Janau7 22, 187-1. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOBTIOOLTUEE AND OOTTAGB GAEDENEB. 



79 



Esq., F.R.S., now pnblished. We have seen this, and we bave 

 a circular also aunounciug the formation of a " Vote-by-proxy 

 Association." At present we withhold all oommeutary. 



OLD FRIENDS WITH NEW NAMES. 

 The Irish Farmer's Gazelte is right about synonyms and 

 pseudonyms, but is not right in saying that Rivera' Royal 

 Ashleaf is the same as Myatt'a Prolittc. Lord Portman's gar- 

 dener, Mr. Leach, told me that at Bryanston they preferred 

 Myatt's Prolific to the Royal Ashleaf. The raiser of Mona's 

 Pride sent it to me from the Isle of Man, and I say that it is 

 not the same as the old Ashleaf. Mona's Pride is a much 

 larger Potato and has much stronger haulra ; it is a great 

 •cropper, and does not require such high cultivation as the old 

 Ashleaf. It is interior to it in flavour ; moreover, its haulm 

 and foliage are more frost-resisting. The Lapstone, Pebble 

 White, and Yorkshire Hero, though much alike, are not the 

 same. They are all three here. The last two aro evidently 

 derived from the Lapstone. Haigh's Seedling properly is the 

 Copper-nosed Kidney, from which the Lapstone was derived. 

 Both having been raised by Haigh, may therefore be called 

 Haigh's Seedling. Major Haigh, who was an army boot and 

 shoe contractor, died at Bardsley, near Leeds, about 18.5.5 or 

 18.5G. I consider the old Ashleaf and the Lapstone for quality 

 and flavour to be still the best two Potatoes. The old Ashleaf 

 requires protection for its haulm and foliage in spring. I do 

 not keep it now, but I used to grow it successfully by protect- 

 ing the haulm with wooden troughs like the roof of a house, 

 raising the ends on bricks as the plants grew. Keep the foliage 

 dry, and Potato plants will bear many degrees of frost. — W. F. 

 Eadclttfe. 



RECENT GLEANINGS ABOUT INSECTS. 



In reply to a correspondent, Mr. Newman remarks, in the 

 ^'Entomologist," that the common and annoying little moth 

 Hyponomeuta padella, the larva-webs of which overspread 

 Hawthorn hedges and fruit trees, has not yet had its history 

 clearly made out. Haworth, who called it " Padi," described 

 five varieties, while Stainton, our latest authority on the small 

 Lepidoptera, sees no notable differences between those that 

 •feed on the Apple and the Hawthorn, and we do not know 

 positively what is the continental type. Guenee has a " Mali- 

 nellus," which Mr. Newman thinks may be our Apple-feeder. 



One of the assistants of Messrs. Mander, of Wolverhampton, 

 discovered in a nodule of Sierra Leone copal a living larva, 

 seemingly of a beetle, the cavity being considerably larger than 

 the body of the insect, yet hermetically sealed from the out- 

 ward air. Two curious questions suggest themselves : " How 

 did it get in?" and "How long had it lived in such a 

 position ? " The Rev. G. C. B. Madden records a singular 

 change of instinct on the part of bees. In the district of San 

 Francisco there were formerly no hivo bees. Some swarms 

 ■were introduced there, and in their customary manner they 

 stored-up honey for the winter ; winter, however, did not, as a 

 matter of course, come as they anticipated, and it was found 

 that thenceforth they ceased to lay-up stores, and only em- 

 ployed themselves in their usual labours for the continuance of 

 the race, and obtained food as they required it. 



Some further observations on the subject of controlling sex 

 in butterflieshave been published in the "American Naturalist," 

 and Mr. Riley adduces evidence tending to upset Mrs. M. Treat's 

 inferences based on her own experiments, though he compli- 

 ments the lady entomologist on her diligence, and adds that 

 " most naturalists will be proud that a lady has set the example 

 of making such investigations." As to this conclusion we are 

 not so certain. It does not appear that any facts noted by 

 Mrs. Treat go to upset what is still regarded as a fundamental 

 principle by anatomists and physiologists — viz., that the sex is 

 determined at the moment of conception. In that case each 

 . egg of a butterfly or moth leaves the body of the parent insect 

 with the germ within it of the future male or female, and in 

 the overwhelming majority of insects these are in equal pro- 

 portions throughout each brood, though it may happen that 

 the progeny of a particular insect here and there may show an 

 overwhelming preponderance of one sex over the other. From 

 the experiments made by stinting larvre in quantity of food 

 resulting in the production of more males, Mr. Riley only con- 

 cludes that the females being the larger mostly, and therefore 

 needing more nourishment, are diminished necessarily by this 

 treatment in larger proportion. 



That distinguished entomologist Mr. H. Doubleday has lately 

 expressed his opinion in severe terms, though not stronger 

 than the occasion requires, on the mischievous and dishonour- 

 able practice of foisting foreign specimens into so-called collec- 

 tions of British insects, which is now rendering it almost im- 

 possible to verify the authenticity of most specimens of rare 

 Lepidoptera. 



Concerning aphis honey Mr. F. Walker writes in the " Ento- 

 mologist : " — " Bees find their honey comparatively prepared 

 for them in flowers, but the honey by the medium of aphides 

 has various beginnings. It is extracted from the crevices of 

 old Oak trees, from the twigs of young Oak trees, from the 

 roots of Grass, of Sow Thistles, and of Parsnips, from the 

 Nettle and the Bramble, from the Ivy and the Honeysuckle, 

 from the Willow and the Poplar, from the Bog Myrtle and the 

 Sea Aster, and its sweetness has abundance of other sources." 

 What a pity it is in these scarce times that we cannot utilise 

 aphis honey as an article of food ! 



A specimen of the exceedingly rare Sphinx, known to collec- 

 tors as the Orange-tailed Clearwing (Sesia allantiformis) , has 

 been taken by Mr. Bryant at Greenhithe, the locality where the 

 first authentic British example was captured by the late Mr. 

 Chant many years ago. As late as the 7th of October an indi- 

 vidual of the Silver-striped Hawk-moth (Chasrocampa Gelerio) 

 was taken on the wing at Bolton. 



BELGIAN HORTICULTURE.— No. 6. 



M. LOUIS VAN HOUTTE'S NUBSERT. 



Aftek giving a general idea of this establishment, it is 

 possible to summon a few particulars that may be of interest. 

 Not a few have seen this world-renowned place, but the 

 majority of your readers have had to content themselves with 

 the descriptions of others, neccessarily vague and disjointed, 

 for it is difiicult to know where to start, and once started, even 

 more so to know when to stop. However, by way of finding a 

 starting point it may be said, as there is no attempt at outside 

 show, there are no grand specimens artistically grouped to 

 create a striking impression inside. The establishment lacks 

 the towering Palms of Linden's and the noble tree Ferns of 

 Verschaffelt's ; not that there are not fine and valuable plants 

 of these and other subjects new and rare, but they are 

 scattered over a great extent of houses, as if the health and 

 comfort of the particular plants were more thought of than 

 mere effect. It is evidently not the forte of this nursery to 

 " go in " for covering a large area with a limited number of 

 sensational occupants, the object being rather to raise by 

 hundreds of thousands everything in demand, and so as to be 

 easy of transmission to nearly all parts of the world. It is 

 pre-eminently a plant-manufactory — by no other expression can 

 it be understood so well. 



Here, for instance, are Camellias manufactured to a greater 

 extent, perhaps, than in any other nursery on the earth's sur- 

 face. These alone are a sight to see : On one side a batch of 

 150,000 cuttings, striking apparently with the greatest freedom 

 and absence of loss ; on the other, 100,000 recently " worked," 

 all in glass oases or frames in a temperate structure. In 

 sunken brick-pits are stocks potted-off and plunged, rooting 

 through and over the sides of the pots to perfection. Again, 

 there are thousands of plants shifted-on after grafting, and 

 standing out of doors in shady places, but free from " drip." 

 One batch of 80,000 in bud, for sending-off the same autumn, 

 were remarkable for their promise and luxuriance. They were 

 standing between tall upright Poplars, which had been planted 

 in lines from east to west, and at distances so that the 

 shadow of one row reached the base of the other — the very 

 place for a Camellia forest. Most gardeners are aware of the 

 free growth and exuberant aspect of Belgian Camellias, and are 

 also aware of their frequent retrogression shortly after being 

 subjected to the change the plants meet with in England. 

 Their luxuriance is called plethora, induced, as is commonly 

 supposed, by being planted out in the open ground, grown 

 quickly, lifted, and potted. This is not so. I was told that I 

 should see CameUias turned out in the open (prepared) ground 

 and gro^\ing like Laurels. In this one nursery were, at the 

 least, 500,000 CamelUas in pots — plunged, it is true, many 

 of them were, but yet each was potted ; nor in any other 

 place did I find any really planted out, save a hundred or two 

 under glass in one nursery, and these were below par as to 

 health. In saying this I do not assert that they are not 

 plethoric as we understand the term, only that it is not 

 induced by planting-out. It is but reasonable to suppose, 



