Septomber 19, 186S. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



235 



from Duchess of Siitliorlaml crossed witli .Tiilca MarRottin ; 

 I^ale rose with hri^ht centre. Messrs. Paul & Son, who have 

 purchaseil the stock, state that it is roiiiarkablo for its barJy 

 liabit iim\ good autumual properties. — {IhUL, pi. 258.) 



LoBin.i.^ coRONoriFOLiA. — Received liy Messrs. Backhouse, of 

 York, from the interior of Ca£fraria. Wlien grown out of doors 

 in summer it forms a dense tuft, hearing llower-stems from 

 4 to inclies high, each with from tliree to five or six blossoms, 

 blue, faintly tinged with violet, and remaining in perfection 

 many weeks. — (Ibid., jd. 259.) 



BoooAiNviLLSA LATEKiTiA. — DcUcate salmony pink bracts, 

 forming a pretty contrast with the uiauve-coloured bracts of 



B. speciosa. Obtained by Jlr. Daniels, gardener to the Rev. 



C. E. Ruck Keene, S\vync"ombe House, Henley-on-Thames, and 

 BOW in the hands of Sir. Bull.— (/;<;<;., pi. 2()6.) 



Anemoxk angclosa. — " It is a native of Hungary, and is one 

 of the many beautiful hardy spring flowers wliich the Messrs. 

 James Backhouse & Son, of York, have been fortunate enough 

 during the present year to bring under the notice of the London 

 public. The Floral Committee of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society awarded it a first-class certificate ; and a double-first, 

 if it could have been given, would not have shown too high an 

 appreciation of its merits. The habit of this species is exactly 

 that of the allied A. hepatica, but the plant itself, as well as 

 its parts, are all at least twice the size of that. Thus, the 

 leaves are fuUy 3 inches broad, three-lobed, but ha\ing the 

 lobes coarsely and rather deeply creuato-dentate. The flowers 

 are upwards of 1 J inch across, of numerous oblong lauee-sbaped 

 spreatling sepals, and of a fine clear gre\-ish blue, set off by the 

 array of numerous black anthers, which sm-round the tuft of 

 yellowish styles. It is doubtless one of the finest hardy plants 

 of recent introduction." — (Florist and Pomologixt, iv., 185.) 



TODMORDEN BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 



September 4th. 

 Mr. Holmes in the chaii-. W. Mauley Eastwood, Esq., of East- 

 wood, and Mr. Josiah Wade, of Hebden Bridge, were elected members. 

 Notwithstanding the absence of the President, Vice-iiresidcnt, as well 

 as several others of the Society, on the Silverdale excursion, the at- 

 tendance at this meeting, consitlei-ing the season, was quite an average 

 one. Mr. James Hai-tley. of Heptoustall, a young but most enthusi- 

 astic and successful collector, contributed specimens of a curiously 

 depauperated form of the common Brake (Pteris aqudiua) ; the lower 

 portion of the frond, in the example alluded to, had the pinnules 

 of the usual shape and character, hut in the terminal portions the 

 pinufe were either wanting, or so diminished in size, as to amount to 

 little more than a number of small excun-ent points ; the gi'oup of 

 ■which the frond in question formed a iiart, was reported to be uni- 

 formly of the same character. Mr. A. Dawson, of Knowl-top, Wals- 

 den, sent an interesting dish of the Cowbenw (Vaccinium vitis ida?a), 

 and evidently including both the species and the variety majns. The 

 berries were accompanied by a note from Mr. Dawson, who stated that 

 the examples sent had been gathered from cultivated plants, .and had 

 been yearly loaded with fruit for several seasons back, whereas those 

 in a \Vild state in the original locaUty had been almost uniformly bar- 

 ren during the same period. An interesting communication was read 

 from Mr. Rogers (one of the Manchester associate members) on the 

 botany of Ben Lawerg and some other parts of Scotland. Of the 

 more rare plants enumerated as being collected by Mr. Rogers, we may 

 name Pyi'ola secunda, Comus suecica, Cberleria sedoides, Cerastium 

 alpinum, Betula nana, Malaxis paludosa, Meum athamanticum, Saxi- 

 fraga oppositifolia, Sedum rhodiola, Thalictrum alpinum, Trieutalis 

 europffia, Polystichum lonchitis. Lastrea alpina, Lastrea FUis-mas var. 

 pumila, Poh^jodium x^hegopteris var. laciniatum. Lycopodium anno- 

 tinum, L. inundatum, several good Mosses, ,tc., &c. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETING. 



The September Meeting of the Entomological Society was held on 

 the 4th inst. : F. Smith, Esq., Vice-President, in the chair. Donations 

 to the library were announced from the Smithsonian Institute of the 

 United States, the Royal Academy of Belgium, the Entomological 

 Society of Stettin. Messrs. Saussure, Sickel, Cresson, ttc. 



Mr. F. Bond exhibited some interesting specimens of the common 

 Heath Moth, Fidonia atomaria, a species in which the colours and mark- 

 ings of the wings are different in the opposite sexes ; the individuals ex- 

 hibited being a pair, male and female, in both of which the ordinary' 

 colours of the male were seen ; and in a second similar pair the 

 female colours and marldngs were present ; likewise a male Gonep- 

 teryx Kbamni, in wliich a portion of the left fore-wing was coloured as 

 in the female, and a female in which the colour of the male was 

 present in a poi-tion of one fore-wing ; likewise some .specimens of 

 the rare Moth, Ennyciua angniuaUs. 



Mr. Mcljachlau exhibited some rare Nouropterous insects from 

 Rannoch (Perthshire) — namely. -'Fishna borealis, Sialis fuliginosa, 

 (PietctJ, Stenophylax, nova species, and KhyaiMqihila, ii. sp. 



Professor Wcstwood mentioned a peculiarity he had obsciTcd In the 

 economy of the catcri)illarsof the Ailantims Silkworm, pri-viousto their 

 changing to the pupa state. lie also gave an account of the Exhibi- 

 tion of economic cntomolog)', beneficial and destructive insects, with 

 illustrations of their ravages, Sillcworms of various kinds, bee-hives, . 

 wax, and other insect-products, which was opened on the 15th of 

 August, at the Palais d"Industrie, in the Champs Elysees, Paris. 

 Among the newest hcc-apparatus, was mentioned au octagonal bar- 

 hive of wood, made in two halves exactly fitting together, so that when 

 the hive is full it cau be divided into two parts and empty halves 

 applied to the full portions, thus preventing ordinary swarming. 



Mr. Dorville exhibited a common Moth, Caradrina cubicnlaris, 

 attacked by a small red species of Acarus, of which a number were 

 arranged symmetrically on the under surface of the mngs. 



Mr. Staiutou .also noticed the gi-eat numbers of Cheliferidm, which 

 he had observed this summer attached to the limbs of flies. Dr. Hageu 

 had supposed that this was for the purpose of transport, but Mr. 

 Stainton considered them to l)t! real parasites. 



Mr. Baly stated, tliat in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen great 

 numbers of "Wasps had appeared this summer ; but a letter was read 

 from Mr. S. Stone, of Brighthampton, giving an accounl of an epi- 

 demic which had attacked tiie Wasj) nests in Oxfordshire, and which 

 had entirely destroyed large numbers of them, so that scarcely a single 

 Wasp had arrived at maturity. Earwigs also, which had been ex- 

 tremely numerous, bad got into the nests and devoured great numhera 

 of the larviB. 



Mr. F. Smith stated that he had not observed a single Wasp whilst 

 collecting HjTnenoptera, at Bournemouth, where last year they wero 

 extremely numerous ; and Professor Wcstwood read a letter from a 

 coiTespondent, giving an account of the injury committed in a com- 

 mon bee-hive by vast numbers of Eanvigs, what had got under tho 

 cover of the hive. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited some pods of EpUobium montannm, at- 

 tacked by the lai-va) of Lavema suhhistrigella ; and Mr. Kirby a 

 specimen of Polyommatus Alexis, measuring only 8i lines in the ex- 

 pansion of the wings. 



Mr. Stevens exhibited portion of a collection of insects recently 

 made in Daman-a Land, South Africa, including several rare Mnds of 

 Goliath Beetles. 



Mr. F. Bond communicated a notice of some swarms of winged 

 Ants, which had appeared round the steeple of the church of St. 

 Morris, at Coburg, and had been mistaken for smoke issuing from it, 

 so as to have caused gi-eat alarm among the inhabitants. 



Mr. Wormald also stated, that he had noticed a similar instance of 

 flights of Ants in vast numbers. 



An account was also communicated of the poisonous attacks of a 

 species of black Guat on horses, mules, &c.. in South America ; as 

 well as Su- Gardiner Wilkinson's account of the poisonous attacks of 

 the Fly named Zebub in Upper Egypt. 



Pkoductivt; Old Peach Tree. — Iliave an old tree of the Late 

 Admirable under my care ; it occupies 240 feet of south wall. 

 I have this year 480 Peaches on it, all fine fruit. The tree is 

 loaded from the bottom to the top. The stock is 22 inches hi 

 circumference, and some of the arms are 14 inches round and 

 in a half decayed state. — G. Phillips, The Gardens, Croiecomhe 

 Court, Somersetshire. 



FORMS OF OUR FRUIT-HOUSES. 



This subject is one that always attracts attention, and yet 

 there are remarkably few experiments tried with regard to 

 their construction. '\\Tiat causes this it is difficult to tell ; and 

 yet I think I am warranted in saying that few exiieriments 

 are tried, or we should find the result ; for fruit-house building 

 cannot be supposed to bo the one exception that proves the 

 rule, and obstinately refuses to advance. In writing this letter 

 I am aware that I am not, as the phrase goes, stroking the 

 gardening world the right way. I learned to think before 

 I gave my attention to gardening, and if I do not think like 

 those who learned gardening first, I cannot help it ; and pray 

 excuse my accepting the dogma, that what is, is right. Let 

 me, then, as an outsider, throw out a few remarks. I want to 

 advance the gentle craft as much as any one. Is it not true, 

 that if I leave out the application of hot water, our Pine-pits 

 are such as Mr. Le Copr used in 1724 ? that our Pine-houses 

 are — I was going to say the exact measure — but I will only say 

 substantially the same as JMiller gives in his " Gardener's 

 Dictionary," more than a hundred years ago '? and I may say the 

 same of our glassed-in Peach walls and lean-to houses. When 

 our foreign friends visit next year, as is proposed, our great 



