February 26, 1874. ] 



JODKNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB, 



185 



are good, and the markets are bountifully supplied. Already, 

 in .January, early Peas are coming in. The gardens in the 

 suburbs have all rows of Peas now 4 feet high in full bloom 

 and some pods showing. Broccoli is very abundant. 



The great cultures here are Oranges, Lemons, Olives, and 

 Grapes. Of the Oranges I cannot speak in very high terms, 

 for although they look by appearance to be ripe, they really 

 wiU not be so tUl April or May. In some instances I have 

 observed the crop being gathered now, doubtless for exporta- 

 tion, as the fruit will now bear carriage better than it will 

 when fully ripe. I doubt much if they ever attain the high 

 perfection we find in the St. IVIichael's and Maltese Oranges 

 imported into England. The greatest height above the sea 

 where I have found the Orange growing is (ilO feet on the 

 terraced gardens on the mountains. The Orange is not so ex- 

 tensively cultivated as the Lemon, although the tree with- 

 stands a greater amount of cold, and is hardier, the reason 

 being that the Lemons cultivated about Mentone are said to 

 be the finest to be had in commerce. The annual produce is 

 said to be thirty millions of fruit. Every day at this season 

 the women may be seen bringing in great baskets full of fine 

 large fruit from the gardens to the merchants' stores, all of 

 which are carried on the head — such weights as almost terrify 

 one to think how these people can bear them for such dis- 

 tances as they travel. I am told that some of them come 

 from two or three miles with a load which cannot be less than 

 a hundredweight. They remind me of the Strawberry women 

 who used some years ago to carry the finest Strawberries from 

 distances about Isleworth, Twickenham, Mortlake, and Dept- 

 ford to Coveut Garden Market. This practice seems aban- 

 doned now, and the fruit is carried in carts made expressly for 

 the purpose. Some contrivance might be devised here to hberate 

 the women from such unwomanly drudgery, and one instinc- 

 tively asks why it cannot be done by mules, which perform 

 every other carrying work that is needful between the town 

 and the mountains. I am told the Lemon blooms aU the year, 

 and that it produces four successional crops. There are places 

 here where essences are extracted in large quantities from the 

 Orange and Lemon peels, and this forms one of the important 

 commercial products of the place. One of the largest of 

 these is conducted by the Mayor, M. Medecin, and the large 

 merchant of the town in the finest Lemons has his magazine 

 in front of the window where I now write. 



The Olive tree grows here in great luxuriance, and attains 

 an enormous size and great age. I measured one near the 

 Borigo valley, a very old tree, which 2 feet from the ground 

 was 18 feet in circumference. The trunk was very deeply 

 furrowed, and the tree itself, which is now becoming rather 

 bare and " stag-headed," resembles in its old age one of our 

 old trees of Sahx alba. The Olive may be said to be the tree 

 of the country. Wherever you see a shade of sombre green 

 be assured it is an Olive. In ascending the mountains I found 

 it cultivated to the height of between 1300 and 1400 feet, and 

 then it ceased to give place to Chestnuts, Walnuts, and Figs. 

 The OUve seems to be a tree of great vitality, for however old 

 it may be, and however denuded its branches are, there is 

 always a crop of strong suckers emitted round the trunk and 

 from the roots. Some of the trees I have seen must be many 

 centuries old, and from them we can gather how long these 

 terraced gardens in this country, which reach even to the top 

 of the highest hills, have been made; for on the way to 

 S. Agnese, 1300 feet above the sea, I saw some patriarchal 

 trees, now going to decay, occupying their original place on the 

 top of the retaining wall of the terrace. — Pi., Mentone. 



THE BEAUTIFUL AND USEFUL INSECTS OP 

 OUR GAEDENS.— No. 16. 

 I.N a locahty which shall be nameless here an individual 

 resides who is not by any means a bad amateur gardener, and 

 who cultivates the study of zoology as well as horticulture. 

 The former he has managed to turn to a practical purpose 

 in his garden, and sundry four-legged creatures roam there 

 upon which many persons look with suspicion, and perhaps 

 disgust. Vou walk up to one of the sheltered walls to examine 

 his fruit trees, and on the ground, snugly ensconced in an 

 angle of the wall, and reposing there after he has been ban- 

 queting upon a host of snails, a huge toad leers up at you. 

 As you sit in his summer-house you hear a strange rustling 

 under the seat, and presently from a corner outwalks a hedge- 

 hog, introduced to the domain on account of its appetite for 

 insects, especially beetles. Birds of various species, some of 



which are, at least occasionally, guilty of touching in a garden 

 what they should leave alone, though they usually prey upon 

 insects, are freely tolerated or even encouraged. Most aston- 

 ishing of all, and provocative of screams on the part of lady 

 visitors, in one plot of ground which is entirely shut-in our 

 friend allows several blindworms to range about and feast on 

 slugs and snails, or insects should they so incline. I have no 

 doubt that Mr. Wood is right in asserting that this harmless 

 and sadly abused Uzard is really as good a friend to a garden 

 or field as is the thrush, only from the way ia which it works 

 nobody observes how much service it renders us. But I was 

 going to add that our worthy friend with aU his acuteness is 

 not awake to the value of insect helps in enabling us to keep 

 some troublesome species in check. For instance, if I were to 

 propose to him the introduction into his garden of a colony of 

 laurying beetles he would probably shake his head, though he 

 knows something about the habits of these insects, and argue 

 that though they might do a httle good by interring certain 

 objects which are better laid under the mould, they would 

 probably also make free with the roots and tubers of plants ; 

 also he might, perhaps, urge that the burying beetles, unlike 

 intelligent bipeds, will exercise no judgment in then- work. If 

 they found a dead bird it is all but certain they would dig its 

 grave on the spot, whereas the gardener might thiak that it 

 would prove a desirable fertiliser in a different place. A strong 

 prejudice which we most of us imbibed at early chUdhood, and 

 which leads us to be suspicious of the insect races generally, 

 helps to limit the encouragement given to useful species. 



Many, more particularly those which may be called " dark- 

 ling insects," because their labours are carried on at night, or 

 beneath the surface of the earth or some other substance, do 

 us benefit and we know nothing about it ; they come into the 

 horticulturist's territory unasked, and it must be admitted 

 they do not destroy noxious species out of pure kindness, but 

 for their own benefit. The burying beetles and some of kin- 

 dred habit, may be said to be of service to us in two ways — 

 firstly, by burying or devouring dead animals which might 

 render the air not only noxious to human health, but also 

 hurtful to plants ; and secondly, they help to fertilise the soil 

 by placing beneath it matters very useful when decomposed, 

 towards which decomposition the beetles lend their aid. The 

 beetles now under consideration belong to the section called 

 Ehypophaga, or, in plain English, FUth-eaters ; and it must 

 be owned that the habits of both the land and the water species 

 are a little offensive to our refined notions. The water beetles, 

 indeed, prey both on land and in their usual element, which 

 they quit at night occasionally. These are furnished with 

 hind legs, which serve as paddles ; they are the PhUhydridic, 

 or Water-lovers. Next to them is the group of the burying 

 beetles which have legs fitted for running, short and square 

 wing-cases, and antenna; clubbed, the club or knob being large 

 and round. Like the vultures, these carrion-seekers of the 

 insect race are endowed with strong wings, which enable them 

 to travel, when needful, long distances after the objects which, 

 unhke most birds of prey, they can rarely discover by sight, 

 hut by smell or some sense unknown to us. 



The Necrophori are more common in rural districts where 

 habitations are sparingly distributed than they are in the 

 vicinity of large towns. Possibly they consider that where the 

 latter exist men ought to take upon themselves the duty of 

 scavengers, and not require much aid from the insect world. 

 Walls will not exclude them from a garden should they be 

 desirous of entering it ; and where there is one of these to be 

 seen we may be almost certain that there are others not far off, 

 for it is their wonted plan to work in parties. Strong and 

 persevering as these insects are while at their toil, which is not 

 so much for the benefit of themselves, but of their offspring, 

 they could not succeed in some of their endeavours if they did 

 not work together, and also on a mutual understanding. Not 

 only may they be called gravediggers, they are also undertakers, 

 for they take under whatever object it be upon which their 

 attention is concentrated. Nor does it cease to be regarded 

 with interest even after it has been hidden from view; for 

 after a dead animal has been decently buried these beetles 

 enter the earth themselves, or at all events the females do. 

 It is beyond the power of the Necrophori to remove a quadru- 

 ped, bird, or fish of any size from the place where they find it, 

 so their plan is to sink a hole beneath the body and remove 

 the earth which presses around it as it sinks into the cavity, 

 until at last it is brought several inches below the surface, 

 when by a continuance of the labour the earth is filled-in. 

 Figuier says that the depth at which a carcase is laid is from 



