October 31,1865.] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



367 



ttiat the sap flows most frcrly on warm, damp days ; cold, even 

 wben nceompanicd with rain", checking at times almost entirely 

 the ascent, and eonaeijueut (low of the juices. As each trough is 

 tilled it is emptied into a Imckct, the well-known liglit American 

 pail being that principally in use in Canada West. 



These buckets, again, when full are carried by the collector 

 to the boiling kettle, which is a large three-legged iron pot, sus- 

 pended by a chain hanging from a cross-beam or gallows, which 

 chain is attached to the handle, thus enabling it to be kept at 

 sufficient height above a fire kept constantly burning under it. 

 The whole of this process is carried on out of doors, and in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of the trees whence the saccharine 

 liquid is drawn. All the time the pot must be kept boiling 

 and well stirred, that the evaporation of the aqueous portion 

 may take place regularly, and to enable the sugar left behind 

 to granulate, without which it would become a mere sweet lunip, 

 not presenting the appearance of sugar at all. After being 

 boiled into thin molasses, it is strained, eggs are beaten np 

 with the shells, and mixed with the cold syrup, which is again 

 boiled to the necessary consistence, and then allowed to cool in 

 vessels which form a kind of mould for it. These masses when 

 set are pierced to allow any of the uncrystallised molasses to 

 diain off, and when sufficiently drained are broken up, and put 

 away for keeping. According to the cleanliness used in the 

 different processes, and the art of the boiler, the sugar will vary 

 in appearance from the very light and pleasant-looking crys- 

 talline substance knowni as "fine West Inilian coiifee sugar, to 

 the coarse, luscious, dark-coloured sugar exported in cases from 

 the Brazils. The flavour of the finer kind, although unmis- 

 takeably showing its source, is to many more agreeable than 

 even the best specimens of West Indian sugar, and incom- 

 parably superior both in appearance and flavour to the high- 

 dried, tasteless, and sandy-looking compound known as East 

 Indian and Mauritius sugar. The finer qnalities also have the 

 advantage of keeping better, but the sugar made by the whites, 

 especially by some of the neat housewives of Canada West, is 

 BO superior to that made by the Indians, as scarcely to be re- 

 cognisable as an article bearing the same name. This sugar, 

 on account of the labour required in making, is dearer than 

 that imported to such places as lie within the reach of easy 

 carriage, and is, therefore, seldom made except for household 

 use, and in districts remote, and imperfectly provided with 

 roads. 



The Sugar Maple might with advantage be planted more 

 plentifully in this country, being of quick growth for a hard 

 wood, of great beauty, either singly or in clumps, and invaluable 

 in ornamental grounds and small parks, both on accoimt of the 

 beauty of its shape, and the delicacy of its foliage. The change- 

 ableness of its hues according to the season, makes it a most 

 pleasing object in the landscape. Neither heat, cold, nor 

 moistm-e seems to affect this sturdy tree. Its timber is of great 

 worth to the upholsterer and turner, being a clean, hard, and 

 close-grained wood, easily worked, and not given to warping, 

 capable of bearing a high polish, and, in fact, useful for all the 

 purposes of neat, durable furniture. — A Sdbgeon. 



CALCEOLARIA SANGS AMBASSADOR. 



Not having seen mention made in the pages of The .Journal 

 OF HoKTicrLTURE of this really excellent Calceolaria, I beg to 

 diaw attention to it, as a most decided acquisition to the list 

 of bedding Calceolarias. It was sent out last spring by the 

 Messrs. Sang, of Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire, and is known by the 

 name of gang's Ambassador. Another bearing the same name, 

 but much inferior to it, is, I believe, in the trade. 



In colour it is a rich crimson, with a strong glow of scarlet in 

 it. In fact, at a short distance it has all the appearance of 

 being a scarlet, a colour quite new in theCalceolaria, and the 

 want of which has long been felt. 



A circular bed of it here (WTiittingham Gardens, Hadding- 

 tonshire) edged with a dwarf-growing yellow Calceolaria (cana- 

 liensis) has, throughout the season, obtained general admira- 

 tion, being when viewed at a short distance, and with the sun 

 shining ou it, quite dazzling, so much so, that it was with diffi- 

 culty that the eye could rest upon it. 



Another powerful recommendation is, that it seems to defy 

 all sorts of weather, having stood the heavy and continuous 

 rains of August better than any of the many Calceolarias used 

 here. This, however, may be partly attributed to its being 

 thinly planted, being from 15 to 18 inches apart. Thin plant- 

 ing is almost indispensable, in order to insure success. It is 



of compact growth, throwing up immense trusses of flowers, 

 which are all the better of being slightly staked, or su)qiorteil 

 in some other way. Flowering so profusely, it cannot be ex- 

 jiccted to produce many cuttings. A good plan, theref. ire, is 

 to plant out a few plants in some shady situation, and then by 

 pinching out the flower-stems as they apjiear, and thus encou- 

 raging growth, an abundant supply of healthy, tender cuttings 

 may be obtained in autumn. Such plants, being lifted and 

 potted in a light soil, and placed in a cool airy house during 

 winter, will produce a large number of cuttings for spring pro- 

 pagation. — J. Ai).v5!.-;os. 



NEW BOOK. 

 The Orchard-Hotisc. By T. Rivers. London : Longmans & Co. 



The twelfth edition of this useful and excellent little volume 

 lias just been published. The following is one of the additions 

 it contains : — 



" I have, however, gathered an idea with regard to compost, which 

 may be useful to amateurs, aud which the experience of the present 

 season (lSti.5) seems to coufirm. In other words, I have for some time 

 Buspected that which I now know — viz., the necessity of calcnrcons 

 matter in all composts used in the cultivation of stone-fi-uits. Many 

 orchard-house amateurs have for several seasons felt surprise at the 

 robust healthy appearance of the Apricot trees cultivated here in jiots, 

 aud their extreme fertility. I bad been so accustomed to perfect 

 success in their culture timt I felt no surprise, think-in^ it a matter of 

 course, and scarcely crediting accounts I heard of their failure with 

 some cultivators. 



" At last my attention was aroused, and I was induced to look into 

 my soils, more particularly the loam used in potting fruit trees. This 

 I found to be, hke all the soils in this district, full of finely commi- 

 nuted chalk ; and to this large preponderance in our gauds and loams, 

 amounting in the former to 25 per cent., I fully beheve I owe a portion 

 of the great success which attends the cultivation of orchard-house 

 fruits here. 



" The question is, can this calcareous nature be given to composts 

 nsed iu the cultivation of fruit trees in pots, or in prepared borders ? I 

 beheve it may, and with but little diiEculty. It is merely procuring 

 chalk from the districts where it exists. It is very cheap, a truck- 

 load being easily dug and placed on the rail. This will, of course, be 

 sent in lumps ; all the preparation it requires is being reduced to 

 powder, and half a peck of it mixed with a bushel of compost thought 

 to require it. Or if we say. mix two bushels of powdered chalk to a 

 one-horse load (twenty bushels) of compost, it will be near enough. 



" I believe this addition of chalt to composts uot calcareous, and to 

 loams of an irony nature, to be quite necessary in the culture of stone 

 fruits ; and if not necessary, still most beneficial to all kinds of frnit 

 trees. 



" The fine Cherries on pyramids, in pots, grafted on the Cerasus 

 Mahaleb, now cultivated here, aud the great success of Plum culture, 

 are owing to the calcareous soil ; so that I earnestly recommend chalk 

 to be used in cases where it is at all comeatable." 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETING. 



The October Meeting of this Society was presided over by F. Pascoe, 

 Esq., the President, and afforded much interesting matter for stndy. 

 Amonj^st the donations to the library received since the last meeting 

 were the publications of the Royal and Koyal Agricultural Societies, 

 and a new part of the " Transactions " of the Entomological Society of 

 New South Wales, in which the death of the eminent naturalist, 

 W. S. Macleay, Esq., President of the Society, was announced. The 

 death of Dr. Schaum, of Berlin, one of the honorary members of the 

 Entomolo^cal Society of London, was announced by Mr. MacLachlan. 



Mr. Kirby exhibited a specimen of the rare Moth, Sterrha sacraria, 

 taken near Brighton, in July ; and Mr. Stevens a fine series of Butter- 

 flies, collected at Labuan, in Borneo, by Lieut. De Crespigny. 



Mr. Jenner "Weir exhibited specimens of the rare Moth, Xylina 

 petrificate, one of which resembled X. semibmnnea in colour. He 

 also stated that he had observed that the lesser Eanvig employed the 

 pair of forceps at the extremity of the body in closing its wings after 

 flight. 



Mr. MacLachlan exhibited several species of Phrygancidae taken in 

 ice caverns of the Swiss Alj)^, by the Rev. J. F. BroNvn. He also read 

 descriptions of a new British species, and of various species of the 

 same family taken in the Malayan Archipelago, by Mr. Wallace. 



Mr. Evans exhibited two deformed specimens of the Vanessa Ata- 

 lanta : and Mr. W. W. Saunders the pseudo-bulb of an Orchid, from 

 New (jrranada, entirely destroyed by vast numbers of specimens of two 

 distinct species of limpet-scale insects {Coccidse). He obseiTcd that 

 there appeared no fixed period of the year for the development of 

 these insects, and he had never yet been able to discover a single male 

 of either of the species in question. 



I)r. Wallace exhibited a specimen of Argynnis Lathonia, captured at 

 Colchester, by Mr. Harwood, at the end of the preceding month ; also, 

 an extensive series of living specimens, in all their different stages, of 



