Domestic Notices : — England^ 675 



much superior in other respects to the other part of the field, which suf- 

 fered greatly. Thus encouraged by these results, I sowed the next year a 

 whole field of forty-two acres, which had never repaid me for nineteen 

 years, in consequence of nearly every crop being destroyed by the wire- 

 worm, and I am warranted in stating that not a single wire-worm could be 

 found the following year, and the crop of wheat thi-oughout, which was 

 reaped last harvest, was superior to any I had grown for twenty-one years. 

 I am, therefore, under a strong persuasion, that the wire-worm may be suc- 

 cessfully repelled and eradicated, by carefully destroying all weeds and roots, 

 and drilling white mustard seed, and keeping the gi*ound clean by hoeing." 

 {Countri/ Times, Sept. 1831.) 



The reason seems to be, that the wire-worm cannot eat the roots of the 

 mustard, most probably from their acridity, and there being no other roots 

 in the soil for them to live on, and no weeds or other plants than mustard 

 permitted to grow during the season, the insects necessarily die of famine. 

 — Co7id^ 



A Larch Tree, cut down at Wallington, Northumberland, in May, 1831, 

 measured 88 ft. in length ; at the base 8 ft. 4 in. in circumference, at the 

 lieight of 40 ft., 5 ft. 10 in., and at 70 ft. 2 ft. 4 in. The age of the tree 

 was about eighty years. (^Jamesoii s Jmirnal, Oct. 1831, p. 393.) 



Roses on a Tovib. — At Barnes, in the county of Surrey, is a monument 

 surrounded by rose trees, consecrated to the memory of a London citizen, 

 whose name was Rose. To perpetuate the enclosure, he left the poor of 

 the parish twenty pounds ; and, in return, directed that they should tal<:e 

 care that the rose trees should be perpetually preserved. (^Bucke's Beauties, 

 Sfc., of Nature,) 



The Rouge Plant. — We noticed, at p. 99., that Dr. Hamilton of Ply- 

 mouth had received from Mr. D. Fanning, at the Caraccas, seeds of a 

 species of Eivma, the juice of the berries of which is used at the Caraccas 

 as rouge. Some of these seeds, given last year by Dr. Hamilton to Mr. 

 Pontey, have, under the skill and care of Mr. Pontey's foreman, Mr. Curtin, 

 grown, and even already produced fruit. A raceme of the berries and a 

 leaf have been sent to us by Dr. Hamilton, who, after careful examination, 

 finds the plant quite distinct from both Riviufl Ise\is and R. humilis, and 

 he has therefore provisionally named it R. tinctoria, expressive of the 

 colouring propeity resident in the juice of its berries. We suggest that 

 the plant may possibly prove the R. canescens of Willdenow, as in its 

 foliage and whole surface it is pubescent and canescent. Dr. Hamilton 

 has also sent us a drawing of Papaver somniferum (made by Miss Jane 

 Hamlyn of Plymouth, a lady whose drawings obtained from the Society of 

 Arts, a few years since, the gold Isis medal), the petals of which are 

 coloured with the juice of the berries of this Rivina, and the effect is satis- 

 factory. On the applicability of the berries to the purposes of colouring. 

 Dr. Hamilton is quite sanguine, and remarks as follows : — The juice of 

 the berries yields a rich and beautiful carmine red stain, affording a singular 

 and novel tint for water-colour drawings, which, if permanent, will prove a 

 valuable acquisition. . . . The tint may be easily varied ; and from this 

 juice a fine lake might, I am confident, be prepared in the same manner as 

 those from the madder (/fubia tinctorum), the safflower {Carthamus tincto- 

 rius), and other vegetable substances ; or, possibly, the dried berries might, 

 by trituration with water, be made to give out their colour : at all events, 

 the subject merits farther enquiry." 



We have given the berries both of R. tinctoria and of R. humilis, sent 

 for the sake of contrast, and which contain seeds, to Mr. Campbell, with 

 whom they have germinated, and produced plants ; from these we shall, 

 after a time, be able to submit specimens to some London botanist. Of 

 Rivina there are seven species cultivated in English stoves j most of them 



X X 2 



