191 



JODENAL OF flOBTIOULTURfi AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



I March 15, 1877. 



Bouthetn aspect in February, for the purpose of keeping up the 

 supply at that critical period when the antumn-sown crop be- 

 comes exhausted and the regular spring-sown bed is still unDt 

 for use, aa will undoubtedly be the case this year. In such an 

 emergency the quick growth and early maturity of the Qncen 

 render it of especial value. By the time the young Onions are 

 large enough to handle the soil may fairly be expected to be 

 dry enough to enable us to transplant them from the seed 

 bed. This plan is sometimes adopted for the general crop, 

 and very successfully too. It is advisable for its economy, no 

 seed being wasted ; and in such a wet season as this, timely 

 sowing may be done on a specially prepared border while the 

 main quarters are yet wet and sodden. — E. Luckhdest. 



FICUS PARCELLII FRUITING. 



This plant was fruited here in 1875, and since that time 

 young plants have produced fruit profusely, having borne 

 Figs in all stages of growth. This is one of the finest of 

 decorative plants when well grown, and should have a place in 

 every collection of stove plants. — Kichard Nisbet, Aswarhij 

 Park Gardena. 



P.S. — Mr, B, S, Williams of Holloway thowed a plant of it 

 at the Crystal Palace in fruit the same year. 



We have a plant of this which bore sixteen fruit last summer. 

 The fruit is of the size described by your correspondent on 

 page 170, and when ripe are beautifully striped and mottled. 

 We have also some young plants which were struck from the 

 above plant last August which are in fruit now. The fruit 

 pushes from the axils of the leaves, Ficua Cooperii is also in 

 fruit in our stoves.— William CooiiuEK, Superintendent Itoijal 

 Botanic Gardens, Regent's Park. 



INSECT PESTS. 



Mb, AiiCEEw Mcbbav has applied to Government to aid in 

 destroying the insects which destroy our crops, " lie wishes 

 to see some united active steps taken for clearing whole districts 

 at once of pests. If united action could by any means be 

 secured, the work would be simple, A scientific inspection of 

 a district would decide, with regard to a particular pest, the 

 covidition of dsvelopment in which it would be on certain days. 

 Instruction would be given as to the course to be adopted, and 

 if this were simultaneously acted on throughout a district, the 

 pest might be checked if not entirely removed. It is sincerely 

 to be hoped that either some society or the Department will 

 take so important a matter up, 



" The attempt is not new. It has been already tried on a 

 greater or less scale, in various ways, and with more or less 

 success both in this country and on the Continent — the degree 

 of success being almost invariably correspondent to the care 

 taken and the extent of the district subjected to the experiment. 

 Its importance is, moreover, dally becoming better recognised. 

 During the present year the governments of France, Belgium, 

 and America all have had legislative measures on the subject 

 before them. Switzerland has already acted, and Italy, it is 

 understood, is also about to do so. 



" In France the destruction of hurtful insects has been long 

 made compulsory by legal enactment. This attempt has 

 hitherto failed from the nnsuitableness and unworkableness of 

 the law; but a new projet de lo! is now before the Senate which 

 is expected to remedy the defects of the old law. A full account 

 of the whole progress of legislation on the subject in France is 

 given in the proposition de loi on which the above projet de !oi 

 is founded. The " Journal Officielle " (of 28th June last) con- 

 tains these documents, 



"In Belgium a rural code is at this moment in preparation, 

 in which power is taken to compel the destruction of insects, 

 but it is reserved for royal warrant (nrrlie royalr) to direct 

 the measures to be taken and the machinery of action. 



" General and simultaneous voluntary efforts have been tried 

 in many countries by offering prizes for the destruction of the 

 injurious insects, enlisting school children in their search, Ac, 

 and where this has been done under the auspices of some 

 central authority it has had good reBulte, For instance, in 

 18(58, which was a very bad year for cockchafers on the Conti- 

 nent, the central Agricultural Society of Saxony organised a 

 scheme under which they made an energetic appeal to the 

 laud-owners, magistrates, manufacturers, &t., begging them to 

 assist in getting the insects collected, and under that appeal 

 vast numbers wore doetroyed. Tho diliiculty, however, has 



usually been to get a central authority of sufficient weight and 

 authority and extent of influence to charge itself with the 

 task. 



"He would humbly submit that some such permissive measure 

 conducted under the authority and direction of the Government 

 would be best suited to the requirements of this country. Com- 

 pulsory legislation is probably premature, and at any rate could 

 be more effectively demanded if the permissive action had been 

 tried and failed. A central directing authority is absolutely 

 essential ; if the experiment is to be tried let us use our best 

 means. 



" IIo would suggest that next year the attempt should be 

 made in two or three counties to begin with. Cheshire, Lan- 

 cashire, and Derbyshire have suffered greatly for some years 

 past from the Onion and Carrot flies. Let tho diminution or 

 extirpation of these flies iu these counties be the first experi- 

 ment, A trial to that extent would neither be troublesome 

 nor costly, and it would to a certain extent serve as a test and 

 guide for further proceedings. All that would be necessary 

 would be the circulation iu these counties through the clergy, 

 men, schoolmasters, municipal authorities, and local papers, 

 of an appeal urging every one to pull up and burn his infected 

 plants (which are easily distinguished) on a particular day 

 about a certain date, and to get the parochial authorities to 

 take some trouble to see that this is done. Some brief lectures 

 or explanations of what is wanted should also be given iu as 

 many parts of tho counties as possible a few weeks previously. 



"Two or three years' perseverance iu such a course should 

 gradually diminish the numbers of the insects ; and tho process, 

 if successful, should each year be extended toother insects and 

 other counties until the whole kingdom is embraced." 



GLADIOLUS DISEASE. 

 Anyone who thinks for himself and has the courage of his 

 opinions, is sure at some time or other to differ from those 

 who are engaged in the same pursuits as himself, and so 

 although Mr. ICelway grows Gladioli by the acre, and I only 

 by the hundred, we liave never been able to agree on the 

 subject on which he has written. I hope to discuss it by-and- 

 by when I have more leisure, but I must ask of him kindly to 

 say where in my little book on the subject I have said that it 

 is contngious ? I fancy I know the passage which has led him 

 to this conclusion. At page 13 I have said, "I some little 

 time back submitted some bulbs of Gladiolus to our most 

 eminent vegetable physiologist, the Eev. M. J. Berkeley, who 

 said it was a disease similar to that which attacks Crocus 

 corms, and is described in the Horticultural Society's Trans- 

 actions as an ulceration of the corm, similar to that which 

 takes place in the Potato. No cause is there assigned for it. 

 It is not fungus, although fungi come afterwards. It is con- 

 tagious." All of which are Mr. Berkeley's words, not mine, 

 and have reference to the Crocus, and not to the Gladiolus, — 

 D.,Dcni, 



NEW BOOKS. 



Text-hook of Structural and Pliysiologieal Polainj. By Otto 

 W. Thomi^. Translated and EditedbyA. W. Bennett, M.A., 

 &c. Longmans. 1877. Small 8vo., pp. ix. and 479, with 

 copious illustrations. 

 A Manual of Botani/ (Anatomical and Physiological) for the 

 Use of Students. 73;/ B.Brown, M.A., Ph. D, Ac, Blackwood. 

 1871, 8vo., pp. xviii. and 614, with copious illustrations. 

 It has long been remarked by examiners in botany that there 

 must in general be some great fault in the mode of teaching, 

 or students could not go up to a competitive examination so 

 utterly ignorant of everything in the shape of practical know- 

 ledge. From the time when Professors Henslow and LindUy 

 first commenced examining at the University of London 

 great stress has always been laid upon this part of the exami- 

 nation, but, notwithstanding a continued practice of many 

 years following out their view, examiners still make the sama 

 complaint. Students go up with a mass of book-work, such 

 as it is ; but if a common Hyacinth, Tulip, or Primrose is pnt 

 into their hands, it has sometimes happened that not one of 

 these common plants was recognised. Even a Primrose on the 

 river's brim was not a Primrose to them ; or, if known, it was 

 nothing save a yellow Primroso. Now, the cause of all this 

 was believed to be an essential fault in the greater part of the 

 maunals placed into the hands of students, and cousequentlya 

 misapprehension on the part of instructors of the proper way 



