HAKDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



239 



they came from the north, and concentrated them- 

 selves on the hazel, only a straggler or two being 

 found beyond it, though there were other aphides in 

 the garden that had bred there from winter eggs. 

 The transit through the air had manifestly an aperi- 

 ent effect, for every leaf was coated with honey-dew 

 in a few hours after the insects had landed, and I 

 found that they also cast their skins. It was not 

 long before their friends the ants and the hostile 

 Sylphi discovered the new arrivals. — /. B. S. C. 



Garden Ants.— Some town and country gar- 

 deners look with great disgust at theemergence in 

 August of the males and females of the common 

 black ant of our gardens, under the apprehension 

 that they are in some way injurious to vegetation. 

 There is also an equally groundless notion that these 

 winged ants are apt to bite or puncture the human 

 skiu. That they do not usually return to the colony 

 in which they have been nursed to maturity is 

 evident, and yet only a small proportion of the 

 females migrate to any distance. The male ants 

 seem generally far more sluggish than their compa- 

 nions, and, so far as I have noticed, they exceed 

 them in number considerably. The fussy attentions 

 they receive from the workers as they leave the 

 ant-hill are somewhat comical, and not much appre- 

 ciated by the winged insects, which move about, as 

 soon as their wings are expanded, in a bewildered 

 fashion that renders them an easy prey to birds. 



Enemies of the Gooseberry. — There are 

 several species of insects which are very destructive 

 to the Gooseberry. The Abraxas grossulariata, or 

 Magpie Moth, deposits its eggs on the foliage, and 

 from them is hatched, in September, a slightly hairy 

 cream-coloured caterpillar, spotted with black, and 

 marked with orange along the sides, and which 

 forms a loop in walking. It feeds on the leaves in 

 autumn and spring, devouring all but the petiole ; 

 and, after defoliating both gooseberry and currant 

 bushes, it changes into a pupa in May or June, and 

 in about three weeks afterwards the perfect insect 

 makes its appearance. Hand-picking the cater- 

 pillars at an early stage of their growth, and, still 

 better, burning the leaves on which the eggs are 

 laid, are the troublesome means by which this de- 

 structive pest may be got rid of. Pouring over the 

 bushes ammoniacal liquor diluted with water is 

 stated by the late Mr. D. Beaton to be the easiest 

 mode of destroying the caterpillars; but the 

 strength of the liquor varies greatly ; it is there- 

 fore advisable to ascertain, by experiment, the 

 least amount of diluted liquor that may, without 

 injury, be applied during sunshine to the leaves of 

 some useless plant with tender foliage, and then add 

 as much water as will insure the safety of the goose- 

 berry leaves, without rendering the application too 

 weak for the destruction of the insect. Another 

 destructive insect is the caterpillar of Phalana 

 vunaria. It is about an inch in length, of a bluish- 

 green colour, dotted with black tubercles, has ten legs, 

 and, like the caterpillar of the Magpie Moth, forms 

 a loop in walking. It changes into a pupa towards 

 the latter end of May, and the perfect insect appears 

 in the following month, or in July. Hand-picking, 

 as soon as the larvae are perceived, and dusting the 

 bushes with hellebore powder, or with lime, are the 

 means usually employed for its destruction ; and, 

 as the insect undergoes all its transformations on 

 the ground, scattering newly-slaked lime around 

 the bushes when the caterpillars quit is, perhaps, 

 the best means of preventing the repetition of the 



mischief in the following year. The Gooseberry 

 and Currant Saw-fly {Nematus ribesii) deposits its 

 eggs on the under surface of the leaf, by the side of 

 the principal nervures, early in spring, and succes- 

 sive broods of Hies appear until October. The larva; 

 devour the leaves, leaving only the petiole ; and, 

 when fully grown, which isthe case when they are 

 about three-quarters of an inch in length, descend 

 to the earth, spin a cocoon, and change into pupa. 1 , 

 from which another brood of flies soon emerges. 

 Burning the leaves upon which the eggs are laid, 

 and hand-picking where the plantation is not very 

 extensive, syringing the bushes, and then dust- 

 ing them with lime, which should also be scattered 

 round the stems, and sprinkling the leaves with lime- 

 water, are the remedies usually adopted. Removing 

 early in spring the soil from round the bushes to 

 the depth of 3 or 4 inches, and burying it in deep 

 trenches, in order to entomb the pupa;, is a good 

 preventive measure. Syringing the bushes in the 

 evening, and sprinkling them with salt or soot, as 

 well as flowers of sulphur applied with a sul- 

 phurator, are likewise said to be infallible remedies. 

 In addition to the formidable enemies above enume- 

 rated, birds frequently prove very destructive, by 

 picking out the buds in spring. The remedy which 

 succeeds the best with me is, immediately after 

 pruning to pass threads of white worsted, which 

 need not be close together, a few times over the 

 trees, winding them in and out of the branches. 

 This effectually frightens the birds, who never 

 attack trees so protected. — M. in " The Garden." 



EXCHANGES (continued). 



For well-mounted Slide, Gold Ore Australia, send good 

 Injection or large Insect, well- mounted. Many others for 

 Slides, Books, &c— W. Tylar, 165, Well-street, Birmingham. 



For two living plants of Stratioies aioidns (Water Soldier), 

 will give various other plants suitable for aquarium. — H. 

 Tomlinson, East-street, Maidenhead, Berks. 



British Plants wanted, Hippophae rhamnoides and 

 Frankenia levis offered for Arubis stricta and Polygonum mari- 

 timum or others.— Address, G.B,, 143, New Bond-street, W. 



Cornish Plants offered, 253, 259, 290, 321, 343, 346, 923, 

 856, 1033, 1066, 1246, 1383, 1615, Reseda suffruticosa and 

 Millole.tis parviflora, London Catalogue, 7th edition. — Wm. 

 Curnow, Pembroke Cottage, Newlyn Cliff, Penzance. 



British Birds' Eggs for exchange.— G. Christopher Davies, 

 5, Alexandra-place, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



Rare Birds' Skins and Eggs for rare Eggs. No post cards ; 

 all letters answered.— J. T. T. Reed, Ryhope, Sunderland. 



Diatoms, well mounted, for Diatom Slides, or any other 

 obj ects of interest, or Diatomaceous Material. Lists exchanged. 

 — R. K., 24, Victoria-place, Stirling. 



BOOKS, &c. RECEIVED. 



" Woodward's Manual of Conch ology.'' New edition, with 

 additional chapter by Professor Ralph Tate. London : Lock- 

 wood & Co. 



" American Naturalist." 



" Monthly MicroscopicalJournal." 



" Les Mondes." 



"Land and Water.'' 



" Ben Brierley's Journal " 



" Transactions of the Belfast Naturalists' Society." 



Communications Rkckivbd up to 10th ult. from : — 

 G. H. K.— H. P. M.— W. E.-H. E. W.— H. G. W. A.— E. V. 

 — T. D. R.— W. J. M.— W. J. H.— H. W.— W. A C— M. B. D. 

 —A. B. K.— C. P. G.— G. R.— T. S.— I. H. K.— W. W.— E. G. 

 — G. H. P.— W. K. W.— G. R. V.— A. J. R. S.— A. B— J. P. 

 — R. W.— J. R. S. C— M. F.— J. C. T.— W. S. D.— J. T.— 

 W. R. B— A. F. M.— E. B.— R. H. N. B.— J. R.-W. F. B.— 

 J. H. G.— H. E. W.— J. W. G.— F. E. F.— G. V. D.— E. F. J. 

 — R. H. F.— S. C— H. E. F.-C. F. G.— W. J. H— D. J. P.— 

 J. H.— R. S— H. F.— W. E.— W. G. P.— G. S. B.— D. O. N.— 

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 H. A. M.-H. T.— W. C.-E. T. S.— H. H.— W. M. R.— W. T. 

 — F. V. P.— G. B.— T. H— J. B.— H. F.— J. F. D.— G. G.— 

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 W. F.— G. N,— G. C.D.-&C &c. 



