208 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ llaroh 25, 1869. 



as announced in the preface, "To furnish comprehensive 

 popular descriptions of those plants which are the most in- 

 teresting from their usefulness, from their beauty, or from the 

 peculiarities of their form and habits, and also to give the 

 physiology, history, and classification of plants in such detail 

 as may be of utility to the general reader, and may lead to a 

 systematic study of botanical science." The volume is pro- 

 fusely illustrated, and the illustrations are beautifully executed. 

 There are forty-five full-page engravings, many of them 

 coloured, and about three hundred woodcuts. The interest 

 and usefulness of the volume are increased by treating of plants 

 in groups, not groups brought together by their botanical 

 characters, but by the uses to which they are applied. Thus 

 there is a chapter on spice plants, another on dye plants, 

 others on medicinal plants, gum plants, garden plants and 

 their culture, and so on. We have no space to spare to give 

 an extract sufficiently lengthy to afford a just estimate of the 

 book, but we assure our readers that if they desire to attain, 

 or to excite in another, a knowledge of plants divested of dry 

 scientific details, this volume will enable them to effect their 

 purpose. It now has a copious index, and though few unusual 

 botanical terms are employed, there is a good glossary of them. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETINGS. 



The second February meeting was held on the 15th nit., the Presi- 

 dent being in the chair, and he nominated Mr. Pascoe as one of the 

 Vice-Presidents for the ensuing year in the place of Mr. Stainton. 



Mr. Butler, of the British Museum, exhibited a hving specimen of 

 a Grasshopper with long antennae Of this a lar^ swarm had ahghted 

 upon a vessel at sea near Whidah, West Africa. It was remarkable 

 for a strong spine on the front of the head and a black face, the 

 remainder of the body being of a delicate green, which after three 

 days' exposure to a heavy wind and storm became of a pale brown 

 colour. The specimen underwent a long fast in the vessel, but has 

 since devoured some cooked meat. 



Professor Westwood exhibited specimens of several parasites belong- 

 ing to the genera Nycteribia and Strebla, which infest species of bats 

 in Ceylon. They had been mounted in Canada balsam by Mr. Stani- 

 forth Green, of Colombo, and formed very beautiful objects for specific 

 examination. 



Mr. Frederick Smith exhibited an extensive series of honey Bees, of 

 the genus Apis, from various parts of the world, with a view to the 

 determination of their specific variation and geographical range, and 

 in the hope of obtaining assistance from the collectors of these insects. 

 It was especially necessary that individuals of the three kinds of which 

 each society is composed (males, females or queens, and workers or 

 abortive females), should be examined, as well in the cells and honey- 

 comb, as the workers, which so greatly preponderate in number in 

 each hive, offer but few characters serving to distinguish the different 

 species from each other. Amongst the species exhibited was an appa- 

 rently new one from Japan, of which Mr. Smith had only seen a single 

 queen. It closely resembled the common Apis melUfica, as did also a 

 species, of which he had obtained individuals of all the sexes from 

 Mr. Woodbury, who had received them from the Cape of Good Hope. 

 The cells of this species are, however, one-tenth smaller than those of 

 oar common honey Bee. 



Mr. Di-uce exhibited a portion of a collection of Butterflies formed 

 in Nicaragua by Mr. Belt, in which there appeared to be ten new 

 species, also an interesting series of Heliconian Butterflies, which, al- 

 though at first sight apparently identical, were on examination found 

 to belong to two distinct sub-famiUes and four different genera. 



Mr. Higgins read the description of a new genus of Prionideons 

 Longieorn Beetles, apparently connecting the Acanthophorites of the 

 old world with the Derobracbites of the new. The species was charac- 

 terised under the name of Ommatomenus sericatus, and was captured 

 near the mouth of the Kiver Niger, West Africa, by Mr. Simpson. 



Mr. McLachlan mentioned the grievous loss which British entomo- 

 logy had sustained in the shipwreck of a vessel containing the whole of 

 the Rev. Mr. Marshall's collection. 



With reference to Mr. Belt's collection of Nicaraguan Butterflies 

 and Beetles, the President stated that whilst the Butterflies of the 

 equator were as splendid in their colours as those of any other part of 

 the world, the Beetles from the same region, for some unexplained 

 canse, could not vie in brilhancy with closely allied species inhabiting 

 the countries about 20^ on either side of the equator, as Nicaragua 

 find Brazil; and Mr. Wallace made the same remark on the Beetles 

 of Borneo as contrasted with those of Java and Pcnang. A discussion 

 on the geographical range of species which mimetxcally imitate each 

 other also took place with reference to Mr. Butler's recently described 

 species of Hcstina, which he now considered to be a native of one of 

 the islands of the Indian Archipelago. 



Mr. Frederick Bond exhibited specimens of the beautiful Motb 

 Heliothis annigera from AustraUa, Java, Brazil, and the Isle of Wight. 

 Mr. McLachlan exhibited Dilar Hornei, a new neuropterons insect 

 with pectinated antennse, taken in North-western India by Mr. Home. 

 The la.it-nauied gentleman showed some slabs formed of the inner 

 bark of the Pinus longifolia, which grows abundantly on the lower 

 slopes of the mountains of Northern India, as a substitute for cork for 

 insect-boxes. Mr. Boyd, on behalf of Mr. Davis, exhibited some very 

 dwarf specimens of the common Tortoiseshell Butterfly, and of the 

 Emperor, Buff-tip, and Poplar Hawk Moths, all reared during the 

 unusually hot season of ISHfS. 



Dr. Wallace exhibited specimens of the beautiful Saturnia Yama- 

 mai, Gut-rin, a native of Japan, bred last year in this country from 

 cocoons of a delicate green colour, the caterpillars of which are equally 

 beautiful, aud feed upon the common Oak, so that there was every 

 prospect of the species being utihsed in this country as a silk-producing 

 insect. He also exhibited Saturnia Peruyi. Gu-'rin. from the far 

 north of China, which also fetds on the Oak, and forms very large 

 cocoons. He had also reared Saturnia Pyretorum, Westw., from a 

 cocoon received by Dr. Hooker from China, as that formed by the 

 larva which is employed by the Chinese iu the manufacture of silk- 

 worm gut used by fisherman, the perfect insect of which had not 

 hitherto been ascertained. The caterpillars of this species feed on 

 Liquidamhar. He also stated that be had received an order from a 

 silk-manufacturer for 500 lbs. of cocoons of the Ailanthus Silk Moth, 

 and should be glad to receive any surplus supply of these cocoons. 

 The price offered was two francs per lb. 



Mr. Jenner Weir exhibited specimens of the larva? of the common 

 Daddy-longlegs, Tipula oleracea. which were swarming in immense 

 quantities on the surface of the giouud iu Greenwich Park and on 

 Blackheath. Mr. Sheppard stated that the grass in Hyde Park had 

 some years ago been greatly destroyed by the same insects, which had 

 been checked by the application of soot sprinkled over the gi'ound, 

 Mr. Bond observed that the same insects were eaten in gi-eat numbers 

 by pheasants, as many as four hundred of the larvie having been found 

 in the crop of a single bird of this kind. 



A paper .vas read by Mr. Charles Waterhouse, containing descrip- 

 tions of a new genus, and several new species, of exotic Lucanidffi. 

 Two vei-y interesting papers, which led to an extended discussion, were 

 also read, " On Insects and Insectivorous Birds, and especially on the 

 Relation between Colour and Edibility of Lepidoptera aud their Cater- 

 pillars," by Mr. J. Jenner Weii- ; and " Remarks upon Certain Cater- 

 pillars, itc, which are I'npalateable to theu- Enemies," by Mr. A. G. 

 Butler. The object of both these papers was to endeavour to ascertain 

 how far the colours and peculiar forms of caterpillars and moths were 

 useful to them individually, in the great "■ struggle for existence,' in 

 protecting them from insectivorous birds and other animals. As a 

 general rule, Mr. Wtir considered that hairy or spined caterpillars, as 

 well as such as are gaily colom-ed and which do not conceal themselves, 

 are rejected by insectivorous birds ; whereas smooth and dull-coloured 

 larva?, which generally conceal themselves during the day, or which 

 assimilate in their colours to the plants ou which they subsist, are 

 greedily devoured. Moths with brilliantly coloured bind wings, such 

 as the common Yellow Underwiuged Noctua, escape from birds by the 

 effect of surprise caused by the sudden display of colour, as well as by 

 the ineffectual attempts of the birds to seize them by the most con- 

 spicuous but at the same time weakest portion of their structure, which 

 gives way. Mr. Butler s observations referred to the rejection by 

 lizards, frogs, aud spiders of vai-ious kinds of caterpillars, especially 

 those of the common Moths Abraxas giossulariata, Halias vauaria, 

 and Zygtena filipendula. which, notwithstanding their very conspicuous- 

 appearance both in the cateii^illar and perfect states, are nevertheless 

 enabled to maintain a numerical preponderance when compared with 

 many other less strongly marked species. 



At the meeting held on March 1st., H. W. Bates, Esq., the Presi- 

 dent, was in the chaii'. Amongst the new entomological works pre- 

 sented to the Society since the last meeting was the first part of the 

 Transactions ("Boiletino") of the Society of Italian Entomologists 

 jnst published at Florence. 



SETTING GEAPES. 



Allow me to advise those of your readers who have a diffi- 

 culty in getting their Grapes to set, to try the experiment of 

 leaving the young shoots untied, and, as far as possible, un- 

 disturbed, until the setting is over, I think they will find that 

 this will make a considerable difference in the matter. Some 

 time ago we tied-in the earliest shoots of some pot Vines, as 

 they were coming in contact with the glass, and in looking 

 over them a short time afterwards, I noticed that the bunches 

 on the untied shoots were coming into bloom before those on 

 the earlier tied-down ones. As earliness was an object, and 

 for the sake of experiment, we left the remainder of the shoots 

 free, and these, without exception, set their fruit first and 

 thickest. Further, we have an old Muscat Vine in our early 

 Hamburgh house here, and as it is generally in bloom about 

 midwinter, it seldom sets its fruit thickly. Acting upon the 

 above hint, however, we this season left the shoots untied 

 until the fruit was ready for thinning, and it has set much 

 more thickly than usual, though the weather at the time was 

 very unfavourable. 



I think bad setting at any time is the result of weakness, 

 and it is probable that the tying-down of the shoots, by check- 



