July IS, 1667. 1 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICDLTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



47 



as tho present to briefly rooapilnlate tfaom. For upwards of forty 

 yoaro, thcu, he has held a prominent position in tho working stofF of 

 the Koyal Horticultural Society. Ho entered the Society's sorvieo in 

 lB2-t, Uio Bocond year aftiT tho establishment of tlio garden at Chie- 

 wick, and in 1.S2G wiift appointed to tho charge of the Fruit Depart- 

 ment, which then coutaiuod the finest and most extensive collection of 

 fruits in Flnrope. At that time comparatively few of tho varieties 

 were knoivii in tliin country, and the whole iiomenclutnre was in a 

 state of confusion, reqniriuf; unwearied application and perseverance 

 to clear it up. so that tho riches of tho collection niijjht be made avail- 

 nblo to the Fellows of the Society, and to the country. In 1S:U a 

 * Deflc-riptivo Catalofjne ' of these fruits was published, from memo- 

 randa taken at Chiswick, and in this valuable work Mr. Tlionipson, 

 with great success, succeeded in caiTjin^ oat his doaign of indicntins 

 the good and bad sorts, together with their Bynonyms, and Eiieh brief 

 characteristics as it was thought would be moKt generally useful. By 

 means of this catalopiio a kuowledi^o of tho superior kinds of fruits 

 was much more rapidly spread throughout tho country than it could 

 have been by any other available means. The distribution of scions 

 of new fruits waa consequent!}- carried on with assiduity, and much 

 consideration was bestowed in endeavouring to select such kinds as 

 were most likely to succeed in the loculiticsfor which they wore destined. 



" While this important work was year after year being carried out, 

 Sir. Thompt^on was engaged in making experiments both in the fruit 

 and kitchen garden departments, carefully reporting tho results ; in 

 taking descriptions of new varieties of fruits as they came into b^'aring ; 

 and in preparing another edition of the Fruit Catalogue, which was 

 published in 1>^1'2, and a supplement in 1S53. These descriptions and 

 records have been of the greatest pi-actical utility. Upwards of two 

 thousand pages of tho Society's vanotis publications have beeu written 

 by Mr. Thompson, but the Fruit Catalogue claims prominence, as 

 having been tho standard of fruit nomenclaturo in this country ; wliile 

 his * Gardeners' Assistant,* a work not connected with llie Society, 

 may be cbaracteriftcd as the best and most scientific of compendious 

 treatises on modem gardening. 



" For nearly a similar period Mr. Thompson has devoted much at- 

 tention to metoorologj-. Tho Meteorological Journal of tho Society, 

 which was commenced in 1826, and which has been carried on by him 

 Binco 1830, gives tho readings of the barometer (corrected for tempera- 

 ture, (tc), moniing, noon, and night ; of the thermometer, maximum 

 and minimum, in snn and shade ; and of tho hygrometer ; compara- 

 tively with avera;.'es of forty years, deduced from 219,000 observations 

 of the various instruments. Such broad averages afford what must bo 

 considered as true means with which extremes may bo compai'cd as rc- 



fards heat, pressure, and moisture. The observations of sixteen years 

 ave been translated froin the " Transactions " of tho Horticultural 

 Society into those of tho Royal Philosophical Society of Berlin ; and 

 np to the present time a weekly return has been published in the 

 Ourtlcncrs' Chmnich'. Among other papers from Mr. Thompson's 

 hands, connected with this branch of science, is a Table of Tempera- 

 tures for the use of gardeners, published in the Journal of the Horti- 

 cultural Society, which furnishes an idea of the climate of some nine 

 hundred places, sitnated in different latitudes. 



" With a modesty peculiarly his own, and with ft degree of plodding 

 pcrseveranco which cannot be too highly recommended as an example 

 to the rising generation of horticulturists, Mr. Thompson has worked 

 on at these, his favourite pursuits, with zeal and assiduity, setting 

 before himself tho object of rendering service to science rather than 

 lliat of jiersunal (;ain ; and now after a long and nsefnl career, when 

 his physical powers begin to fail him, it has been thought that an ex- 

 pression of public sympathy in acknowledgment of his life-long labours, 

 would servo to gladden and solace the remaining years of his life. 



*' It is proposed that a subscription list be opened uuderthe manage- 

 ment of tho Committee, and that a money Testimonial he presented 

 as soon as a reasonable time for response has elapsed. Subscriptions, 

 which will be duly announced, will bo received by any member of the 

 Committee; by the Society's bankers (London and County Bank, 

 Kensington) ; by the Secretaries — Dr. Hogg. 99, St. George's Road, 

 Pimlico, S.W., and Thomas Moore, Esq., Botanic Gardens, Chelsea, 

 S.W. ; or by James Richards, Assistant Secretary of the Koyal 

 Horticultural Society, South Kensington, W."] 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETING. 



The June Meeting of this Society was held at the rooms of the 

 Linnean Society, at Burlington House, the President, Sir John Lub- 

 bock. Bart., in the chair. 



Mr. F. Pasf'oc exhibited various interesting Colcoptera, from Gra- 

 ham's Town, South Africa, including some very rare Longicoms, and 

 Mr. T. W. Wood specimens of a Tortoise-shell Bntterilv. closely 

 allied to Vanessa ui-ticp?, fiom British Colnmbin, i"om.arkable for the 

 pale band of the hind winrs being denuded of scales. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited tiie dilTcrent states of a small Jloth, Earias 

 siliquana, which !ms proved extremely injurious to the cotton crops in 

 both Upper and Jjower Egyi)t, the caterpillar eating tho ovary of the 

 flower and changing to a chi'jsalis within the ball of cotton. 



Mr. F. Bond rxhihlted specimens of a f-pecies of Tortricidre. new to 

 the country, taken by Mr. Meek at Darenth Wood ; also a bright golden 

 Tariefy of Adela DeGeerella. 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited specimens of a solitary Wasp, Odynemd 

 quadratus, which had built its cells at the end of an empty compart- 

 ment of a razor case which had been damaged. The cells were 

 irregularly arranged, and had produced ten male and four female 

 Wasps. The cells of the femalee were, however, nil together at the 

 furthest end of the case. The insects had remained in the larva state 

 till tho 20th of March. On the 20th of May they were found to have 

 changed to pupte, and at the beginning of the following month the 

 perfect insects were produced. Otlier instances were mentioned ia 

 whieh the Wasps had selected tho crevices of locks, flutes, and the 

 bindings of books for the reception of their nests. 



Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a number of Hair-worms (Gordins or 

 Mennls sp.), which had been observed in the morning of tho day of 

 meeting shortly after a violent storm of rain. They were noticed 

 swarming on Rose bushes and other plants, and had been seen simul- 

 taneously by Mr. Stevens at Kenuington and also at Ashford on Rose 

 bushes. Mr. W^eir had also noticed them at Brixton, and Mr. Bond 

 near the Regent's Park, also on bushes. They were about 2 inches 

 long, and their ordinary condition of life is that of i>ara8ites within 

 the bodies of other insects. 



Sir John Lnbboek exhibited Kpidapns Venaticns, a remaikable 

 small species of Gnat, which is entirely destitute of wings. It is of 

 very great rarity in this conntry, having been only previously taken 

 in the Isle of Man. The President had found it in his own grounds 

 at High Kims, Kent, under decaying bark. 



Some observations were mode relative to Mr. Smith's paper on the 

 comparative rarity of males orfcmales in certain speciog of insects ; and 

 Mr. MacLachlan mt ntioned a species of Saw-fly, which might then be 

 taken flying over Fern in the utmost profusion ; but among thousands 

 of females not a single male could be found. The same also was 

 observed respecting a small Beetle. Tomicns villosus. 



In answer to an inquiry by Professor W^estwood as to the existence 

 of any variation in the colours of the lansB of tho different sexes, 

 Mr. Smith observed that he bad at one time thought that the ivory 

 white and safl'ron yellow coloured larvse of the wild Bee, Authophora 

 rotusa, might be of the opposite sexes ; but ho had subsequently 

 reared males and females indiscriminately from each kind of larva. 



The July meeting of the Entomological Society (being the last of 

 the present season according to the new arrangements for discontinu- 

 ing the meetings during the long vacation), was held on tho 1st inst., 

 the President occupying the chair. It was stated that the species of 

 Hair-worm exhibited by Mr. S. Stevens at the preceding meeting, and 

 which had attracted so much attention from its simultaneous appear- 

 ance in vast quantities in different places, proved to be tho Mermis 

 nigrescens. A new part of tho Society's " Transactions ' was laid 

 on the table. Mr. McLachlan exhibited a Spider, Cinitio ferox, en- 

 ti'-ely covered ^rith white mould; also living specimens of a large llat 

 Spider and a Centipede taken on board a ship from Manilla. Mr. 

 Rippert sent for exiibition portions of an Orange tree from Sidney 

 greatly infested by insects, which proved to be a small species of 

 Coccus, entirely covering the bark in the same way as the Beech stems 

 are sometimes covered in this countn*. Mr. Stainton exhibited a 

 minute new species of Moth reared from the Elm. in tho south of 

 France, in the months of Februarj* and March. The Hon. T. De 

 Gray exhibited a rare Eupecilia taken iu Norfolk, and HypercalliA 

 ChrisneiTiana fiom Kew. 



Mr. A. R. Wallace communicated an elaborate memoir on the 

 Cetonidie of the Malayan Archipelago, where the species appear to be 

 comparatively rare, since from thirty localities visited by the writer 

 during his eight years' travels, he had only secuixd eighty-five species. 

 The Longicorn Beetles, on the coutrarj-. were verj- numerous, as ho 

 had taken more than a thousand different kinds. The Cetouiffi are 

 very fond of flying over the Palm tree flowers and Melastoma". Mr. 

 Trimen, who had recently returned from South Africa, had found 

 them not only in flowers, but also lapping up the sap of wounded 

 trees ; and Mr. Kuper had found them lapping up the sap of the Sugar 

 Palm used for making toddy. 



The President communicated a remarkable memoir by Mr. Lowe, 

 of Edinburgh, in opposition to the porthenogenetic theory of the de- 

 velopment of the males of the honey bee by unimpregnatod queens,, 

 detailing a series of experiments, which had resulted in the production 

 of hybrid males, which would not have been the ease unless the eggs 

 from which they had been produced had been fecundated by being 

 brought into contact with a male of a different species. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



"We are pleased to be able to announce that at a meeting of. 

 the Council of the Royal Horticultiual Society, hold at Bury 

 St. Edmunds on Tuesday, it was unanimously resolved to con- 

 fer a Forty-guinea Fellowship on Mr. D. T. Fisn. of Hardwicke,. 

 for his great exertions in connection with the Show, which ia 

 now being held at Bury under the auspices of the Society. 



— — - It will be seen by our report that the prizes offered 

 by the proprietors of this Journal for the two best-an-anged 

 desserts at the Bnry Show of the Royal HcrticuUui-al Society 

 have beeu respectively gained by Mr. Carmichael, gardener to 



