218 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I Seittember 19, 1S67. 



silted mixture applied to them, and returned back to their 

 shady quarters until root-action commences, when they may 

 be again exposed to light and air by degrees, taking great care 

 not to allow them to get dry at the roots, else it may prove all 



labour in vain. Ultimately, when the plants may be considered 

 hardened enough, they may be placed by the side of their 

 older brethren and receive the same attention. — A. Kerr (in 

 Gardener.) 



WOOD-BORING CATERPILLAR. 





" A Sdbsckibeb " would be glad if the Editors could give any 

 account of a monstrous caterpillar, which annually during 

 this month eats its way out of the trunk of an Oak tree in the 

 Isle of Wight, as if the eggs were inserted in the heart of the 

 tree. Its length is from 2J to 3 inches, its colour black with 

 orange spots, and orange all along the abdomen, and about the 

 thickness of one's finger. Having had one put in a small box 

 made of half- inch deal it ate its way nearly through it ; but, as I 

 suppose, from the want of nutriment in the dry deal it died, and 

 has since been lost. I enclose some of the chips it made in the 

 box. It is evitleutly causing the death of the tree out of which 

 it burrows. 



[We conclude that it is the caterpillar of the Goat Moth, 

 CossuB ligniperda, of which we published the following some 

 years since. A cater- 

 pillar of this Cossus, 

 placed in a box, ate not 

 only through the bot- 

 tom of the box, but 

 through the slab of the 

 mahogany side-board 

 on which the box was 

 placed : — 



" The caterpillar of 

 the Goat Moth, both of 

 which are represented 

 in our drawing of the 

 natural size, is most 

 destructive to the wood 

 of fruit trees, though 

 theEim, Oak, Willow, 

 Poplar, and Walnut 

 also, are liable to its 

 attacks. It is the Cos- 

 bus ligniperda of some 

 naturalists, and the 

 Bombyx and Xyleutes 

 oossus of others. The caterpillar often measures full 4 inches 

 in length, is smooth and shining, beset only here and 

 there with single short hairs. It is dajk red on the back, 

 and the breatliing-holes situated at both sides are of the 

 same colour. The sides and lower part of the body are flesh- 

 coloured ; the head is black, the first segement also marked 

 with black above. After remaining more than two years in 

 the larva state, and casting its skin eight times, the cater- 

 pillar becomes of a light ochrish-yellow hue, shortly before 

 becoming a chrysalis, which usually takes place in spring. 



when it make a strong cocoons of chips of wood and small 

 pieces of bark, which it has gnawed off. The chrysalis is 

 yellow, and the segments are deeply indented and capable of 

 much extension ; its back is furnished with strong pointed 

 spines, sometimes of a reddish brown colour. The cocoon 

 is situated immediately within the opening in the tree, so 

 that the pupa when arrived at maturity can press itself half 

 out of the hole when the shell bursts, and the moth comes 

 forth usually in the month of June or July, after having re- 

 posed in the pupa state for an indefinite time. When at rest 

 the wings are folded together over the back in the form of a 

 roof ; it sits quietly in the day time on the stems of trees, and 

 is difficult to be distinguished on account of its grey colour. 

 Its wings measure, from one tip to the other, nearly 3 inches, 



and many specimenti 

 more than this ; the 

 female is usually larger 

 than the male. The fore 

 wings are ashy white, 

 clouded with brown, 

 especially across the 

 middle, and marked 

 with very numerous 

 streaks like net work ; 

 the hind wings are 

 brown. Thorax ochrish 

 in front, pale in the 

 middle, with a black 

 bar behind. The fe- 

 male is provided with 

 a strong egg-depositor, 

 ^vith which she intro- 

 duces her eggs into the 

 bark of the tree — often 

 one thousand in nuna- 

 |. ber ; the young cater- 



pillars living at first in 

 and between the outer and inner baik, and afterwards, when 

 they are stronger, penetrating into the wood. When the ex- 

 istence of one of these creatures is detected in a trunk, by its 

 excrement, relief comes too late for the tree, even if we are able 

 to kill the caterpillar, the mischief beingalready done. Notwith- 

 standing this, the caterpillar should never be left undisturbed, 

 and an attempt fhould be made to reach it by enlarging the open- 

 ing with a garden knife, or endeavouring to kill it by thrusting 

 a piece of pointed wire up the hole. II is called the Goat 

 Moth from the peculiar smell both of the insect and its larva." | 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 

 The meeting of the Royal Association of Science in 1868 

 is fixed to be at Norwich, under the presidentship of Dr. 

 Hooker. This is a just tribute to him, and to that birth- 

 place of botanists. 



• The Editor of the "Gardeners' Tear Book" is now 



engaged in the preparation of next year's edition, and will be 

 obliged by gardeners forwarding to him, at the oflice of this 

 Journal, any additions or corrections as early as possible, to 

 insure insertion. 



WORK FOR THE WEEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



Cabhapes, the young plants in beds should be looked over, 

 and the most forward transplanted or pricked out forthwith. 

 Celery, continue to earth up. It is a good plan to sow fresh 

 slaked quicklime through the beds or rows immediately pre- 

 Tions to the first earthing-up. We have found by experience 

 that the Celery-bed is the best slug trap in the garden, a double 

 operation as it were iu performed, and a vast amount of these 



pests destroyed. The lime, however, must not be applied hot, 

 and it must be shaken in carefully into the heart of the plant, 

 not in coarse lumps. Lrttnccs, keep tying-up autumn. Po- 

 tatoes, the taking up of the crop will require to be done with 

 more than usual care. Separation must be made of the per- 

 fectly sound, the doubtful, and the bad. The former to be 

 placed where they are to remain, secured from the access of 

 frost and wet. Those that are doubtful had better belaid where 

 they can be readily inspected. The effect of washiug them with 

 lime water should be tried. Tvmatoef, expose the iruit to the 

 sun. 



FHtllT GAUDEN. 



Of all the operations necessary to promote fruilfulness, the 

 general stopping of fruit trees is, perhaps, the most necessary, 

 yet the most neglected. It does appear strange that so much 

 should be said about modes of pruning (dignified by the title of 

 systems), when the trees are stripped of their leaves, whilst 

 even by some of these systematists they are shamefully neg- 

 lected at the very period when the rivalry of conteuiUng shoots, 

 and the darkness occasioned by watery breastwood, are so very 

 prejudicial to the welfare of the true bearing shoots or spurs. 

 Hence, in the spring, we hear so many complaints of the trees 



