July 3, 1S«G. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



znittcd to the Foreign Office, anil recently presented to Parliament, 

 containing a notice of the ill effects produced by tho bite of a largo 

 black venomons species of Spider which appeared amongst tho Wheat 

 ut harvest time, and bad bitten more than three hundred persons, the 

 into boing followed by a hard white Bpot, which, when cauterised, pro- 

 duced a new wound ; ordinarily tho Spider fed upon Locusts. Mr. 

 McLachlan communicated a noto on tho cocoon of a species of Cad- 

 dice Fly (Limnephilus sp.), which, although originally formed by the 

 larva beneath the surfaco of tho water, had gradually been raised to 

 the height of 2 feet above it, causing the enclosed pupa to dry and 

 shrivel up, thus exhibiting a fault in the instinct of the larva not often 

 observed in the insoct tribes. 



Mr. I'ascoo exhibited a number of minnto Beetles collected by the 

 Rov. G. Bostock, of Freemantle, in Western Australia, chiefly in 

 Ants' nests, several of which are of very great interest, belonging to 

 tho genera Articerns, Anthicns, PtinuB, and a new genus apparently 

 allied to r.iussus, of which he read descriptions. 



Professor Westwood exhibited drawings and read descriptors of 

 some new Goliath Beetles from tropical Africa, chiefly from the collec- 

 tions of Count Muiszcck and J. Aspinall Turner, Esq. Mr. Staiuton 

 exhibited a specimon of a minute Moth, Gelechia leucomelanella, 

 which he had succeeded in rearing from galls found upon Gypsophila 

 Baxifraga at Mentone in the spring. Mr. C. A. Wilson, of Adelaide, 

 South Australia, communicated a further portion of his notes on tho 

 Buprestidw, ice., of Now South Wales. 



RAIDS AFTER FERNS.— No. 5. 



HAMPSHIRE. 



" We go to town every year." Yes, in these days one can- 

 not aspire to anything like gentility without the above warranty. 

 One must go to town every year ; one must risk one's life in the 

 streets, be stifled in academies, buy " best bonnets " for flower 

 shows and fashionable churches, even supposing one be suffi- 

 ciently strong-minded to resist opera and ball. Yes, the sacri- 

 fice must be made, and the time to offer it on the world's altar 

 is just the very time when nightingales are making the woods 

 vocal with their song, when the trees are robing themselves in 

 fresh young leaves, and flower after flower peeps up in meadow 

 and copse from its wintry hiding-place. When Nature, in obe- 

 dience to her Maker, is busiest in decking out her pleasant 

 places for our gratification, we run away from her in thankless 

 indifference, and will not watch her movements or listen to her 

 pure voice. 



I usually take my London life very much as I take a tonic — 

 an occasional tea-spoonful in a very large dose of country ; and 

 how glad I am to turn away from the dreary round of noise, 

 and bustle, and sin that those great streets disclose none can 

 tell. Each station that places a barrier of so many miles be- 

 tween us is hailed with delight. I look out of the carriage 

 window and nod my head at my old companions of forest and 

 field, as if years instead of days had separated us. 



From London, at her busiest and noisiest. I escaped into the 

 bright pure air of Hampshire, the noise of the roll of carriages 

 giving place to the gentle whisperings of the wind amongst 

 Beech and Fir, to which I listen in lazy enjoyment from a 

 hammock slung Indian fashion between trees. Presently I 

 hear the tramp of little feet and the sound of merry voices, to- 

 gether with sundry discordant bells and clappers, and a general 

 shout of " The bees ! the bees ! " A knowing twist of the ham- 

 mock, and I, too, armed with a watering-pot and a stick, am 

 serenading a fine swarm, till from a splendid Rose bush they 

 are safely hived in their straw dwelling-place, beneath the 

 friendly shade of a fine Ailanthus glandulosa. 



What flower shows and morning concerts are to the town, 

 that are bees to a bee-keeping country. No other excitement is 

 needed. Always swarming, or going to swarm, always being 

 hived, or being lost and skirmished after, they are the one 

 thought uppermost in men's minds. Even places of worship are 

 not exempt from the prevailing epidemic, for hatless heads and 

 smock frocks peep mysteriously in at half-open doors, beckon- 

 ing to other smock frocks that rise and disappear with that pe- 

 culiar noise of clumsy stealthiness that is so dear to Hamp- 

 shire-loving ears ; and after church, mayhap, it is only " the 

 parson's bees as were a-swarming " — an event in which all the 

 community most heartily sympathise. Yet in the very teeth 

 of the bees I had my raid. A few minutes' walk, and I was in 

 Havant " Thicket," sacred at present to Ferns, wild flowers, 

 and adders. 



There are a hundred paths leading into the mysterious fast- 

 nesses of Havant Thicket, each diverging into the other, till 

 the unwary traveller gets involved in a mesh of thread-like 

 ways that lead him into quags, and bogs, and adders' homes in 

 most uncomfortable fashion. A good hunt in the thicket, how- 



ever, is worth all tho peril, for it is full of treasures. Here 

 and there I found a space covered with a very Hmall Myrtle- 

 like Willow, with dark shining leaf and woolly catkins, which 

 looked like a bog Myrtle, on which innumerable caterpillars 

 had spun their nests, trailing over the ground. In tho neigh- 

 bourhood this plant is called tho " Flowering Willow," and is 

 supposed to bo rare : I should (perhaps ignorantly) set it down 

 as tho Salix arbuscula. Near to tho Willow, growing in great 

 profusion, was the GeniBta anglica, its sharp thorns painfully 

 reminding one that it was anglica and not tinctoria, for which 

 I searched in vain. 



Parasitical upon the shrubs wo found, but not frequently, 

 Orobanche rapum, while growing on every side were Listera 

 ovata, Orchis maculata, and Habenariabifolia, the latter scent- 

 ing my Fern-bag with its rich perfume. But not alone did 

 H. bifolia scent the bag, for wandering further into the thicket 

 one came on a large bed of Lilies of the Valley ! — must I call 

 them Convallaria majalis ? Yes, I will, for I hold that if none 

 but. Latin names were in use for all plants the science of 

 botany would be greatly simplified, and bad memories would 

 not be hampered with two exertions instead of one. At any 

 rate, lying in their greenwood bed there the pure white 

 flowerets were ringing their bells to the wild bees' song, and 

 looking to my mind's eye so like a hundred things they most 

 surely were not, that I could but sit down on the branch of an 

 old tree and hold short speech with them before I dragged 

 them from their lurking-place into the rude gaze of the world. 



Not far from the Lily-bed there was a pool bordered with My- 

 osotis palustris, while trailing over the Briars was the little 

 Lysimachia nemorum, the L. nummularia completely covering 

 the ground, though the blossoms were not yet opened. Of the 

 commoner wild flowers, every little nook, every sunny glade, 

 bore bright evidence. In some places the earth was rose 

 colour with Pedicularis ; in another blue with Polygala, while 

 every now and then our crushing feet caused the Mentha syl- 

 vestris and Thymus serpyllum to emit a strong and pleasant 

 odour. 



And at last tho Ferns ! In days gone by I have often said, 

 " Oh, nothing grows in Havant Thicket but Pteris (only in 

 disdain I called it Bracken) ; but now I know better, and I look 

 forward to many a successful raid amongst the adders. First, 

 there was Lastrea montana, but as I only saw two plants of it 

 during several walks, I conclude that the soil or air of the 

 Thicket is not congenial to it. I wonder if I might here be 

 allowed to enter a trembling protest against this Fern being 

 placed amongst the Lastreas, with which it appears to me to 

 have little affinity, its usually naked clusters of round sori 

 pointing rather to Polypodium. 



Abounding in the Thicket was Lastrea cristata var. spinu- 

 losa, while of Lastrea dilatata I saw but very little. L. cristata 

 spinulosa is always a trouble to me, and that in many ways. 

 If it be a simple'variety of L. cristata, having no pretensions 

 to rank amongst species, how is it that it is found growing in 

 profusion where its original parent has never been heard of ? 

 If I understand species aright, I shall not be satisfied till the 

 wandering habit of L. spinulosa can be explained. Perhaps I 

 may yet find L. cristata in Hampshire, or, perhaps, I may live 

 to see spinulosa in the family of L. dilatata. 



In this particular raid I was charmed with the different 

 forms assumed by the Pteris aquilina. I found it in its variety 

 vera, and in many cases it was also considerably forked, assum- 

 ing the appearance of multifida. Of Filix-mas there were several 

 plants of a supposed variety, for which Mr. Wollaston is claim- 

 ing the honour of a separate place amongst species, under the 

 name of Lastrea propinqua. It differs considerably from the 

 normal form of Filix-mas, and has many varieties or sub- 

 varieties of its own. 



Not far from the Thicket there is a beautiful hunting-ground 

 called the Holt, where noble Beech trees tower towards the 

 heavens, and the earth at their feet is covered with the white 

 blossoms of Asperula odorata ; where Digitalis of the tallest, 

 and Prim— (I must say)— roses, of the loveliest abound, and 

 there I found a very curious variety of Filix-mas, lax in 

 growth, pale.in colouring, and irregular in form of pinnule. I 

 have not yet had it named, for I have yet to prove that I am 

 the first who has noticed it. 



Besides the Lastrea Filix-mas there are several good varieties 

 of Athyrium Filix-foemina growing in the Holt, and many a 

 beautiful wild plant, I may not stay to enumerate. Even 

 during the time bestowed on the Filices, the bees have swarmed 

 for the third time, kettledrums have sounded a retreat, and 

 the scattered forces are dispersed for ever. 



