta) are the very poorest that could be chosen as indicating length of time required for variation of forms that have become separated by wide expanse of ocean. They are cosmopolitan butterflies, all known to be capable of extended flight, and it seems to us that the constancy they exhibit in different quarters of the globe is explicable rather on frequent and recent migration from one part of the world to another.

TRADE IN INSECTS.--It is a well known fact that sixty or more years ago exorbitant prices were paid for rare insects, or at least for species that were considered rare. Since that time the market price for insects has been constantly on the decline, and at the present time a vast number of species of the two favorite orders, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, can be had through reliable dealers at very reasonable prices, and generally correctly determined. Still there are some exceptions to this rule, and a recent auction sale in London of the collection of the late J. Aspinwall Turner, M.P., shows that the price commanded by the gorgeous species of the Goliath beetles is scarcely inferior to that paid by collectors in the days of Drury and Donovan. The following are some of the prices obtained at that auction sale: lot 61, 2 Euchirus dupontianus, 2 E. macleayi, 3 E. cantori and 3 E. hardwickii brought £8; lot 91, 2 Goliathus giganteus £7; lot 92, I Goliathus giganteus, 1 G. kirkii and I var.? G. cacicus £20; 1 Ischnoscelis dohrni £10; one pair of Goliathus fornassinii £24. It might be mentioned in this connection that at the beginning of this century Donovan paid for I Goliathus giganteus the handsome sum of 121⁄2 guineas.

ANTS INJURIOUS IN ARIZONA.-Mr. H. H. Rusby, of Clifton, Arizona, sends us a rather doleful account of the destruction wrought by ants in that Territory. He says the country is one vast ant colony, and that the ants prove the greatest drawback to