THE 
GARDENERS' CHRONI 
444 
growth. In one instance, to a certain stage of growth, 
the ribs are perpendicular, when the same plants after- 
wards assume a curvilinear direction as far as their 
ribs are concerned. The Opuntia leucotriche is well 
clothed with beautiful white hairs when grown in a 
damp heat; but in a dry heat exhibits none of this 
peculiarity. 
Having slightly touched upon the variety of form that 
the same plant exhibits, I may be permitted to say, that 
as far as form goes, this tribe admits of no competitors. 
The effect as a whole is that which no other plants can 
produce, and the individual forms are so various, and 
so determined, that there is no part of the year in which 
they do not afford enjoyment to the cultivator. As an 
instance to their applicability to arcel l forms, I 
need only mention an anecdote. I found a gentleman 
one day busily sketching, and upon app hing him 
and looking over his drawing, I found that in reality he 
had reversed Horace’s maxim, and had actually joined 
the stem of one plant to the head of another, and the 
base of a third. In explanation, he said he was invent- 
ing a new order of architecture for his friend ** Martin 
the painter.” I could have had no idea, that a form so 
consistent could have been made up of such hetero- 
geneous materials. 
During the past five years,as might have been ex- 
pected, we have flowered many curious plants, but the 
house during the past week has been one mass of flower, 
and some possessing great interest. Cereus grandi- 
florus has now flowered so often, that it almost bas 
ceased to attract ; but I have blown the C. nyeticallis, 
one of the specimens from Woburn Abbey, which is 
generally like the grandiflorus, but is much handsomer, 
being longer in allits parts, and having both the seg- 
ments of the ealyx and also the petals of far greater 
breadth than the old species. This plant has four 
angles, and is somewhat stubborn in its growth ; but I 
have just flowered another whose angles are six, and 
whose young growth is thickly covered with white setze, 
which appears to me to be perfectly new. It might be 
taken, as far as the flower is concerned, for a smaller 
one of nyeticallis, having all the relative proportions 
of that, the finest species of this section ; but itis much 
more hairy in its inflorescence, and in habit of growth, 
and in its permanent difference of angles, never can be 
mistaken. This plant was an imported one from South 
America, aud in merit must rank next to nycticallis 
before spoken of. Of Echinocactus decorus, Hyriesii, 
glaucus, tubiflorus, and their varieties, I have had a 
regular flight during the past week ; but among them 
there has been one of such intense beauty that I cannot 
help closing these remarks with a description of it. 
The plant is as nearly like Echinocactus glaueus as may 
be ; but long before it expanded, it gave signs of flower- 
ing with pink sepals. Day by day, as we watched it, 
this character continued ; and when the blossoms ex- 
panded, I think I never saw a more lovely flower. 
backs of the sepals were of the peculiar pink that is seen 
in the Cape genus Helichrysum, or Aphelexis, soften- 
ing into the most pure and satiny white; the flowers 
were of equal expanse, and the petals as broad as in 
E. Eyriesii. 
I have yet another of the same kind to flower ; upon 
examination I am convinced that this is no hybrid, but 
most probably a natural variety. The plants are im- 
ported specimens.— William Masters, Exotic Nursery, 
Canterbury. 
ENTOMOLOGY. 
Tur HOLLY-LEAF-FLY ( Phytomyza Iicis).—Even the 
rigid prickly Holly is not exempted from the attacks of 
insects: the young shoots being sometimes completely 
destroyed by caterpillars, and the leaves are frequently 
covered with blisters, which from their brown and 
pallid tints give an unhealthy and disagreeable appear- 
ance to this favourite evergreen. I remember a few 
years since, that the Hollies in the neighbourhood of 
Hampstead were covered with blotched leaves in the 
month of May (fig. 1) ; a friend also, who called my 
attention to the subject some weeks back, says, he re- 
marked at Clapton Common, that almost every leaf of 
the Hollies was infested by a subcutaneous larva, and I 
observed that others around Chiswiek were in a similar 
state. 
On lifting up the dried cuticle of the leaf on the 
upper surface, one finds either a pale greenish larva, or 
more frequently a little ochreous brown oval pupa 
(fig. 2; fig. 3, the same removed from its cell): it is 
very glossy, slightly depressed, with 10 distinct segments, 
the tail producing two minute tubercles (fig. 4, the same 
magnified). In some of the leaves I found two of 
these pupze, and on the 27th of May I bred a small 
fly from the leaves, whieh appears to be allied 
to Phytomyza nigricans of Macquart; but as our 
insect is larger, and his description is too vague to 
determine the species, i& becomes necessary to identify 
it under the name of P, Ilicis, which is appropriate 
from its inhabiting the Ilex (fig. 5; fig. 6, the natural 
dimensions). is of a greyish-brown colour, 
clothed with small black hairs and larger bristles scat- 
tered over, especially the head and thorax; the former 
is semi-ovate, transverse; the face concave and yellowish; 
eyes remote, lateral, and nearly orbicular; ocelli 3, 
placed in triangle on the crown ; the mouth projects at 
the lower part of the face, and consists of a short 
labrum, inclosed in a large fleshy bilobed lip, with two 
rather stout palpi at the base ; antennze small, inserted 
in a cavity in front of the face; they are brown, the 
three basal joints are stout, the Ist is small, the 2d bowl- 
CLE. [Jurx 4, 
sub-orbieular; to the upper edge, near the base, is 
attached a minute joint, from which arises a fine bristle, 
thickened at the base and slightly pubescent; thorax 
sub-globose, quadrate above, yellowish on the sides ; 
scutellum trigonate, the apex rounded and producing 
four long bristles ; abdomen elliptical, scarcely so broad 
as the thorax, pale at the base, with six distinet seg- 
ments in the male, and seven in the female, whieh sex 
is furnished with a retractile ovipositor ; wings incum- 
bent in repose, longer than the body, very ample, broad, 
and oval, transparent, iridescent, regularly covered with 
minute pubescence ; nervures brown, subcostal, very 
short; 2d aud 2d longitudinal, strong and straight; 
nervures near the base; halteres clubbed and bright 
yellow ; legs nearly of equal length, brownish ochre, 
clothed with black hairs; thighs stoutish ; tibiæ short, 
ochreous at the base ; tarsi as long as the shanks, aud 
five-jointed ; basal joint elongated ; claws very minute. 
Having only a single specimen, which does not appear 
to be quite mature, it is very probable the foregoing de- 
scription may require amendment, when more ample 
materials are obtained ; but as their blight appears to be 
general, it seemed to be an appropriate time for making 
the cause of it known, and I believe the history of the 
insect has not been published in any work. 
ps 
S h 
Probably all the Phytomyzas are injurious to plants, 
but they vary considerably in their habits, some de- 
positing their eggs in composite flowers, the larva living 
ia the receptacle, an dergoing i f i 
there, as exemplified in the P. lateralis, figured in 
Curtis’s “ British Entomology,” pl. 393. Another spe- 
cies, named P. nigricornis, it will be remembered, was 
illustrated in this Journal (v. 5, p. 117), in consequence 
of its attacking and disfiguring the Pansy flowers. 
Iexpect no remedy could be found for preventing the 
mischief occasioned by the Holly-leaf fly, unless any 
e | trap could be invented to decoy the winged insects. If 
it were very important to protect the plants from their 
attacks, dusting the Hollies with soot and lime, when 
they are damp with dew, might deter the flies from 
depositing their eggs on the leaves.— Ruricola. 
THE TANK SYSTEM OF HEATING. 
Tue following wood-cut represents a small plant- 
manufactory erected under my direction in a gentleman’s 
garden in this neighbourhood, for the purpose of storing 
Reference to Plan.—1, Yorkshire stones ; 2, Pipes; 3, Tank ; 
4, Plunging material ; 5, Paths ; pit A, 2-inch pipes, only to ex- 
clude frost ; B, 4-inch pipes, kept at a higher temperature; €, 
Boiler, which works either one or both pits, the whole area 
being 26feet square. 
and propagating plants for bedding out, and also for 
keeping all plants in the early stages of their growth, in 
order that the greenhouse and stove might be occupied 
NE hapen and slightly bristly, 3d the largest, compressed, | with nothing except specimen plants. My chief object, 
4th and 5th very faint and remote, with two transverse | 
however, is to point out the system of working the tank, 
which appears to me to be an improvement on the usual 
fe 
an. 
In all tanks that I have seen covered with slate, the 
plunging material was dried so much that it was found 
necessary to take up the pots and fork up the tan or 
whatever else was used, and to water it frequently, but 
by this arrangement water can be added or drawn off 
till the exaet amount of moisture is obtained ; the tank 
having a tap at one end for the purpose, and the water 
in the tank having no connection with the boiler, no dirt 
can get into it ; the tank is covered with two layers of 
pan-tiles, the upper tiles covering the joints of the lower, 
which are laid on pieces of iron placed 9 inches apart. 
The tiles are not laid in mortar, so that there is always 
a nice moisture in the plunging material, which is saw- 
dust. In the event of too much moisture occurring, the 
water is drawn off the tank, and the heat arising from 
the pipes soon dries it up, in fact, the regulation of the 
moisture is under perfect control, as the pipe may be 
only half covered, or more or less, as may seem de- 
sirable, and the moisture will be in proportion. ‘The 
pit has been at work for some time, aud gives perfect 
satisfaction. The tank is made of brick and cement.— 
R. Reid, Mr. Pamplin’s Nursery, Lea Road. 
THE AMATEUR GARDENER. 
Frower Suows.—W hen the cultivator of flowers has 
been suecessful in raising his favourites, and his par- 
terres begin to develope their beauties, he is conscious 
of a very natural desire to show his productions to 
others. The wish that our friends should admire the 
same objeets as we do is an inseparable accompani- 
ment of the amateur gardener, aud has sometimes made 
him a mark for the merriment or ridicule of those who 
are destitute of his tastes. Often have I seen an in- 
habitant of the suburbs of London who is happy in the 
possession of about two poles of ground at the back of 
his dwelling, drag an unwilling visitor round and round 
his narrow flower-beds, and din his ear with the praises 
of his Cauliflowers, or his Sweet Williams, In such 
cases the grower has links of fancy aud of feeling which 
bind him to these products of his labour and skill, of 
which the spectator is unconscious, and the unwilling 
manner in which he follows his guide reminds one of a 
bear in the Zoological Gardens, who walks about 
indeed, and locks around him enough, but would evi- 
dently get away if he could from the chain which con- 
fines him. 
But if the grower has to complain of undiscerning 
and tasteless mortals, who wonder at what they call 
his useless enthusiasm, he can always find devotees like 
himself in the nearest horticultural society, and there, 
in the presence of a company “fit, though few,” there 
will be no danger of his beauties “ wasting their sweet- 
ness on the desert air.” The tendency will rather be 
the other way, for the visitors may be so critical an 
keen in their ptions of floral 1 that your 
productions may be blamed for not having been grown 
with sufficient care, or prepared for the show with the 
proper degree of art. But do not be discouraged at 
this, but join a society at once. Get the printed lists 
of articles to be competed for as early as you can, 
and then select those in the growth of which 
you are likely to be most successful. But I 
shall presume you have done this, and are now pre- 
pared to contest the reward of excellence or superiority 
with your neighbours. A few hints derived from my 
own observation and experience, in connection with a 
society of amateurs, may not be useless in reference to 
the general subject of flower shows. 
In employing art for the purposes of successful com- 
petition, let Art always be the handmaid of Nature, to 
wait upon and follow her rules, and to confer on her à 
higher beauty. This principle should regulate the 
choice of articles to be exhibited, for some will bend 
much and others little to the care of the gardener- 
Thus, what are called florists’ flowers are always de- 
sirable objects, as they are so amazingly affected by ® 
skilful growth. But the rule is adverse to the practice 
of what is called dressing flowers, that being an opera- 
tion which more often alters than improves the subject 
of its manipulations. If by art a Carnation may pre- 
sent a form in a show-pan, which it never had or could 
have when growing on its stem in a bed, the triumph 
may be allowed in a technical point of view, but 
ought not to be admitted by a rational horticulturist- 
A Carnation grower should seek the improvement 
A of the growth of the flower, and not to be satisfied with 
i|trussing and patching up the disordered petals with 
string and cardboard. The object is to make art so to 
bear on vegetable growth, that bad habits may be cor- 
rected, and symmetry and beauty more uniformly 0%- 
tained. A visitor at a floral exhibition not initiated 
into the mysteries of flower-craft, who should see 4 
stand of Carnations, and purchase of the exhibitor OU 
the faith of their being so compact and regular, would 
in if he found the following year that 
bloom equally round their pots. The first may be ns 
attractive, merely as presenting a mass of bloom ; bu 
[there can be no doubt the latter deserve the prize, aS 
