Marcli 19, 1868. 1 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



223 



of pomuls were thus at stake, and many lives. With reference to tealr, 

 it was one of the most durnble find tiuest of woods for ship-building, 

 and how was it that dry rot attacked it'.' He Iiolieved that a great 

 deal lay in tho teak wood, when cut, not being properly seasoned and 

 full of essential oil ; but how dry rot ciniUl jtLMietnito into the pores 

 we did not know. We know that when a lot of timber is put together 

 in an unseasoned state dry rot is sure to follow, and now in ship- 

 bailding large aii* holes are left to prevent it ; but so long as there is 

 any dampness in timber, so long is there u tendency to dry rot. 



Mr. Berkeley remarked that if any structure was made of unseasoned 

 timber and painted when full of sap, it was sure to be attacked with 

 diy rot. He would just add that Dendrobium linlleriunum is the 

 Bame as D.gnitiosissimum, which was published iu Jiiftaui'^che Zuiuntj 

 in 1865. 



CARTER'S ASH-TOP FLUKE POTATO. 

 We observe your correspoudeut, " D,'s," remarks (page 182), 

 respecting the above Potato, and have no doubt some of the 

 mauy of our customers v?ho have given it a trial will fully 

 endorse the high character we have given it. "We continue to 

 receive the most encoura.'jiDg reports of its excellence, whilst 

 the rapidly increasing demand, notwithstanding the price being 

 the same as last season, is to us the most substantial proof of 

 its merits. Judging from your correspondent's general report, 

 we should be inclined to surmise that his trial must have been 

 under circumstances particularly unfavourable for Potato crops, 

 as old kinds of established repute are condemned iu common 

 with tho Ash-top Fluke. — James Carter & Co. 



NEW BOOKS. 

 A History of Variegated Zonal Pelargoniums, u-lth Practieal 



HtJits for their Production, Propagation, and Cultivation. 



By Peter Grieve. 



Tms little volume contains all that is known about its sub- 

 ject, and as its author has been engaged in raising Variegated 

 Pelargoniums ever since 1843, when Mr. Eingborn produced 

 Flower of the Day, he is entitled to the place of a first authority. 

 Ho says — 



*' It was in 1S53 or 1854, that my attention was first directed to this 

 subject. By fertilising blooms of Plower of the Day witli poUen taken 

 from the well-known Tom Thumb, I succeeded iu raising a variety 

 which was named Culford Beauty. Tliis was succeeded by several 

 sorts of more or less merit, conspicuous amongst which was one called 

 liaiubow, which proved the most vigorous, and possibly the best of the 

 Bilver-variegated Zouals that had up to that time been introduced. 

 This sort, however, fine as it was, was at last superseded by the more 

 beautiful variety known as Italia Vnita, which, up to the present time, 

 is, perhaps, not surpassed by any other silver-edged variety. 



*■• To return to the variety named Kambow, this variety was of a 

 somewhat remarkable origin. One of my seedlings of that period was 

 produced by an old, dark-zoned variety called Cottage Maid, which 

 had been fertilised by the pollen of Kinghorn's Attraction ; and in 

 the result, this one plant yielded me three distinct varieties — viz., 

 Rainbow, a silver- variegated Zonal ; Phnpress of the French, a 

 marbled-stemmed variety, in the way of Cerise Unique ; and a dark- 

 zoned, strong-growing sort, which was named Emperor of the French, 

 and which, like its great prototype or namesake, appeared destined to 

 play a vei-y important part in the development of its race, inasmuch 

 as it was instrumental lu originating the now famous gi'oup of Golden 

 A'^ariegated Zonal, or Golden Tricolor-leaved varieties, which at that 

 time had not been heard of, and, in fact, were not then in existence. 



'■ About this time, 1855, it occurred to me that, considering the 

 great advance that had been made in the way of improving the silver- 

 margined varieties of the Zonal Pelargonium, something similar might 

 possibly be effected with the golden-margined sorts, or rather sort, for 

 at that period I believe Golden Chain was the only yellow-margined 

 variety in existence. As to tho date of the origin of this vax-iety, there 

 may possibly be some uncertainty ; but that it is a sport from Pelar- 

 gonium inquinans I think there can be Uttle reason to doubt. In a 

 very interesting paper communicated to the Koyal Horticultural So- 

 ciety by Mr. Wills, of Huntroyde, the origin of this variety is put at 

 about 1344. But I am inclined to think that it originated long pre- 

 vious to this date, for I have been informed that the late N. S. 

 Hodson, Esq., of the Botanic Garden, Bnry St. Edmunds, was in 

 possession of a somewhat large and apparently old plant of this variety 

 as early as the year 18'2"2 or 1823. I can myself testify that about 

 the year 1847 or 1848, the late Mr. D. Beaton had commenced to 

 use it with excellent effect as a bedding plant, at Shrubland, near 

 Ipswich. 



'■■ In the summer of 1855 1 fertiUsed blooms of the old variety named 

 Cottage Maid with pollen taken from Golden Chain, and the result of 

 this cross was two distinct varieties, both of them improvements upon 

 their pollen parent. They were named respct-tivL-ly Golden Tom 

 Thumb, and Golden Cerise Unique. During tho following summer, 



blooms of the Emperor of tho French wero fertilised by the pollen of 

 Golden Tom Thumb, and this produced a variety which was named 

 Gold Pheasant, a decided improvement upon its pollen parent, and 

 inferior only to Mrs. roUock. which last, together witli Sunset, were 

 the produce of tho two foiluwing years, and were obtained between 

 Emperor of the French and tkild Pheasant, making tho latter the 

 pollen parent. Again, using Emperor of the French and some similarly 

 zoned seedling varieties as the seed-bearing pai*ents, and using pollen 

 taken from Mrs. Pollock and Sunset, the result wfts the production of 

 the beautiful varieties named Lucy Grieve, Mrs. Benyon, Lady 

 CuUum, &c." 



Coleoptera Hesperidumj being an Enunieratio7i of the Coleop- 

 terous Insects of the Cape Verde Archipelago. By T. Yeenon 

 AVoLLASTON, &c. London : John Van Voorst. 

 Tnis contains not merely an enumeration but a description 



of the species of Coleoptera of the Cajie de Verde Islands. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S ^lEETINGS. 



The second Meeting in Februaiy was held at Burlington House, 

 the President, W. H. Bates, Esq.. being in the chair. 



Mr. MacLachlan exhibited a living specimen of the Stag Beetle, 

 Lucanus cervns, together with the earthen cocoon in which it had 

 receutlv been found, which also contained the cast-off skins of the 

 larva and pupa states. 



Mr. lanson, on behalf of Mr. Latham, exhibited the nest of a social 

 species of Bombyx (Anaphe reticulata, Walker), from Natal, enclosing 

 a gi-eat number of hard cocoons packed closely together, enveloped in 

 a silky substance ; also a number of the moveable larva cases of a 

 species of Moth alUed to Psyche. Mr. Trimen stated that he had 

 noticed the former nest to be veiy common iu Port Natal, and that 

 the perfect moth was yellow with four dark bars across the wings ; the 

 latter cases he had seen hanging by hundi-eds in Acacia trees in the 

 same country. 



Mr. Staiuton read a few observations on the synonymy of Tinea (?) 

 alpicella and Zelleria Saxifraga (n. sp.), and fasciipenella. Mr, 

 Pascoe exhibited and depcribed a curious new genus of Cucujidae from 

 New Zealand, having only four joints in all the tarsi. An elaborate 

 paper on the structure and homologies of the different parts of the 

 ovipositor of female insects, especially in the order Neuroptera, was 

 read by Mr. Eaton. 



The President read a letter which he had rec<^ived from Mr. Charles 

 Darwin, requesting information from the members on ^he subject of 

 the secondaiy sexual distinctions among insects, as well as upon sexual 

 selection, and on the numerical proportion of individuals in the two 

 sexes of various species of insects. Mr. Moore stated that males only 

 of the Tomicus vjllosus, a species which bores into and injures oaJk 

 wood, had hitherto been seen. Of the curious Tomicus dispar, the 

 males of which are strikingly unlike the females, the latter were ex- 

 ceedingly rare. On the other, Mr. F. Smith stated that of Tenthredo 

 cingalata, a species of Saw Fly common on Fern, the females might 

 be taken by hundreds without a single male bsing seen ; and of one of 

 the Gall Flies he had reared thousands of specimens without having 

 ever seen a male; and the male of Eriocampa Alni, another Saw Fly, 

 was even still unknown. It was suggested, however, that the obser- 

 vation of insects in a state of nature was very ditiicult, and conld 

 scarcely be relied upon, as the habits of the difft^rent sexes of the same 

 species were in many instances quite distinct, and that it was necessarv, 

 to ensure precision, that the species should be subjected to direct ob- 

 servation by being reared iu captivity. Thus Mr. Stainton stated, 

 that although in many species of minute moths the females were rarely 

 to be seen at large, yet on being reared artiticially there were at least 

 70 per cent, of that sex to 30 per cent, of males. Mr. MacLachlan 

 stated also that of the curious Boreus hyemalis the females were snffi- 

 cieutly common, but that he had only seen four specimens of the male. 



The March meeting was held on the '2nd inst-, the President, H. W. 

 Bates, Esq., in the chair. The President alluded to the lamented 

 decease of Mr. Armistead, a gentleman whose attention had long been 

 directed to the study of the natural histoiy of the various species of 

 galls upon different kinds of plants. 



Mr. Edward Saunders exhibited a number of species of Bnprestidie, 

 the nomenclature of which had been greatly confused, and which he 

 had been enabled to unravel by the examination of the typical speci- 

 mens in the Banksian collection, now in the possession of the British 

 Museum which had served as the originals of the descriptions of many 

 species by Fabricius. 



Mr. Pascoe exhibited and read descriptions of an interesting new 

 genus of Prionida; from Cape Coast Castle, and a new species of 

 Oxycorynus from South America. Mr. F. H. AVood exhibited several 

 interesting chrysalids of Sphingid.ne and nocturnal Lepidoptera from 

 Sierra Leone. One of these, belonging to the Bombycidie. of large 

 size, was remarkable for having two deep excavations near the extre- 

 mity of the body. He also stated that the long spiral tongue of Sphinx 

 Ligustri is twice folded back within the tongue case of the chrysahs. 



Mr. Stainton read a further communication from Mr. C. Darwin, 

 requesting information relative to the numerical proportions of the 

 sexes in insects, as weU the effect of the brilliant colouring of tho 



