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Tlic Country Gentleman s Magazine 



in turn, become transformed into flies, and re- 

 appear among the apple blossoms. Now, as 

 by far the greatest number of larvae are in 

 the prematurely fallen fruit, that has only to 

 be gathered up as it falls, and destroyed before 

 the larvce escape, and if this is regularly pursued 

 in every year the apple saw-fly will become effec- 

 tually thinned, if not exterminated. For this 

 purpose some orchardists turn a few sheep 

 or swine into their orchard pastures from the 

 time the first fallings appear, till the later ones 

 have attained to marketable size; but in 

 gardens, as well as in many orchards, gather- 

 ing will always be preferable, and then, in 

 order to ensure the effectual destruction of 

 their insect contents, they should be burnt, 

 or boiled and given to the pigs. The codlin 

 moth (Tortrix pomonana) may also be noticed, 

 from its grubs affecting apples in a somewhat 

 similar manner with those of the preceding ; 

 and although more common in continental 

 and American, than in home-grown apples, 

 it is by no means unfrequent in the latter, 

 and its ravages also extend, although in a less 

 degree, to pears. Like the apple saw-fly, the 



codlin moth also deposits its eggs in May, 

 but differs in generally choosing the calyx, or 

 the stalk end of the fruit instead of within 

 its blossom ; and it reproduces several broods 

 in the season, the larvae on the growing apples 

 escaping, and forming, when matured, cocoons 

 in the rough bark or crevices of the tree, 

 while those that fall do the same on dry leaves, 

 branches, &c. It is the latter grub brood of 

 this moth which appears too frequently in the 

 finest foreign fruit, and it is most troublesome 

 in dry, warm seasons, which are peculiarly 

 favourable to the preservation of its grubs in 

 the fallen fruit. 



We are, as yet, fortunately exempt from 

 that most destructive of American fruit pests, 

 the Curculio or plum-weevil (Rhynchaenus 

 nenuphar), which, over large districts of that 

 country, frequently causes the most flattering 

 crops of plums, peaches, and apricots, to 

 fall when only half or two-thirds grown ; 

 but we have the Tortrix nigricana and 

 others, which have a like, though less disas- 

 trous, effect upon the same kinds of our stone 

 fruits. 



DESIGNING FLOWER BEDS. 



MORE than a century and a quarter 

 ago (1738), Richard Bradley, a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society, invented a use- 

 ful instrument for enabling a gardener to lay 

 out, with ease and accuracy, those geometric 

 flower beds which were the rage during the 

 Augustan age of Queen Anne and the reigns 

 of the first two Georges. Previously to 

 Bradley making known his invention, Baptista 

 Porta and Kirscher had given descriptions of 

 instruments consisting of mirrors united at 

 two of their edges, which being opened like 

 two leaves of a book, were capable of multi- 

 plying the images of objects. These inven- 

 tions or discoveries are supposed to have 

 suggested to Sir David Brewster the idea of 

 the kaleidoscope, which he invented in 181 7 ; 

 but the optical investigations alluded to are 

 very remotely connected with the properties 

 of the kaleidoscope ; and the application of 



the latter to objects which may be moveable, 

 and situated at any distances from the ob- 

 server, renders Brewster's instrument very 

 different from, and far superior to, the simple 

 contrivances of Porta, Kirscher, and Bradley. 



The instrument, however, called the debu- 

 scope, brought out in Paris a few years a^o 

 (we think in i860), is nearly identical with 

 that of Bradley, the only difference being that 

 in the debuscope the mirrors are fixed in a 

 small box, at the required angle, while in 

 Bradley's they are loosely hinged, and adjust- 

 able to any angle. 



Bradley's invention is detailed in a bulky 

 octavo volume, with the title, " New Improve- 

 ments of Planting and Gardening, both Philo- 

 sophical and Practical," and the edition we 

 quote from is the seventh, shewing that the 

 work must have been a popular one in its 

 day. We prefer to give the description in the 



