122 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Febniary 5, 1874. 



and feeding upon an aquatic plant. The caterpillar is very hairy, 

 and the supply of air necessary for its support was apparently 

 entangled in its hairs, the larva breathiug, in the usual manner 

 of caterpillars, by means of small spiracles along the sides of 

 the body. 



The President gave an account of a small mass of cocoons 

 recently found attached to a pot in which a Rose tree was grow- 

 ing, and which on being opened were found to contain cater- 

 pillars of the common Yellow-tail Moth, not more than a quarter 

 grown ; the cocoons, therefore, were only their winter quarters, 

 and not the ordinary cocoons of the chrysalis. It was stated 

 that the larvre of the Satin Moth also spin cocoons in which 

 they pass the winter gregariously. Mr. Stainton had likewise 

 noticed that the larvse of Nepticula were gregarious in the 

 young state. Mr. Butler called attention to a memoir by Mr. 

 Eiley, the State entomologist of Missouri, U.S., on the American 

 species of butterflies of the genus Apatura, and on the curious 

 manner in which the chrysalis, instead of being suspended by 

 the tail, is fixed against its support. A letter from M. Olivier 

 was read, stating that he had recently come into possession of 

 a portion of the collection of his grandfather, the celebrated 

 French coleopterist, which was in good condition, and which he 

 should be happy to exhibit to any entomologist who might be 

 desirous of verifying the Olivierian types. Unfortunately the 

 CarabidiB and Longicorns were lost. 



Mr. F. Smith read a monograph on the wood-boring bees of 

 the genus Xylocopa, and Dr. Sharp read descriptions of the 

 Pselaphidffi and Scydmonidffi collected by Mr. Lewis in Japan. 



The anniversary meeting of this Society was held on the 

 26th January, at Burlington House, the President being in the 

 chair, when reports from the Council were read showing the 

 satisfactory state of the Society, and especially commenting on 

 the great value of the memoirs published in its Transactions 

 during the past year. An address was also delivered by the 

 retiring President on the recent progress of the science, which 

 was ordered to be printed. On a ballot the following gentlemen 

 were elected officers of the Society : Sir Sidney S. Saunders, 

 President; B. McLachlon, Esq., Treasurer ; Messrs. Grut and 

 Verrall, Secretaries; and Mr. Janson, Librarian; and Messrs. 

 Boyd, Dunning, F. Moore, and Meldola were elected into the 

 Council. 



MILDNESS OF THE WINTER IN EAST 

 LOTHIAN. 



I SEND yon herewith a bloom of Sweet Pea picked to-day 

 (January 30th), in the garden of Mr. Dods, farmer at Congalton 

 near North Berwick, where a patch of mixed Sweet Peas has 

 been growing and flowering all winter, intertwined in a large 

 bush of the common China Rose, which is tliickly furnished 

 with blowing and full-blown Roses ; and both have afforded 

 supplies of cut flowers up to this date. Here also a fine plant 

 of Sweet Baj" is now thicldy covered with swollen flower buds, 

 and the Laurustinus is clothed almost to snowy whiteness with 

 fully expanded floral corymbs ; these two, as well as the Alex- 

 andrian Laurel, being seemingly as luxuriant in growth as if 

 they were in their native climes of Southern Europe and North 

 Africa. In the surrounding fields and waste places many 

 common weeds are flowering and seeding as freely as at mid- 

 summer, such as the common Sow-thistle and purple Lamium, 

 of which sprigs are enclosed ; as also the common annual 

 Fumitory, Annual Meadow-grass, duckweed, Groundsel, and 

 many others. 



In the pastures the Daisies with " their snawy bosoms sun- 

 ward spread " contrast beautifully with the verdant grassy 

 herbage. There also Buttercups occasionally show their golden 

 heads. By the roadsides Dandelions are by no means unfre- 

 quent ; while under the hedges those in-some-parts favourite 

 spinaceous esculents, the common Nettle and Robin-run-the- 

 hedge, are sufliciently advanced to be gathered for culinary 

 purposes. 



In the fields the Swedish Turnips and such of the fewrongh- 

 leaved sorts that still remain are rapidly starting up to flower. 

 Young grass almost entirely conceals the stubble of last year, 

 and in many of the warmer-lying fields it already assumes 

 the appearance of " windroUing " when passed over by gentle 

 breezes. In the orchards the expanding yellowish buds of Pear 

 trees are conspicuous ; and still more, in the woods are the 

 golden buds of the Balsam Poplar, and tlie silvery ones of 

 the earlier WUlows, the " siller saughs wi' downy buds " of 

 Burns. 



Congalton is on a low south-lying slope of that trap rock 

 district in the north-east portion of the county which culmi- 

 nates in North Berwick Law, the Bass Rock, and other less 



important eminences, and which is bounded on the east and 

 north by the German Ocean and the broad estuary of the Frith 

 of Forth. In its immediate vicinity " snabs," or small hiUocks 

 of trap, are frequently protruded, upon many of which the 

 pretty Maiden Pink, Dianthus deltoides, is remarkably abun- 

 dant ; and the Crow Garlic is so common that its root-bulbs, as 

 well as compact cone-like heads of small bnlbels, are gathered 

 for stewing and pickling. — William Gobrie, Edinburgh, 



AGRICULTUBAL RETURNS OF GREAT BRITAIN 

 FOR 1873. 



The following are extracts from the Report of the Chief of 

 the Statistical Department of the Board of Trade : — 



As the prevalence of allotments is a subject of interest irs 

 connection with questions relating to the condition of agricul- 

 tural labourers and artisans, the inquiry as to allotments was 

 renewed in the present year, and made, as far as practicable, 

 to extend to all garden allotments detached from the houses oi 

 agricultural labourers and artisans. 



The return shows there were in 187.3 as many as 24G,000 

 allotments of land in Great Britain, of which 242,000 were in 

 England, 1700 in Wales, and 2100 in Scotland. The practice 

 of letting land in small allotments detached from cottages is 

 not nearly so common in Wales and Scotland as in England; 

 and even in England, as will be seen by the table of allot- 

 ments in each county, allotments are comparatively few in the 

 northern districts. Differences in rates of wages and of local 

 agricultural customs affecting the support of the labourers, as 

 well as in the number of small holdings above the size of aUob- 

 ments, are no doubt some of the causes that make garden 

 allotments more or less numerous in different parts of the 

 country. 



The total extent of land let in garden allotments in Great 

 Britain in 187.S was .59,631 acres, which shows almost exactly 

 an average of one-quarter of an acre for each allotment, and 

 the average for England is the same. The average size of 

 allotments varies, however, in the different English counties. 

 In twenty-four counties, in which there were altogether 122,00i!> 

 allotments, the average size may be said to vary from one- 

 eighth to one-quarter of an acre. In eighteen counties, in 

 which there were altogether 120,000 allotments, the average 

 size may be said to vary from one-quarter to one-half of an 

 acre. One-eighth of an acre is the quantity of land usually 

 considered as much as can be thoroughly cultivated by an 

 employed agricultural labourer in his spare time. 



The extent of arable or grass land used for fruit trees of any 

 kind in Great Britain in 1873 was returned as 148,221 acres 

 This is a smaller acreage than was returned in 1872, but tho 

 decrease has chiefly occurred in consequence of incorrect 

 returns under this head in previous years, in those parts of 

 England where fruit trees are not extensively planted, and in 

 Wales. The land returned as under fruit trees does not con- 

 stitute a separate portion of the cultivated area of the country, 

 as the greater part of land so employed is also returned as 

 under green crops or grass. 



The extent of market gardens in Great Britain in 1873 was- 

 37,884 acres. Of this number 34,743 acres were in England — - 

 the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Kent, and Surrey, contain- 

 ing 15,.')42 acres, or 44.7 per cent, of the market-garden land 

 in England. 



Less land was planted with Potatoes in the United Kingdom 

 in 1873 than in 1872 by 138,000 acres, or about i) per cent. 

 The decrease in Great Britain was 49,000 acres, and in Ireland 

 88,000 acres. The general failure of the crop in 1872 tended 

 to diminish the cultivation of the Potato in 1873. 



1869. 1870. 1871. 1872. 1873. 



I England 356,829 . . 358,890 . . 391,531 . . 839,056 . . S09,41» 

 Wales 49,107.. 48,620.. 51,863.. 48,417.. 4-},93S 

 Scotland 179,275 . . 180,169 . . 18»,307 . . 176,615 . . 160,827 

 

 Great Britain. . 585,211 . . 687,661 . . 627,691 . . 564,008 . . 514,66a 



A CENTURY OF ORCHIDS FOR AMATEUR 

 GROWERS.— No. 19. 



ONCIDIDM. 



-'V FEW members of this extensive genus claim our attentioa 

 in this portion of our task, although our prescribed numbers 

 render it necessary that they should be few. In the present 

 enumeration those kinds have been selected which are remark- 



