128 



IRISH GARDENING. 



ilD III nn!!i SI 

 ii~i aas snas u 



The Reader. 



Forest Entomology. 



HOWEVER delightful the study of entomolgry may 

 be to a lover "of nature, few but the specialist or 

 enthusiast find time to proceed further than a 

 slight acquaintance with the more common species of 

 insects found in field, garden, or woodland. The farmer, 

 gardener, and forester, never- 

 theless, are continually meet- 

 ing with specimens of in- 

 jurious insects which excite 

 their curiosity and arouse in 

 them a desire to know some- 

 thing of their characters, life 

 histories, and economic impor- 

 tance, but which have to be 

 hurriedly passed by owing to 

 lack of time to devote to their 

 identification or observance. 



Thanks to the practical en- 

 tomologist much has been 

 done of late to simplify the 

 economic study of insects by 

 the compilation of works which 

 satisfy the scientist as regards 

 nomenclature and descriptions 

 of specific characteristics, but 

 which, at the same time, de- 

 vote more space to personal 

 notes and descriptions of in- 

 sects which particularly affect 

 cultivated plants than to purel\ 

 scientific details or methods 

 of classification. 



All who take a lively interest 

 in trees and shrubs, and parti- 

 cularly the forester, nursery- 

 man, or gardener, whose in- 

 terests are closely bound up 

 with them, must feel deeply 

 grateful to Mr. A. T. Gillan- 

 ders for preparing a work of 

 the above kind, in which is 

 embodied the results of many 



Chermes 



(An Aj-boreal genus oj Green-fly) 



On the foliage of larch. TheafTected shoots appear as it covered 



with specks of snow. Each little woolly speck contains 



a mother-fly and her eggs. 



and a large number of species of little economic im- 

 portance are consequently omitted altogether. An in- 

 teresting feature of the book is provided by the admir- 

 able illustrations of damage effected upon bud, leaf, 

 stem or fruit, so that the cause of the injury may often be 

 identified by its appearance alone, a matter of great 

 convenience to the busy, practical man, although this 

 method may not commend itself to the professional ento- 

 mologist. 



In a work of such general excellence it is difficult to 

 select any portion more worthy of notice than others. 

 Naturally, the important orders of Coleoptera, Hymenop- 

 /ora, and Hemiptcra receive a good deal of attention, 

 and probably the chapters on these are fuller than those 

 devoted to other orders. The gall flies, aphides, and 

 scale insects in particular are thoroughly described and 

 illustrated, and the practical forester is thus enabled to 

 gain much information on classes of insects which 

 possess extremely complicated life histories, and re- 

 quire a great deal of close study before they can be 

 identified by ordinary means. A chapter on collecting 

 and preserving in sect sis given, 

 and one on insecticides fur- 

 nishes extremely useful hints 

 to the nurseryman and planter. 

 Altogether this book is pro- 

 bably the most important 

 work on forest entomology 

 in general yet published in 

 the English language, and is a 

 decided improvement on the 

 mere translations from Ger- 

 man authors, which have 

 hitherto had to serve the 

 British forester in need of 

 information on specialised in- 

 sect lore. A. F. C. 



Intensive 



Cultivation. 



A SYSTEM of intensive gar- 

 dening aided by artificial heat 

 which has been in vogue for 

 \ears past in the neighbour- 

 hood of Paris is at the present 

 time receiving much attention 

 from English market gar- 

 deners. It is referred to as the 

 " French " system of garden- 

 ing, but it is only a very old 

 and well-known method of 

 forcing the growth of plants, 

 modified and extended so as 

 to produce very large quan- 

 tities of vegetable products 

 for market. The heat is ob- 



vears close observation and [Specimen illustration from "Forest Entomology," A. T.Gillanders.] tained from the fermentation 



•I „ . , ■ ii-r r>f Qtahlp manure. I.arp"e 



careful research on insect life, 

 as this affects forest trees or shrubs in Great Britain. 

 This work,* upon which the publishers have spared no 

 expense in the matter of paper and illustrations, is a 

 handsome octavo volume of over 400 pages, profusely 

 illustrated from original photographs and drawings or 

 reproductions from well-known works on entomology. 



The author divides his work into fourteen chapters, 

 in addition to an introduction on the structure of insects 

 in general. Beginning with the Erio-phyidee or Gall- 

 mites, of which the currant-bud mite is a well-known 

 example, the various orders are dealt with in turn. 

 Needless to say, no insect is mentioned which is not 

 associated in some form or other with a tree or shrub. 



" " Forest Entomology." 

 Edinburgh. 



By A. T. Gillanders. Blackwood & Sons, 



of stable manure. Large 

 quantities are collected for months, so that when used 

 it has already passed through the violent stages of 

 fermentation. This mildly warm manure is mixed with 

 a little fresh immediately before the preparation of the 

 beds. These beds are covered with soil and then sown 

 with seed or planted with young plants. Protection is 

 afforded by the use either of glass bell jars ("choches") 

 or of roughly made frames and lights (" chassis "). One 

 peculiarity of the system is, that as many as four crops 

 can be grown at the same time under each bell or frame, 

 and, as the system further allows growth to go on all 

 the year round, summer and winter, the amount of pro- 

 duce that can be annually marketed is simply prodigious. 

 A favourite group-cropping is to sow thinly radish seed 

 and either early carrot or turnip seed, and then plant 

 among them young lettuces. The radish will be ready 



