February 28, 1867. ] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



im 



PORTRAITS OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, AND 

 FRUITS. 



Tapeikotes Carolin.'e (Empress Charlotte's Tapeinotes). — 

 Nat. ord., Gesneracea;. Linn., Didynamia Angiospermia. Na- 

 tive of Brazil, and named after the Empress of Mexico. Intro- 

 duced by Mr. Bull, Chelsea. Stove shrub. Flowers -white. 

 Leaves crimson beneath. — (Bot. Ma;/., 5G23.) 



ANGR.Ecnii ciTitATUM (Oitron-yellow Augnecum). — Nat. ord. 

 Orohidaceie. Linn., Gynandria Blonandria. Native of Mada- 

 gascar. Introduced by Messrs. Veitch. Flowers very pale 

 citron colour.— (Und., t. 5624.) 



Impatiens latifolia (Broad-leaved Cingalese Balsam). — • 

 Nat. ord., Balsamineas. Linn., Pentandria Monog}'nia. Native 

 of Ceylon jungles. Flowers pale purple. — {Ibid., t. .502.5.) 



CiiAvijA FULGEKS (BriUiant-flowered Clavija). — Nat. ord., 

 Myrsineip. 7^i;i)i., Pentandria Monogynia. Native probably of 

 Lima. Flowers scarlet with yellow centres. — (Il>id., t. 5(326.) 



MESOsriNiDiDM s.iNGUiNEUM (Rosy Mesospinidiuni). — Nat. 

 ord., Orchidaceoe. Linn., Gynandria Monandria. Native of 

 Peruvian and Quitensian Andes. Flowers pale rose-coloured. — 

 (Ibid., t. 5627.) 



Barleeia GiEsoNi (Dr. Gibson's Barleria). — Nat. ord., Aoan- 

 thaoese. it hh., Diandria Monogynia. Native of Central India. 

 Flowers dull pale purple.— (/fcii/.", t. 5628.) 



LiLiuM n,EM.iTocHiionM (Blood-red Lily). — Very dark crim- 

 son, with stripes still darker. Flowers very large. Introduced 

 from Japan by M. Verschaffelt. — {L' Illustration Horticole, 

 p. 503.) 



Gladioluses. — Impiratrice FAujfnie. — Large and beautiful ; 

 white streaked with rose, and the side segments entirely rose. 

 Heine Victoria. — White streaked with crimson. Jolm Waterer. 

 — Scarlet streaked with white. Raised by M. Souohet, head 

 gardener at the palace of Fontainbleau. — (Ibid., p. 504.) 



Ehododendeon margixato-punct-vtum. — Raised by M. Ver- 

 schaffelt. Ivory white spotted with crimson. — (Ibid., p. 505.) 



Mtosotis alpestris. — " Myosotii rupicola — or alpc.':tris, for 

 the two names are synonymous — is a dwarf perennial, found in 

 a few elevated northern localities in England and Scotland, but 

 always exceedingly rare. We are indebted to Messrs. Back- 

 bouse & Son. of York, who exhibited plants at South Ken- 

 sington in 1865, for the opportunity of figuring so charming a 

 group of it. Mr. J. Backhouse, jun., writing from Teesdale on 

 the 15th of May in that year, observes, ' The wild Teesdale 

 locality of our M. rupicola was buried in snow apparently a foot 

 thick, extending 500 feet down the sides of the mountain 

 (IVIicklefell), and extending for ten miles along the summit 

 ridges, only two days ago ! ' and he adds that the M. alpi- 

 oola of their catalogue of 1861 is a synonym, as albo is the 

 M. alpestris of Hooker and Babington ; but he goes on to say, 

 ' It is certainly not the continental alpestris, which I believe is 

 only a mountain form of sylvatica.' The dwarf habit and large 

 richly-coloured llowers of this plant render it most ornamental 

 either for moist rockwork with a north aspect, or for the alpine 

 frame, and in such situations it succeeds very well, the prin- 

 cipal feature in its treatment being to prevent its becomiug too 

 rapidly excited by excess of heat. What it requires is a cold, 

 moist situation, where it may remain at rest ail the winter." — 

 (Florist a)id Pomolorjist, vi., 21.) 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The first meetiug of tLis Society during the present month was held 

 on the 4th inst., the chair being ocL-npied by Professor Westwood. 

 The minutes of the anniversary meeting held on the fourth Monday in 

 the preceding month were confirmed, at which meeting Sir John 

 Lubbock had been re-elected as President, and Mr. Dunning as Secre- 

 tary, Dr. Sharp having also been elected as joint Secretary in the 

 place of Mr. Kdwin Shepherd resigned. The annual prize of five 

 guineas offered by the Council for the best memoir on some beneficial 

 or injurious species of insect, had been for the second time awarded 

 to Dr. Wallace, of Colchester, for his memoir on the Oak-feeding 

 Siltworm of Japan (Satuniia Yama-mai), and the President de- 

 livered his annual address, which was ordered to be published and dis- 

 tributed among the members at the present meeting. The President, 

 by letter, nominated Professor Westwood, Mr. F. Smith, and Mr. 

 Stainton, as Vice-Presidents for the ensuing year. 



The Secretary announced that the Council had again renewed the 

 offer of two prizes of five guineas each, for the best memoii's on the 

 anatomy, economy, or habits of any insect or gi-otip of insr-cts espe- 

 cially serviceable or obnoxious to mankind. The memoirs to be sent 

 to the Secretary, indorsed with mottoes, on or before the 30th of No- 

 Tember ne-it, when they will be referred to a committee to decide upon 

 fthoir merits. 



Mr. F. Bond exhibited four specimens of a Laaiocampa, reared by 

 Mr. Mitford, from golden-coloured caterpillars taken on the Kentish 

 coast, and which fed upon Clover and Grass. The perfect Moths 

 differed so much from L. Trifolii, as to lead to the belief that they 

 belonged to a distinct species. Also, a singular variety of Dianthcecia 

 capsicola from York, and four curious monstrosities oeeuning in the 

 genua Argynnis. the wings of these Fritillary Butterilieg being un- 

 equally developed. He observed with refp.rence to the habit of the Hum- • 

 miug-bird Hawk Moth, of fiyiug about sunny walls and cliffs, that the 

 object was to find out some convenient crevice in which it coald take its 

 midday siesta, the insect having two periods of flight in a day. This 

 statement was confirmed by Dr. Wallace, who had found the insect 

 apparently asleep and inert at noon in a hollow shell, which it had 

 selected for its retreat. 



The Chairman exhibited a very small and curious variety of Ma- 

 mestra Brassies, captured by Mr. Briggs, of St. JoJxn's College, 

 Oxford ; and Mr. lauson, a collection of Coleoptera, collected in Van- 

 couver's Island. Amongst the species were some interesting Beetles, 

 especially a Lougicorn, closely allied to the curious Australian genua 

 Hesthesis. 



Mr. Q. S. Saunders exhibited the nest of a social caterpillar, formed 

 among the leaves of a species of Zeyhera, from the prorince of San 

 Paulo, Brazil. The nest was of a strong texture, and nearly a foot- 

 loug. 



Dr. Wallace mentioned that he had recently obseiwed in Mr. Bree's 

 collection, a specimen of Platypteryx sicula, believed to have been cap- 

 tured by the latter gentleman near Stowmarket. He also exhibited a 

 cocoon of Saturnia Yama-mai, bred in England, together with a very 

 remarkable series of cocoons and perfect insects of the Ailanthns 

 Silk Moth, reared by himself, as well as specimens of the silk obtained 

 by carding from the latter species, accompanied by a series of observa- 

 tions made during bis experiments on that insect in 186G. Among the 

 specimens exhibited were cocoons which had been spun at the end of 

 1805, but from which the Moth had not yet emerged, having remained 

 nearly a year and a half in the chrysalis state ; also, double cocoons 

 spun by two caterpillars conjointly. He had reared move than four 

 thousand of the Moths during the past year, and had observed that 

 the cocoons kept in the darkest places produced the brightest-colonred 

 Bloths. He was inclined to believe that S. Guerinii, and S. Ricini, were 

 only local varieties of S. Cynthia. He also mentioned that the eggs 

 of this Moth make a distinct, although slight, clicking sound often re- 

 peated. 



Mr. Wormold exhibited a collection of insects sent from Shanghai 

 by Mr. W. Pryer, most of which were almost identical with British 

 species. It included, however, a new wild Silk Moth nearly akin to 

 Eombyx Huttoni, Westw. 



Mr. J. Gould exhibited Hylurgus pinipcrda, a small wood-boring 

 Beetle, which was committing great ravages on Pinus insignis in 

 Lord Falmouth's park, in Cornwall. 



Mr. C. A. Wilson, of Adelaide, communicated a farther series of 

 notes on the Buprestiua' of South Australia, and on Cerapterusj 

 MacLeaii, and Calosoma Curtisii. 



THE INTENSE COLD AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 

 IN SHROPSHIRE AND CORNWALL. 



CiiurvCH Aston, Salop. — I send you the result of my obser- 

 vations on the degree of cold and its effect in this neighbour- 

 hood (Newport, Salop). Its greatest intensity was in the night 

 of Thursday, January 4th, when my self-registering thermo- 

 meter in the shade, against a wall 5 feet from the ground, in- 

 dicated 6°, or 26° of frost ; hut I am inclined to think that the 

 position of the instrument in the north-west angle, formed by 

 a wall and building adjoining, caused it to register higher than 

 it should have done. At Chet-vynd Park, within two miles, I 

 am told that the thermometer was at zero. 



The frost commenced here with snow on the last day of the 

 old year ; it continued until the 6th of January without severity, 

 except on the 3rd and 4th. The thaw continued from Sunday, 

 6th, to Thui'sday, 10th, the temperature during this interval 

 rising as high as from 45" to 50°. Frost commenced again 

 on the above date, and continued thirteen days — that is, ta 

 W^ednesday, the 23rd. During this interval we had no cold BO 

 intense as in the first frost, the lowest degree of cold registered 

 here being 15° in the night of the 14th; but during most of' 

 this time the thermometer ranged between 20° b^^ night and 

 29° by day. I need scarcely say that the frost was accompanied 

 with a considerable fall of snow in this, as, I suppose, in every 

 other count}'. We had snow on December 31>it and January 

 1st equivalent to about a qiiarter of an inch of rain, as registered 

 by my rain-gauge. On the 10th, 11th, and 12th we had snow 

 equivalent to about one-fifth of an inch of rainfall, and on the 

 night of the 22ud that storm of sleet or snow and rain together, 

 which seems to have been so general throughout the country, 



Aa regards the effects of this frost, as far as we can judge at 

 present they do not seem so disastrous as might have been 



