June 1, 1S6S.] 



IIAPDWICKE'S SCIENCE. GOSSIP. 



141 



Rose "Weevil (W. H. P.) — Your weevil from 

 roses is Otiorhynchus picipes, Fab., abundant on all 

 kinds of trees aud plants, in cultivated and waste 

 grounds, and which has been named vastator by an 

 old English entomologist^ from its destructive 

 habits. Its larva is very injurious to roots in the 

 autumn ; and as a perfect insect it feeds on young 

 shoots by night, when it should be picked by hand. 

 Various remedies have been suggested, but the late 

 Mr. Curtis, who gave much attention to injurious 

 insects, relied most on hand-picking ; he has re- 

 marked that crops in nurseries have been preserved 

 by men going out at night and drawing the branches 

 through their hands, putting the beetles into wide- 

 mouthed bottles, or shaking the branches over 

 sieves, which were emptied into boiling water. 

 The weevils are so wary that no lantern must 

 be used. With your rose-trees it would be easy, 

 however, to put a large sieve or insect net 

 beneath the infested branches, and use a dark 

 lantern; for the beetle would fall into the sieve 

 or net, if it escaped the fingers. Swallows often 

 consume this beetle, catching it in their hawk- 

 ing flight along hedges, especially of hawthorn. 

 Various numbers of the Gardener's Magazine con- 

 tain notices of and suggested remedies for this 

 pest. I find no remark upon it in " Kollar's 

 Treatise 'on Insects injurious to Trees," &c. — 



e. a r. 



" Scarlet Pose." — Your correspondent D. J., 

 Clydach, Swansea, evidently wishes to elicit some 

 information as to the cpiestion of J. P., Cac Wern, in 

 the Gardener's Chronicle of March 14th, p. 2G8. 

 He there states: "A gentleman who professes to 

 have studied only the ' Eook of Nature,' informs 

 me that a scarlet rose cannot be produced, because 

 there are no yellows in the class. He contends 

 that what are called Yellow Poses are not really 

 yellow, but have all a ' white ground,' and conse- 

 quent!!/ the Scarlet Pose cannot be produced." Now 

 the gentleman evidently means to contend that a 

 scarlet colour cannot be produced because the 

 ground colour is white. If he will once more refer 

 to the great " Book of Nature," and examine the 

 petals of a scarlet bedding geranium, after carefully 

 removing the thin cuticle (which is coloured) he 

 will find the underlying cellular tissue to be of a 

 white colour. This fact certainly and fully demon- 

 strates that a pure scarlet colour can be produced 

 upon a white ground colour ; and furthermore, it 

 shows that for the production of a scarlet colour a 

 yellow ground is not absolutely necessary. — F. W. 

 Burbidge, Chisioick. 



Laburnum (P. B.)— Your laburnum is the very 

 curious_ Cytisus Adami concerning which so much 

 discussion has taken place in the horticultural 

 world. Various explanations have been given to 

 account for the production of yellow and pink flowers 

 on the same tree, such as hybridisation and rever- 

 sion to parent forms, primary adhesion of two cells 

 or parts of cells belonging to different plants, &c. 

 The statement of the original"' observer, M. Adam, 

 was that it was the result of a graft, effected by 

 himself, of Cytisus purpureas on C. Laburnum, but 

 this opinion has been discredited, as we think very 

 unjustly, as M. Adam had no object whatever in 

 telling an untruth ; moreover, of late other instances 

 have come to light in which an intermediate pro- 

 duction, a "graft-hybrid," has been produced as the 

 result of grafting. A summary of the most recent 



information respecting this plant will be found in 

 the Gardener's Chronicle, 1866, pp. 850, 873, and 

 1217- M. T. M. 



Another. Tadpole out. — Seeing a paragraph 

 headed " Tadpole out," in Science-Gossip for May 

 186S, page 119, 1 am induced to send you the follow- 

 ing. Apparently the first duty or function per- 

 formed by frogs after hybernation is to breed. Por 

 this purpose they take to the water, and in two or 

 three days after leaving their dormitories the pro- 

 creative process is begun. The early or late ap- 

 pearance of these Batrachians in spring depends on 

 the mildness of the season ; so also does early or late 

 spawning, and the rapidity with which the eggs come 

 to maturity. Por the three springs just gone I have 

 noted when I first saw a frog. In 1866 the first 

 was on the 23rd of February. In 1867 I saw them 

 in great numbers in a ditch-like pool on the 23rd of 

 February, and surrounded with masses of spawn. 

 I was informed by the farmer who resided close by 

 that the frogs had been there as early as the 12th 

 of February. This spring, 1868, I first saw them 

 on the 25th of February, and on returning to the 

 same pool on the 27th I got a supply of spawn. I 

 was informed that they made their appearance on 

 the 24th of February, in the pool where they were 

 seen on the 12th the previous year. For this year I 

 find I have noted : " March 11.— Circulation of blood 

 in tadpole distinctly seen, and in one, a little further 

 advanced, by transmitted light. Mouth formed 

 March 12th." The tadpole which was so forward 

 yesterday wriggled itself free of the egg to-night. 

 This is three days earlier than that seen by F. 0. M. 

 I may add that my tadpole was house-bred, and 

 therefore had the advantage of shelter. So much 

 for tadpoles being early out. _ A greater wonder to 

 me was seeing tadpoles the size these creatures are 

 about the middle of May swimming actively about 

 in a small loch as late as the 24th of October. 

 Could these be from a late spawning, a second 

 spawning, or a spawning in anticipation of the 

 season to come, and before going into winter quar- 

 ters? It is not likely that they had remained 

 tadpoles from spring, from retarded development. — 

 /. M. A. 



The Struggle for Existence.— The other day 

 I noticed a large number of black garden ants 

 {Formica nigra) swarming over the flower-pots in a 

 friend's greenhouse. Some plants of cineraria were 

 literally covered by them. On examination I found 

 that the branches of some vines in the greenhouse 

 were spotted with " oidium," and to my surprise 

 saw that each of the spots was the prey of two or 

 three of the ants mentioned, a lot of others being 

 busy running up and down the stems and leaves, and 

 even the tendrils of the vines, as if in search of food. 

 On turning to the cinerarias, I found that they were 

 badly infested with the common green aphis, and that 

 the ants were making short work of those garden 

 and greenhouse pests. I have since gone into the 

 greenhouse at intervals, and have found the ants at 

 their refection as before. After nearly a fortnight's 

 absence, I have to-day again visited the house, and 

 find that the ants have quite forsaken the vines, 

 and that not a single bit of blight is to be found 

 upon them. The cinerarias, however, still appear to 

 afford them food, although the quantity of blight on 

 those plants seems to have materially decreased. In 

 this case, at least, nature has obviated the necessity 

 of the application of Gishurst's Compound. — E. A., 

 Wellington, Salop. 



