May 12, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



been tried and approved of by many practical men ; it is used in the 

 gardens of the Horticnltnral Society at Chiswick, and is reported from 

 thence as " being the quietest, most simple, and most efficient mower 

 ever nsed." In Battersea Park, also, it is nBed and spoken well of, in 

 many of the London squares, and in the Royal Gardens at Buckingham 

 Palace, &c. 



My own experience of the Archimedean mower is a practical one. 

 It is very evident that Mr. Featherstone, although he appears generally 

 well posted up about mowers, is entirely without experience with re- 

 spect to the Archimedean. For his information I beg to say that the 

 " principle " he tells about, " of low speed of cylinder," is wrong, and 

 the Archimedean is then of course right. I do not know how many 

 times it may revolve in a yard, but the cut of the grass is perfect. And 

 next to answer his " whole question," Which of the different machines 

 cuts the grass with the least labour ? I say the Archimedean. With 

 far less exertion a man will cut double the extent in the same time 

 that he can with any other, and if the operator likes to exert himself 

 he will cut more than four times as much. The reasons are obvious : 

 there are no stoppages to empty the grass box or for any other pur- 

 pose, which take up a great portion of the time with our ordinary 

 mowers. It is not so much the difference of actual speed of the mail 

 train that makes it reach its destination so much sooner than the 

 parliamentary, which stops at every station, as the stoppages. If the 

 lawn is cut regularly once a-week or so, as it should be, no sweeping- 

 np is at all necessary, but if it is allowed to get long and rough the 

 Archimedean will cut it down, which none of our English mowers 

 can. "But what about the grass collecting?" says Mr. Feather- 

 stone. Well, the machine never clogs, and it will pick up the fallen 

 grass and cut it up like chaff ; and, as I said, if it does not suit to let 

 it lie, it is easy to sweep it up, and there is time to do it and to spare. 

 I do not recommend anyone to have his lawns so untidy as to require 

 this manipulation. I alluded to it simply as a feature. Bad policy 

 it no doubt is to allow the grass to grow so long before cutting ; it is, 

 however, frequently the case. A mower, then, which will cut grass in 

 every condition, fine or coarse, short or long, is surely superior to that 

 which will only cut it in certain conditions, like our common English 

 lawn mowers ; and these conditions are sufficiently well known, so 

 that I commit no mistake in stating that our lawns must be good and 

 kept well if they are kept at all by an English lawn mower. 



I prefer Green's or Shanks's for verges, but for general work I prefer 

 the Archimedean. It will do more work than any other, and cut the 

 grass equally well ; it will cut over very uneven ground and very rough 

 grass ; it will cut the grass when wet as well as when it is dry ; it is 

 remarkably easy to work ; and, lastly, the simplicity of its construc- 

 tion renders it but little liable to get out of repair. All that is re- 

 quired is to keep it clean and oiled. — Akchahbaud. 



POTATO DIBBLE. 



I have enclosed a sketch of an improved Potato dibble, which 

 I have had in use for the last four years, by the aid of which I 

 can plant Potatoes at more than doable the rate I can by using 

 an ordinary dibble. It may be useful to some of our gardening 



friends. The manner of using it is as follows :— The foot is 

 placed between the uprights to force the dibble into the ground, 

 at the same time laying hold of the two cross handles at the top 



extension gives the distance from one hole to the next.- 

 Cooke (English Mechanic and Mirror of Science.) 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE PEAR TREE. 



No. 1. 

 Recently turning over the pages of a French work relative 

 to fruit trees and their enemies, I was startled by reading a 

 list of fifty-seven insects that are found upon the Pear tree. 

 However, upon examining the list of these visitants it was in 

 some degree consolatory to find that many of the fifty-seven 

 are not known to injure the tree's produce, and the visits of 

 some are so rare as to need no consideration. Yet when all 

 these deductions are made, there remain about twenty-six ma- 

 rauders whose visits are sufficiently frequent and injurious to 

 deserve special recognition. I will commence with the 

 lepidoptera. 

 Tinea Clerckella — HeribeTa Clebckella — Pear-tree 

 Blister Moth. — Every gardener must have observed the leaves 

 of his Pear trees, especially those of the Chaumontel, blotched 

 with dark brown spots in the autumn. I had a standard tree 

 of this variety in Essex that annually was thus injured, whilst 

 a Swan's Egg and an Easter Bergamot close by were compa- 

 ratively untouched. These brown blotches are caused by the 

 caterpillars, or grubs, of a very Bniall Moth called the Pear-tree 

 Blister Moth. 



The caterpillars of this Moth belong to a family called 

 " miners," on account of their working beneath the skin of the 

 leaves they attack, feeding only on their pulp. The red spots 

 often seen on the leaves of the Vine and Turnip are caused by 

 grubs of this habit. On opening one of the brown blisters on 

 the Pear-tree leaf, a small, active, shining grub will be found, 

 fleshy, yellowish white, hairy, and with sixteen black feet ; the 

 head and a line down the 

 back are brown. When 

 thus disturbed, the grub 

 lets itself down towards 

 the ground by a silken 

 thread. It forms its co- 

 coon in the earth, or be- 

 neath some withered leaf 

 upon its surface. From 

 this cocoon the Moth 

 comes forth chiefly dur- 

 ing May, though it has been observed at the beginning of April. 

 In the drawing the grub and Moth are represented of their 

 natural size, and the Moth magnified. The upper wings are 

 orange, with a silvery spot on its outer edge, and a mingling of 

 black, lilac, and pink on the inner angle ; an orange feathery 

 mark and four black lines mark their upper surface, and they 

 have a white fringe around them. The hind wings are narrow, 

 lead-coloured, and fringed. Mr. Knight's Pear trees were so 

 injured by their grubs that he at one time resolved to remove 

 them. The best mode of prevention seems to be to collect the 

 leaves, and to pare off about an inch of the surface round each 

 tree in the autumn, and to burn them. — G. 



THE MELBOURNE BOTANICAL GARDENS. 



The amphitheatre -like aspect of the gardens, as they are approached 

 from the river front, at once arrests the eye, and they appear lovely 

 in the extreme — towering Eucalypti, spiral Cypresses, and sturdy 

 Oaks with their light green foliage, as well as the Callitris, or native 

 Pines, with their long pendent shoots, and Weeping Willows, together 

 with the English Elm trees, blending harmoniously with the dark 

 green cf the indigenous Melaleuca and sombre hue of the Aleppo 

 Pine, all intermingling with the many intermediate shades of foliage, 

 and the flowers of trees and shrubs, with, in addition, the varied 

 gradations of forest scenery all strewn by Nature's own bounteous 

 hand ; although man has sadly marred much of what otherwise 

 could have been rendered, by a little artistic skill, a public garden 

 alike worthy of the name and fame of the metropolis of the southern 

 hemisphere. The lagoon is in fiDe keeping with the surrounding 

 view — in fact, without such a desideratum the landscape would be 

 shorn of one of its most interesting and picturesque features. That 

 Bheet of water appears to the eye to be about twelve acres in extent, 

 and is fringed in many parts with the beautiful Lily of the Nile 

 (Calla rethiopiea). The few islands dotted about could have been 

 rendered much more effective if clothed with appropriate vegetation. 



Pursuing our course along the base of the Pine grove on the right, 

 where basaltic boulders line the winding path, economic plants of 



to guide it. They also serve to pull it up again. The lateral •> many species pleasingly adora the sloping embankment towards the 



