484 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AKD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jmo 13, 1S7: 



classes, some of whom make it their pastime, and in many 

 eases prosecute it as a help to the household. Instead of 

 keeping a pig they have a greenhouse or a frame or two, and 

 in these they propagate " bedding stuff," for which they find 

 a ready Bale, or which they send to an auction mart in the 

 city, where periodical sales of plants are held, and where they 

 reaUse rather unremunerative prices. These sales interfere 

 somewhat with the trade of the regular florist, who cannot com- 

 pete in the cost of production with these amateur growers. 



The nurseries about Bath are, like the gardens, of limited 

 extent, the largest not being more than sixteen acres. This 

 to some extent is attributable to the high price of land in the 

 immediate vicinity of the city. The oldest are those of Mr. 

 Drummond, Mr. Carpenter, Mrs. Tiley, and Mr. Kitley. The 

 two former are situated in Weston Lane. Besides a general 

 stock of trees and shrubs, Mr. Drummond's speciality is in 

 house plants. Here may be seen good collections of stove and 

 greenhouse plants, and in some cases excellent specimens. AVe 

 observed among these a fine plant of Adiautum farleyense, 

 5 feet in diameter. This is one of the original plants, and 

 certainly one of the finest we have ever seen. The large speci- 

 men Azaleas were turned out of the house and were just going 

 out of bloom, and we observed in another house some good 

 specimens of Ericas, such as elegans and Cavendishii, &c. This 

 is undoubtedly the leading nursery in Bath for exotic plants. 



Mrs. Tiley's is more of a general nursery, and is situated at 

 Bathwick, immediately behind Sidney Gardens. The extent 

 altogether is sixteen acres, a good deal of this being occupied 

 with ornamental trees and shrubs, and Roses, for which this 

 nurseiy has long had a reputation. The houses contain the 

 ordinary class of flowering greenhouse .and stove plants, and 

 Ferns, and we were pleased to see some attention paid to the 

 cultivation of herbaceous perennials and alpines. 



Also adjoining Sidney Gardens is the small but select nur- 

 sery of Mr. Pavitt, where Tea-scented Roses are extensively 

 grown iu great perfection, and in the open air without any 

 protection. Mr. Pavitt cuts the plants down close to the 

 ground every year ; they begin to bloom in June, and from 

 that time tUl October there is a constant profusion of flowers, 

 lasting over a period of five months. Mr. Pavitt boasts of 

 having every known variety of Tea-scented Rose in his collec- 

 tion. Besides these, we observed a choice stock of variegated 

 ^ees and ehrubs. 



Mr. Kitley 's grounds, at Lyneombe Vale, are mainly occu- 

 pied with market-garden produce, but he also grows flowers to 

 a considerable extent. We mention Mr. Kitley, as being a 

 person long well known in the gardening world, a great culti- 

 vator of Strawberries, and as the raiser of Kitley's GoUath 

 and Carolina superba. At Walcot, the nursery formerly occu- 

 pied thirty years ago by Salter & Scammel is now iu the pos- 

 session of Mr. Walters, son of the nurseryman of that name 

 at Trowbridge. 



In close proximity to Mr. Kitley is Mr. Alexander, who 

 devotes his attention mainly to forcing flowers for decoration 

 and bouquets, a trade which is confined mostly to the Bath 

 season, or the winter and spring months. Besides Hyacinths 

 and other bulbs extensively forced, are Christmas Roses and 

 Solomon's Seal. We here met with a Potato peculiar to the 

 district, called Shiner Kidney. It is not exactly a Kidney, but 

 half round, and it is said to be as early as the old Ashleaf, 

 and a much better cropper. Mr. Cooling has a nursery at 

 Batheaston, in which he grows a good general stock. 



THE SLUG-WORM, OR SLIJIY GRUB, IN 



NEW ZEALAND. 



This is the larva of a Saw-fly, called by Linuteus Tenthredo 

 Cerasi, from its feeding upon Cherry trees. People here who 

 possess gardens large or small, are just becoming alive to the 

 depredations committed by this dirty slimy-looking caterpillar, 

 which is making such havoc (eating the parenchyma of the 

 leaves, leaving only the bkeleton behind) with our Pear trees, 

 Plums, Cherries, Thorns, Quinces, Willows, and other things. 

 Most of the trees mentioned are now quite denuded of their 

 leaves in and around Christ Church long before their right 

 season. We have been annoyed with these ugly grubs on 

 our trees every autumn for some years past, but this autumn 

 they are worse than ever. Many people here not acquainted 

 with them nor their history, ask me — What is the cause of the 

 leaves dropping off the trees so soon this year '? Judge of their 

 astonishment when I explain that the trees have been injured 



by these slug-worms, and that these have probably already 

 robbed them of a crop of fruit iu the forthcoming year. If 

 I mention any of our remedies used iu gardens for tbe destruc- 

 tion of these slimy grubs, a dislike is soon expressed, by the 

 fair sex in particular, to touch or go near the grubs on account 

 of their disageeeable stench. It puzzles me, and many other 

 people here, how they can have found their way to the Anti- 

 podes. Here in Canterbury they are, at any rate, and iu very 

 great abundance too, to our very great annoyance. 



Since dispatching my first scrap about the Slug-worm ]>y 

 Suez mail, another opportunity has occurred for me to com- 

 municate some additional ideas on the subject. This time 

 I send you a few fresh-gathered leaves for your considera- 

 tion. Our Bigarreau Cherry trees are generally the first to 

 become affected, and our Quince trees the last. I am almost 

 certain that if we had very wet autumns instead of such un- 

 usually fine ones we should not be so much troubled with this 

 pest. Depredations committed by it on the leaves seem to be 

 confined to the natural order Pomaceae, or Appleworts, with one 

 exception only as far as I can discover — namely, the common 

 Willow, but I have to state that the leaves of this are not 

 stripped in such a ravenous manner as in the Pomacea\ 



Fig. 1. — Teutlu'edo adiunbrata {larva state). 



Here at the Antipodes we generally discover the slug-worm 

 in a very young state on the leaves about the end of January. 

 This is shortly, I presume, after the time the flies emerge 

 from their tombs. About the middle of April they seem to 

 have completed their ravages, only an odd one being left be- 

 hind here and there, they having disappeared iu the shape of 

 a cocoon, for the purpose of entering the earth. — WiLLiAii 

 Swale, Cavterbnnj, Neu' Zealand. 



[Our correspondent gave a long extract of an article by the 

 late Mr. John Curtis, the entomologist ; but as some confusion 

 has existed between this and similar grubs, we subjoin the 

 following extract from Dr. Boisdnval's " Essai sur I'Entomo- 

 logie Horticole," from which also we copy a very characteristic 

 engraving of the destroyer at work ou the leaf. Under the 

 head of Tenthredo adumbrata, Kluff, he says : — Arboricul- 

 turists are familiar with a slimy black larva like a little leech, 

 which appears as if glued to the leaves of Pear trees, and 

 which is of very common occurrence in fruit gardens in Sep- 

 tember and October. From its form and appearance, Reaumur 

 called it the slug-worm. At the end of autumn, when it haa 

 attained its full size, it somewhat resembles a small tadpole. 

 It has twenty feet, which, however, cannot be seen without 

 dislodging it from the leaf. It does not begin at the edges of 

 the Pear leaf, but gnaws away the pai'enchyma iu the middle, 

 leaving the smallest veins and the epidermis of the under side 

 untouched, so that the leaves attacked are left like the finest 

 lace {aeejiij. 1). 



After four times casting its skin it changes to an orange 

 yellow colour, comes down from the tree, and forms a cocoon 

 from particles of soil bound together by a few silken threads. 



The perfect insect (see firi. 2), according to Hai'tig, is 2 J lines 

 long, smooth, black, and shining, with the horns almost as 

 long as the abdomen ; the legs are black, the joints and thighs 

 reddish brown, the wings obscure. 



