1869.] INSECTS. 67 



— a common ground on which the stove and greenhouse can meet in 

 summer or in winter ; and what a convenience to the gardener ! But 

 there are very few places as yet where such a convenience exists, although 

 its importance is daily becoming more pressing. The plants that will 

 not grow in a greenhouse, and which would only linger out a miserable 

 existence in a stove, are too numerous to mention. Mexico, New 

 Holland, and the Cape would furnish a whole host of the most beau- 

 tiful and useful plants in cultivation. That gem, the Luculia gra- 

 tissima, too frequently seen long, lanky, and forlorn-looking in a stove, 

 or contending for very existence with cold and green-fly in a green- 

 house, is worth a house itself ; and beside it would flourish many of 

 the fine Ferns, Orchids, and other plants that are crowded in out-of- 

 the-way corners in our stoves and greenhouses, not to speak of Oranges, 

 Palms, Cycads, Begonias, Caladiums, Passion-flowers, Gardenias, and 

 innumerable others. The New Holland variety of that fine Fern the 

 Neotopteris, or Bird's-nest Fern, when grown in a stove, where it is 

 frequently seen grey with thrip, or scrubbed and washed out of its 

 original beauty and characteristics — a perfect caricature — is a continual 

 protest against the conditions under which it suffers ; but change it 

 to the intermediate house, or a sheltered corner of the greenhouse, let 

 it have plenty of water and shade, and it will take care of itself, and 

 manifest no disposition to disease. The finest plant of this kind I 

 ever saw, about 6 feet across, with leaves that almost rivalled in breadth 

 and substance the Musa Cavendishii, grew in a cool conservatory 

 beside Camellias, where the winter temperature was seldom above 40° 

 or 45°. If time permitted, numerous instances could be furnished, 

 showing that many of the diseases to which plants are subject are the 

 result of functional derangements, or impaired vital energy arising 

 from other causes. British Queen Strawberry and its kind are more 

 subject to spider than others, as also the Frontignac Grapes and other 

 weak-growing kinds. Black Prince Strawberry, Royal George Peach, 

 some kinds of Eoses, and certain varieties of the Verbena are very 

 liable to mildew, as there are others which are peculiarly exempt. And 

 the same curious and significant facts are observable among various 

 kinds of Pears, Apples, Plums, and vegetables — as a rule, the weakest 

 always going to the wall. 



J. S. WORTLEY. 



