Febrnnry 27, 1868. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICDLTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



169 



thing but good for growth and life, and there might be dust, 

 too, of a finer though not less subtle kind. 



I was greatly admired — how they all thronged around me, 

 father and mother, and little girl ; how they counted up my 

 fully open flowers and growing buds, and looked at me as 

 though they had never seen a Devoniensis in bloom before. 



My httle red house looked poor and mean in the stately 

 mansion, did not suit it, did not harmoniBe with anything 

 about it ; so it was to be taken away, or at least put out of 

 sight. No better way suggested itself than that of slipping the 

 ugly old house inside of a new and handsome one. A strange 

 one was chosen as ever any poor Itose lived in, a kind of vase 

 with red figures sprawling on a black ground, and into this I 

 was put ; but thrust down as much as they could thrust me, 

 there was still a broad cornice of rough red to be seen ; that, of 

 course, would not do, so my house must be thrown away, and 

 I must be removed into the now one. I had strong affections 

 {or the house from which I had not been absent for a long time, 

 and every inch and corner of which was familiar to me ; so the 

 more they tried to hft me out, the more tenaciously I clung. 

 They pulled and dragged, and thrust every way but the right 

 one, to compel me to remove, and at last succeeded, but I was 

 torn out, not taken out, and many of my valuable roots and 

 much good soil were left behind. I was planted in the new 

 house in a rough disorderly manner ; no care was taken of the 

 few roots left me, some were pulled away, others put in any 

 way. Then proud of their work they bid me go on and flourish ; 

 live and be thankful they said, "then left me sure that all 

 would be well, left me in a beautiful new home, much too good 

 for me, and yet not meeting any of my requirements, for it was 

 a house without drainage, and without ventilation, and beyond 

 the reach of the vivifying sunshine, for though my window 

 looked to the south, blind and curtains and plate glass ex- 

 cluded all brightness. I lived, or rather existed, in a perpetual 

 shade. At first I wondered at the long nights and the short 

 days, and wished the sun could find its way in to me. I did 

 my best to live, but found it hard to do so, for every effort I 

 made was checked or hindered. 



My new master did not understand my peculiar nature as my 

 old one had done. My greatest sufferings came to me from 

 his ignorance. I do not believe he cared for me much, for 

 sometimes days would pass and I did not see him ; he never 

 came to give me anything I might need, or to feast his eyes 

 upon my beauty. I was slowly pining away tor the fresh air, 

 and the sweet sunshine, but every inlet, every avenue was 

 tightly closed up, as if poison and plague were floating in the 

 warm breezes. My leaves appeared to lose their tissue, and 

 my blooms their colour. Thinking I was going wrong my 

 master pulled up the blind, and placed me close to the glass 

 in the middle of an August day. That was too much for 

 me, my hold of life was too weak to sustain me beneath its 

 strong heat, so I drooped and drooped, and hung down more and 

 more. Then, thinking I was tliirsty, he flooded me with cold 

 water — I think it must have been from an ice store — house 

 and cellar and surrounding moat were all brim full ; I was 

 chilled, I thought I never should be warm again. A few of my 

 buds slowly opened — they were but dull, faded malformations of 

 my old self. Then I pushed out little green shoots to supply 

 the place of the dead buds ; but they never came to any size, 

 for the aphis, that great enemy of mine, found them, and soon 

 covered them thickly over. So there was nothing left but rnin 

 and death, for relief could not come to me as it did in the 

 cottage, because tobacco was a forbidden evil in ;the newly 

 done-up drawing-room. 



Then my master thought he would try if the out-door air 

 would bring about any change for the better, for there was no 

 doubt I was dying. So he chose a day with a keen wind blow- 

 ing — a north-east wind, from which every living thing turns 

 away in dread ; and he stationed me just where its full force 

 would beat upon me. He did not p.ause a moment to see how 

 it would fare with me when left, but in great fear of the cold 

 from which I had no escape, ran into the house, and I daresay 

 soon forgot me. And no wonder, for the poorest hybrid that 

 ever opened-out a few thin petals and called itself a Rose was 

 lairer and better. 



Next day my master came to look at me. My beautiful green 

 leaves edged with carmine were soft and black with twenty-four 

 hours of battering ; the buds were all gone — there was no hope 

 left for me. He had killed me though he knew it not; would 

 not believe it, probably, if told. He stood over me in amaze- 

 ment, his hands thrust far down into his pockets. He was 

 thinking of the piece of gold he left at the cottage only two 



months before, or of the splendid Rose tree he had made his 

 own by a dear purchase. And then with a " Well, it is over 

 with it ! " he pulled me light up, and with a great swing threw 

 me to the rubbish heap ; and taking up his showy vase, he 

 carried it to the marble stand in the drawing-room in safety — 

 Maod. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETINGS. 



The Anniversary Meeting of this Society was held ou the 27th 

 Jauuarj', wheu Sir John Lubbock retired from the chair, bis period of 

 oflicc having expired ; and Mr. II. \V. Bales was elected President in 

 his stead. An address ua;s delivered by the former gentleman, giving 

 an account of the progress of the science during the past year, and it 

 was ordered to be printed and distributed among the members. 



The February Meeting was beld on the 3rd inst. at Burlington 

 House, when the newly elected President took the chair, and returned 

 thanks to the Society for his election, and nominated Sir John Lub- 

 bock and MesHrs. W. Wilson Saunders and Stainton as Vice-Presi- 

 dents for the ensuing year. Amongst the donations to the Society's 

 library received since the last meeting were the publications of the 

 Nutnral Histoi-y Societies of Vienna and Bremen. 



Mr. Frederick Bond exhibited a lar^e swollen Coleopterous larva 

 found by Mr. Harting within the shell of Helix ericetortim, the inha- 

 bitant of which it had devoured, and which was considered to be the 

 larva of the female of Drilus flavescens ; also the cast skins of a num- 

 ber of the larvie of a species of Dermestes, which had not only de- 

 voured the bladder coverings of a number of jam pots, but had also 

 eaten the jam. He also exhibited a A-en,- curious specimen of the large 

 moth, Lasioeampa Querci, the wings of which exhibited the colours 

 and markings of both sexes mixed in a veiy irregular manner. He 

 also communicated a notice of the attacks of a species of larva upon a 

 living Elan antelope, into the horns of which it had burrowed. Mr. 

 Mcl-iachlan also mentioned an instance in which the timbers of a 

 vessel had been greatly burrowed into by the lanae of a species of 

 Dermestes ; and Professor Westwood mentioned that the same insects, 

 which are ordinaiily animal-feeders, had greatly injured a cargo of 

 cork. 



Dr. Wallace exhibited specimens of the Japanese Silk Moth, Bombyx 

 Yama-mai reared in this country, where they had deposited eggs ; also 

 the B. Pernyi, which feeds on Oak in China ; and the South African 

 Paehypusa effusa, which feeds on Acacia, from which an attempt was 

 being made to obtain silk in that country ; likewise the cocoons of the 

 Liquidambar Moth from China, the larvic of which are used for fur- 

 nishing the silk gut used by tishermen, and of which the perfect moth 

 is not yet known. He also made some obseiTations on the progress of 

 silk culture iilthis connti7, in South Africa, and in Australia. 



Dr. Gray communicated a letter from Dr. George Bennett, of 

 Sydney, containing extracts from Australian newspaper?, giving an 

 account of a sui-prisiug swarm of a moth known under the name of 

 the Bugong, which is eagerly devoured by the natives, and which is a 

 species of the genus Agrotis, A. spina. They had appeared in Sep- 

 tember in such vast swarms, that the houses were hlled with them, 

 and divine seiTJce in the churches had to be suspended. It was men- 

 tioned also as a remarkable fact, that the swarms were almost entirely 

 composed of males. A swarm of butterflies of the Australian form of 

 Cynthia Cardni had also been obsen-ed at sea three hundred miles 

 from laud, the vessel being literally covered with them. 



Mr. Frederick Smith exhibited a number of interesting insects, 

 chietly Hymenopterous, from Brazil, accompanied by notes on their 

 habits communicated by Mr. Peckholt, of Cantogallo. Amongst them 

 were several species of honey Bees of the genus Trigona ; and the 

 writer had distinctly noticed that they swarmed like the European 

 honey Bee, a fact not previously ascertained. A species of Pepsis 

 provisions its cells with Spiders ten times its own size. Tiypoxylon 

 albitarsis builds a loug cylindrical mud nest, which it also provisions 

 with Spiders. A species of Tripeta, called the Bema Fly, deposits its 

 eggs in the skin of various animals, as well as in the nostrils of persona 

 whilst sleeping in exposed situations. 



A heautifu] species of Oryssns Irom the Gold Coast of Africa was 

 exhibited by Mr. Swanzy. and the rare Apatura Ionia from Asia Minor 

 by Mr. Tiimen : the latter insect had been donbtiugly reft-i-red to the 

 genera Pyrameis and Vanessa. Letters were read from Mr. Hewitson 

 and the President relative to the question of priority of the names 

 published in the second part of the voyage of the *"Xovara" by Dr. 

 Felder. 



Mr. McLachlan communicated a monogi*aph on the British species 

 of Neuroptera Planipennia. 



Mr. Daniel Haubury communicated some further notes on the 

 economy of the Coffee Borer of Southern India supplied by Dr. Bidie, 

 who had been appointed by the Madras Government Commissioner for 

 investigating the ravages of the Borer in Madras aud Mysore. 



The Hon. T. De Grey exhibited Opostega Silacieila and Acidalia 

 rubricata from Norfolk, and Hypcrcallia Christiemaua from Kent; 

 and Lord Cawdor sent a specimen of Pholcus phalangioides (Black- 

 walei. from Stack-pole Court, Pembroke. A letter was also readfrom 

 Dr. Signoret, of Paris, requesting specimens of different species of 

 Coccus, especially males, for a monogi'aph on that family of insects 

 on which he is engaged. The specimens should be placed in tubes in 



