| 36... Posen 
THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. 
[JAN. 17, - 
| should have been necessary to call over foreigners 
to do that which can be better done in England, 
and our wishes have occasionally led us into the 
too sanguine belief that some spirited manufacturer 
in this country would break through the monopoly 
which has enabled afew glass-houses to keep up what- 
| ever price they thought fit to fix upon this indis- 
i 4 pensable commodity. Until now we have been dis- 
| appointed in our expectations; but the time at 
il last has arrived when the great object of our ex- 
li ertions is attained, and English sheet-glass can now 
| be had at a price nearly approaching that of foreign. 
i} It will have been remarked that several advertise- 
ments to that effect have, of late, been inserted in 
our columns. We have inquired into the history of 
the glass so offered, and we have examined samples ; 
we can now state that the manufacture is that of 
Mr. Harrtey, of Newcastle, whom we have always 
looked to as the vindicator of the English glass re- 
putation, and that the quality is excellent. We do 
not mean to say that the price is yet as low as it 
| will be ;+but it is certainly as low as in reason can 
| be expected, and all our criticism is thus disarmed. 
It is also most important to observe that the glass- 
| cutters’ imposition of charging more for glass in pro- 
| portion as the cutting costs less,is utterly abandoned ; 
il und nobody of any spirit will ever again be exposed 
it to being cheated in that way. Of course the price 
| of English glasa will be regulated by the amount of 
duty levied upon foreign glass, the latter being, in 
fact, a kind of bounty upon the former, and, there- 
fore, so long as the duty is 14d. per lb., the English 
glass vendor will continue to charge so much more 
for his glass than he will take when the said lid. 
Í duty is discontinued.’ Nor do we blame him 
iH for doing so ; he has a fair right to the advantage 
i if he can use it, 
| And now we will beg our readers to cast their 
| eyes on the following Table, and study it with a 
| little care. They will then see whether or not our 
I advice to them to wait was good. They will here 
| find that if the Government measure reduced the 
| price of glass from 1s. 7d. to lld., and from 3s. 4d. 
to ls. 10d. a foot, the course which was taken in 
li aid of that measure has caused a further reduction 
i of Lld. to 3d. and of 1s; 10d. to 53d. ; and they 
will also see that after October 1846 and 1847, the 
il prices must of necessity fall still lower. In other 
| words a greenhouse which would have cost, before 
i á April 1845, 1007. for glazing it, may now have its 
| glass furnished for less than 134. Surely this has 
been worth contending for. 
for the most part, comparatively productive. The fruit 
trees grow away and thrive luxuriantly, and this con- 
tinues to go on for some years before any sign of un- 
healthiness presents itself, And why is this? The 
answer is obvious : the roots are rambling amongst open 
and fresh trenched soil, where the sun has some influ- 
ence. They are not beyond its reach, and healthy and 
vigorous action proceeds for some time, The fruit 
produced is generally of excellent quality, and why 
should this not continue so? Our answer is, that 
under good gardening it does. 
No gardener thoroughly initiated in the practical part 
of his profession now thinks of digging a hole as if he 
was in search of a spring, and of thrusting the roots of 
a tree of any kind two or three feet under the surface 
of soil embedded in manure; such an one would as soon 
think of planting the head downwards, because he well 
knows that the result would be pretty nearly similar. 
How can it be supposed that trees thus circumstanced 
can continue long to exist, much more thrive and bear 
fruit? The roots soon get beyond the loose soil, pene- 
trate the subsoil, and are immediately out of the reach 
of atmospheric influences, and that too in a material 
containing none of the elements likely to cause fruitful- 
ness; and this subsoil, moreover, may be wet—a cir- 
cumstance not quite so apparent to our eyesight as the 
barrenness of our trees and the nakedness of our walls. 
Supposing, however, that the bottom of the border is not 
wet, and that the subsoil is naturally dry, the trees not- 
withstanding remain as unhealthy and as unproductive 
as if it were so. Gardeners who know what they are 
about know well that subsoil of any kind, whether it is 
clay,gravel, sand,or fine loam, isnot the place for the roots 
of trees to growin. That there are other evils to be 
guarded against quite as injurious and destructive in 
their consequences as wet bordersis well-known; because 
all gardens are not naturally placed in damp situations ; 
on the contrary, this is avoided‘as much as possible; the 
best soil and the healthiest locality is usually chosen, as 
it should be, for the vegetable and fruit garden, still the 
evils we have been diseussing exist, and that, too, to a 
lamentable extent, in spite of capital soil and the most 
favoured sites our country affords. We know of many 
gardens whieh were wet and the soil naturally retentive, 
indeed London clay (and it would be puzzling to find 
anything less calculated for garden purposes than this), 
which, by perseverance and skill, have been rendered 
productive and fruitful to an astonishing extent. The 
first step to accomplish this was to drain the ground 
efficiently, then to expose the soil to the action of the 
elements, tumbling it about in right earnest, and occa- 
sionally adding small quantities of sand and other cor- 
rectives ; thus, in a very short period, Peaches, Pears, 
and, in fact, all kinds of fruit, have been produced in 
the highest perfection, where Willows and Alders alone 
could maintain a footing. 
t is marvellous what great results good garden- 
ing will accomplish. ow many evils which had 
long appeared insuperable will disappear under skilful 
superintendence boldly carried out. We are convinced 
that half the gardens in the country, which are in ‘a 
state bordering upon absolute barrenness, may either 
be letely cured, or, at least, to a very great extent, 
| 
d 
i Ix eae After 
| ier duty} Without | Now, |'s rer Oct.,|Oct.1847 
" efore |duty after| with a vence batts 
l Sizes, | AUT il 1846, with| with a 
iu OL DI nep GU oe daty omina] 
| | 845. 1845." | duty, |* 44 duty-jnomin 
| | 
i Ind. s.djd. s.d. a ala. d.d. d. 
li Gby4to9by7|1 4 to 1 7710011 |2 to3 lj to 24|} to 1 
j 2.14 to208to1 0) 
| [16102 38to1 3 
j 116 to 268101 4 i 
li 1710299101 ort to 533} to 43/3 to 4 
i -.17 to 3 09to1 8 
i 18 to 3 4,9 to110 
a 
D. Weexty Prices or Poratozs per ton, in Covent 
| | arden Market, in 1844, 1845, and 1846. 
| | 1844-5. | Í 1845.6. 
| November .16 | 50s. to 50s.| November.15 70s. to 130s. 
| 23| 50 I 22 70 — 130 
i 30|50  75| 29 80 140 
| December... 7 | 50 75 | December.., 6} 80 160 
| 50 70 | 13/80 — 160 
i | 20| 80 160 
| | 27| 80 — 160 
i | . 9380 . 160 
i 10| 80 160 
i 17| 80 160 
W an 
| : BL YE 
D 45s. to 705.| 24| 50s. to 120 
n December.. 2 70 |Deecember.. 1| 50 120 
i 9 70 || 8 50 120 
16| 70 | *:115|.50 120 
23| 50 70 | 2250 120 
30|55 75 || 29 50 — 120 
Jas. ie j 120 
120 
FRUIT TREE BORDERS. 
ArTHOUGH the attention of almost everybody con- 
cerned in horticulture has of late years more particu- 
larly been drawn to, the unfruitfulness of their trees, 
still the evil does not seem to be cured; it remains 
almost precisely where it was: sterility and canker 
characterise many a costly garden; death annually 
_ produces large patches of bare wall, these are succeeded 
Nb ngiand for the moment healthy plants, which in 
of a year or two betray alk the symptoms of 
disease, and this kind of filling up goes on 
ear, with the same success. A wall is a 
and when the return is nothing, we cannot 
complaints are numerous. Let us examine 
this matter. Newly formed gardens are, 
E 
3 
SHO 
TONG 
us 
NOBWAS 
pletely 
rendered fruitful by the adoption of vigorous and well- 
maturedj{measures ;-and ‘the everlasting cry of bad 
soil, bad, situation, too frequently the result of bad 
management, or the original formation of the gardens 
improperly executed, will be entirely done away with. 
it is worth while to possess a garden at all, 
it is surely worth a consideration whether or not 
it shall remain a mere waste, “a withered spot.” 
That from which most is expected is often the least pro- 
ductive, not for the want of manure possibly, but from 
ignorance of the principles necessary to productiveness. 
Every discussion on the subject will bring us to under- 
stand more perfectly the absolute necessity of complete 
drainage, and next to that complete trenching, to enable 
the moisture to reach the soil, instead of remaining 
a hard solid mass, as impenetrable to air as to the 
roots of trees, and in truth quite unsuitable for all 
garden purposes.—One who has handled the Spade. 
ENTOMOLOGY. 
Proctorrurss viator.—After the number of Essays 
that have appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, to illus- 
trate the economy of insects, it seems to be unnecessary 
to insist farther upon the utility of such investigations, 
the interest they ought to create, or the satisfaction to 
be derived from the ication of fresh di: i 
amongst these wonderful little creatures. My stock of 
materials is far from being exhausted; and it now 
affords me much pleasure to make known the history of 
a parasitic insect whose economy has hitherto been 
hidden in obscurity. There is a genus of the tribe of 
Pseudo-Icl idze, ealled P. pes, prising 
nearly 20 British species,* which are either met with 
on flowers, in shady groves, or in Moss, at the roots 
of Grass, under stones, &c. 
The female, which is furnished with a Strong curved 
ovipositor, insinuates herself into chinks in the earth and 
amongst the clods, and there searches for subterranean 
larvz of other insects, in whose bodies she lays a con- 
Siderable number of eggs, which produce maggots that 
live upon, and consequently destroy, the larvae. Bier- 
kander, a Swedish naturalist, and the author of the “ Re- 
ports upon the Insects Affecting the Corn Crops,” in- 
serted in the fifth volume of the “ Royal Agricultural 
Journal,” mentions the maggots of an Ichneumon which 
infest the true wireworms of the Elater ; they were not 
* Curtis's “Brit, Ent.," pl. & fol. 744; and “ Guide Genera,” 575. 
able to rear them; but I now think there can be little 
doubt they would have produced the Proctotrupes, 
which is ordained to attack and keep in check that 
scourge of the cultivator. 
; In gardening operations, one frequently turns up with 
the spade, especially in the spring, a yellowish-white 
larva, about an inch long and slightly hairy ; the head 
is of a chestnut colour, furnished with slender feelers, 
little horns, and a pair of strong curved black jaws ; it 
has six pectoral feet, with a horny ferruginous thorax, 
two jointed feelers at the tail, and an anal foot, This 
animal I used to consider the offspring of one of the 
Carabidze, possibly of a Harpalus, or of Steropus madi- 
dus; but I cannot say that it may not be one of the larger 
Staphylinidee; for scarcely anything is at present known 
pecting these col larvae, which are execed- 
ingly difficult to rear ; this, however, does not affect the 
question; for a friend sent me a small elod of damp 
earth from his garden the middle of last August, con- 
taining a cell in which was a dead larva, like the one 
above described ; the body was curved and distorted, 
and from the ventral segments were protruded 
about two dozen white pupæ with black eyes (fig. 1, the 
case, larva, and pups); the. antenns, legs, and 
contour, could be distinctly traced through the thin skin 
which shrouded them ; fig. 2, one of the pups magni- 
fied. On the 27th and the day or two following, at least 
half of them hatched, producing one male, and the re- 
mainder females, of Proctotrupes viator I believe, a 
species described by Mr. Haliday. 
e male is black and shining ; the head is trans- 
verse-oval, clothed with short, soft, yellowish pubescence; 
antenne not so long as the body, filiform or slightly 
tapering, b d, pul ano T d, of 
pitehy colour, and 13-jointed (basal joint the stoutest) ; 
obovate, 2d minute, 3d elongated, the following 
slightly decreasing in length, the apical one longer and 
tapering ; ocelli 3, large, forming a triangle on the 
crown; eyes somewhat lateral and orbicular ; thorax 
long and narrow, clothed with fine pubescence ; collar 
very short and eompressed ; scutellum small and semi- 
ovate, very convex; metathorax oval, rough, with a 
small tubercle or spiracle on each side at the base, and 
a five-raised line down the back ; pedicel a little elon- 
gated, roughly punctured ; abdomen shorter than the 
thorax and broader, convex, ovate conic, the apex 
pointed and furnished with two short appendages ; it is 
exceedingly smooth, inclining to brownish-black, and 
composed of six segments, of which four are distinct, 
the first covering more than half the body, the base a 
little striated ; the edge is pale, and the apex is some- 
what ochraceous; wings 4, ample, slightly dusky, iride- ' 
scent, pubescent ; superior with a costal and subcostal’ ’ 
brown nervure, terminating beyond the middlein a pitehy 
stigma, which entirely occupies the cell, with a small 
suffused brown spot below it ; in this respect it differs 
from all my other species, in which there is a clear, 
space between the outer edge of the stigma and 
the nervure forming the triangle ;* the other longitudinal 
nervures are indistinct ; inferior wings smaller, nerve- 
less; legs slender, ochreous-orange ; thighs a little 
thickened; shanks with spurs at the apex; tarsi 
5-jointed, anterior the shortest, hinder the longest; basal 
joint long ; apex fuscous; claws and pulviil blackish. 
Female similar but rather larger (fig. 3, the cross lines 
at fig. 4 showing the natural dimensions) ; the antennae 
are scarcely so long, slightly thickened to the extremity, 
which is fuscous, the basal joints being ferruginous ; the 
abdomen is longer, the segments very indistinct, and it 
is terminated by a stout incurved ovipositor, formed of 
two strong striated sheaths, inclosing two others, slender 
and pointed, which, with a third valve, form the oviduct; 
the legs are bright, ferruginous, the hinder coxse 
blackish, except at the tips ; the wings are rather 
smaller, with the suffused spot a little more distinct.— 
Ruricola. 
MYRTLES. 
THE ABOTH, OR TRIPLE-LEAVED MYRTLE, 
Tue accompanying specimen of MmrLE is of the 
kind named by the Jews Aboth, and is one of the four 
plants they use in the celebration of the Feast of, 
‘Tabernacles ; the others being the Citron, Date Palm, 
and Willow. . It is distinguished by its tendency to dis- 
pose its leaves in triplets, instead of in pairs, subject 
however to considerable variation; the leaves being 
sometimes in regular triplets ; sometimes in pairs, with 
intermediate single leaves at right angles with the 
others, the single leaf being alternately on opposite sides 
of the stem ; sometimes in single leaves only, which are 
placed alternately on three sides of the stem. The 
* Qürtis's * Brit, Ent.” pl. and fol. 744. 
