550 
* 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 
im 
[Awe. 15, 
bees will likewise work crumbs of honey-combs over 
again. Mr. Payne, of Bury, mentioned this to me, and 
I have found the statement to be correct.— W. 
Mr Crosses Acarus (Acarus Crossei) —1 have read 
with pleasure Mr. Weekes's communieation (p. 517 
relating to the subject of the Acarus, which has excited 
so much interest, from its connection with certain s 
vanie éxperimenis made bv Andraz Crosse, Esq, of 
»rvommeld, and which is now known as the A. Crossei. 
He has done justice, but not more than justice, to b 
l and a 
the pairing season I am well aware, and am inclined to 
believe that such is the object of the woodpecker when 
thus employed. The point on which I seek for inform- 
ation is, the method adopted by so small an agent to 
) | enable it produce so great a sound. The retired shy- 
ness of this bird is a great obstacle to our hecoming in- 
telv Acquainted with its habits and economy.—J, 
Wighton. 
The Tea-tree.—Observing a query respecting the 
origin of the name of Tea-tree as applied to the Lycium 
character of this as a p p 
Christian. But it is not only that I may have the gra- 
tification of adding my humble testimony in favour of 
an estimable man and a most ingenious philosopher, 
that I solicit a little space in your columns, I wish also 
to state that the insect, so, far from being known only 
in the laboratory at Broomfield, as appears to be gene- 
rally supposed, is of frequent occurrence wherever a 
suitable nidus exists, or is made for it. It was in the 
autumn of 1837, that, by invitation from Andrew Crosse, 
I first saw the insects at his house ; and the opinion I then 
formed, and which I have ever since entertained, is, that 
the damp galvanic apparatus, together with the materials 
used, form a nidus adapted to their development from 
ova or germs, just as a diseased plant becomes a nidus 
for aphides ; the mode in which they are produced, or 
the way by which they are brought to the nidus remain- 
ing as unknown in the one ease asin the other. At 
the same time it oceurred to me that it was possible, 
perhaps probable, that in both cases electric influence 
vivified the ova, or in some way assisted in the deve- 
lopment of the insects; and that this development 
might be accelerated or retarded according as the 
electric influence, whether natural or artificial, were 
applied or withheld ; in the same way that the time of 
the development of all oviparous animals depends on the 
application of the stimulus required to vivify the 
eggs. With these views it’occurred to me whe- 
ther the Acari could not be made to appear 
simply by making the proper nidus for them, 
without the aid of the galvanic apparatus; and 
accordingly I made the very simple experiment 
of putting into a small glass vessel filled with water 
piece of common soap, choosing soap in preference to 
any other soluble substance because it contains potash, 
one of the materials used by Andrew Crosse. Another 
of the ingredients, silex, was contained in the substance 
of the glass vessel. I certainly had but little expecta- 
tion that from this experiment the Acari would appear, 
and it was therefore with surprise that 12 days after I 
saw one of them on the edge of the vessel. The next 
day three appeared, and afterwards a larger number. I 
informed Andrew Crosse of this result, and he came to 
see the Acari, and immediately said they were identical 
with those which had appeared about his apparatus. 
They have since been caused to appear by several ex- 
periments, if possible still more simple than my own, 
which have been made by one of my friends. He is of 
the opinion, not that the ova previously exist in any of 
the materials used, but that when a suitable pabulum is 
prepared, the insects come and feed upon it, and deposit 
their ova; and that in order to make this pabulum, 
nothing more is required: than to put an old piece of 
board in a rather damp place, and keep it constantly of 
the required degree of dampness. He remarks that 
the first action of the moisture is to produce mouldi- 
ness, or minute fungi, and he thinks it is these that the 
insects come to feed upon. The board may be kept 
damp, by placing on it a common flower pan filled with 
water, which would ooze slowly through its porous sub- 
Stance.— T. Clarke, junior, Halesleigh, Bridgewater. 
Malt Dust,—This hot weather has set us all to work 
to find the best materials to mulch trees, Roses, &c. I 
have found that Malt-dust spread about half an inch 
thick acted most perfectly in keeping in the moisture. 
After the first shower of rain, or the lieation of the 
p , I may mention that I have seen it stated 
in Loudon's * Arboretum Britannieum" that the Lycium 
and Tea-plant (Camellia) being on their introduction 
sent together to the Duke of Argyle, the names became 
aecidentally exchanged, whence Lycium obtained the 
appellation of the Duke of Argyle’s Tea-tree. This 
applied, however, to Lycium barbarum (the Willow- 
leaved Box-thorn) and not to Europeeum ; but the 
writer mentioned that the two so-called species were 
merely varieties, in his opinion.—S., Yarmouth, Aug. 5. 
The Herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum),—This 
is a plant not valued much for its beauty when hundreds 
of other more showy plants are in flower during the 
summer months, but in winter, flowers are more 
esteemed, and common things will be admired when 
blooming out of season. The above-named plant we 
found in full bloom in November last in a very in- 
teresting situation in an upland district of the country 
where few flowers were to be seen, but there it was as 
beautiful as if it had been midsummer. It was near a 
waterfall, the rising mist of it moistened the Marchantia 
polymorpha, and the common Golden Saxifrage, Chry- 
sosplenum oppositifolium, and the different green hues 
of these plants contrasted very well with the red 
flowers of the Geranium. It was growing in a northern 
aspect, but the flowers were protected from the frosts 
that had destroyed many favourites of the garden, by a 
piece of limestone rock projecting overit. Such simple 
lessons should not be forgotten by those who want to 
have late flowers ; and such places in pleasure-grounds 
would be more enlivened in winter if the seeds of native 
and other hardy flowering plants were sown at different 
seasons of the year, and the “ beautiful children of the 
glen and dell” would come in for a share of our notice 
when the flaunting flowers of the garden had taken an 
early adieu.— Peter Mackenzie. 
Large Foxglove.—Midway on the cliff between Hayle 
and St. Ives, Granite Range, I saw several Foxgloves, 
of unusual size, which has induced me to send the 
dimensions of one of the largest plants; the winter and 
spring were exceedingly mild, and the cliff faces the 
east. Length of stem, 6 feet 5 inches ; diameter at the 
base, 1} inches ; at the centre, 4 of an inch. Leaves, 
in number 53 ; length of the largest and its stalk, 2 ft.; 
breadth, 5 inches. Flowering branches, 10. Flowers 
on the stem, 174 ; and some not open. Flowers on the 
branches, 244—418; length of the largest flower, 
2 inches; diameter, }inches.—R, O. Millett, Penpol, 
Hayle, Cornwall. 
To Soften Hard Putty.—Obtain a quantity of the 
hottest dung and thereon place the lights to be repaired, 
then give them athick covering of hot dung. After having 
gone through the process of sweetening for a week, give 
the lights a hammering, and the putty will leave the 
bars quite clean.—R. S. W. 
Disease in Vegetables.—lt is to be feared that the 
late very hot weather and heavy rains will have an in- 
jurious effect on vegetation. Ash-leaved Kidney and 
Fox's pink seedling Potatoes taken up on the 10th inst. 
were found to be diseased, both in haulm and tuber, 
which a week before were quite sound, Kidney Beans 
onan east border became diseased both in leaf and fruit 
about the 11th inst ; while on the same border dwarf 
black negro purple-blossomed Kidney Beans from old 
Heals are quite sound. Dwarf yellow-blossomed and 
ite d 
PP 
watering-pot, it made a coat as close as felt, and the 
ground during the hottest weather was always quite 
moist underneath, and it is a very delicate stimulant as 
manure for the autumn digging in.—Dodman. 
A Netted Cantaloupe Melon, weighing 12 Ibs. 2 oz. 
irdupois), an i 6 inches in ei f 
and 12 inches in length, has been grown by Mr. Bean, 
gardener to J. B. Faviell, Esq., of Featherstone Hall, 
Pontefract, Yorkshire, in a span-roofed pit heated by 
hot water.— Arg. 11. 
Sound of the Woodpecker.—Perhaps some of your 
readers who take an interest in ornithology, will have 
the kindness to’ explain the manner in which the green 
woodpecker makes its peculiar noise in spring. I do 
not mean the jirking sound while in the act of boring in 
hard wood, nor the drumming when in pursuit of in- 
sects, but that running jarring noise, as if made by very 
sudden strokes of its beak upon vibrating bark. In 
vain have I watched this bird while so employed, whose 
voice or note has been justly com d to the laugh of 
the “wild man of the wood.” Mudie, who was a 
sa at “the space passed over mu 
o8 backwards, and 
and would make the 
pid of animal moti 
* Incredible as t 
ds 
one | 
miles | 
the | 
| 
ue tapping aw: le | 
s the love note it is | 
1 e is not | 
boards falling suddenly | 
a quarter of a mile off, | 
g its little neighbour the | 
arcely audible beyond a gun-shot. That | 
many animals give utterance to a peculiar ery before | 
y be heard 
e tapping of 
the latter supposed to be the Canter- 
bury, much damaged.— Subscriber, North Shropshire. 
Potatoes on Peat Soil.—I planted three rows of Cups 
and Pink-eyed Potatoes in a peaty field—indeed, a 
drained bog—in the hope that I might, in that way, get 
sound seed if my general crop failed. I have examined 
them to-day (4th Aug.) and have found no part of them 
to be quite free from the brown spot on the leaf, and 
patches of them are blackened all over as if by frost : 
its progress is most rapid. It is since the close weather 
of the last 10 days, during which we have had much 
thunder and excessively forcing weather, that the dis- 
ease has developed itself. I could only find one tuber 
diseased. Some part of the field is pure peat, but in 
other places the clay has been partially mixed with the 
peat. Imay mention that I planted some Potatoes 
(about 2 acres) in October last, in the same field where 
at | roots, this is a mat 
my principal erop was planted on the 1st of May. The 
autumn-planted ones are fully three weeks in advance of 
the others, and have withstood the disease better, but I 
fear that they will not altogether eseape. However, 
there is the advantage of greater maturity before they 
become affected ; and if cutting off the tops saves the 
ial point in favour of autumn 
planting. Pink-eyes fail before Cups.— Henry R. Sand- 
bach, Hafodurws, near <Abergele.——Last year I 
planted a quantity of Potatoes upon peat in the lazy-bed 
fashion ; the variety was the Buffs ; there was an abun- 
dant crop, but the most of them were diseased, I ought 
to state, however, that the ground was partially shaded 
with trees, ^ In another portion of peaty soil a quantity 
of Potatoes were left in it during winter and part of 
the spring ; and as the ground was not required for 
early cropping they were allowed to grow, and by way 
of experiment, many of them were transplanted when 
the stems were more than a foot high ; they were lifted 
with the spade, and the ground in which they were 
planted was manured with rotten leaves; the digging 
and planting went on together. When a row of the 
plants was finished, it received a good watering from a 
watering-pot without the rose: Although the weather 
was hot when they were lifted, the leaves scarcely 
flagged. After the plants were established, and before 
they were earthed up, the ground received a sprinkling 
of guano. We planted them in three different varieties 
of soil, and at present (Aug. 7) they are all looking 
healthy, while the same variety that was planted from 
cut and whole Potatoes isgiving way.— Peter Mackenzie. 
In every ease, in this neighbourhood, Potatoes are 
quite as much diseased on peat as on any other kind of 
Soil Last year it was said that those grown on peat 
had eseaped, and high prices were given for them as 
sets ; but the produce from these proves to be quite as 
much affected as that from sets obtained from other 
quarters, the disease hibiting itself in 
blotches all over the haulm.— David Hackney, Her- 
mitage, Castle Connell, Limerick, 
Potato Crops in the North of Scotland.—l have 
examined, on foot, a large number of Potato fields 
about the head of Loch Lomond, and on both shores of 
Loch Tay, and down part of the river Tay, and in no 
single instance have found a field to be clear of the 
disease ; in many of them it is very far advanced. At 
Inverarnan, at the head. of Loch Lomond, more than 
a third of the Potatoes dug up for use in the inn were 
stated by the cook to be in too diseased a state to be 
sent to table. In all the fields the disease showed 
itself on the foliage in the form of decaying blotches 
having a mouldy look, and seems to have attacked the 
tubers and foliage at about the same time, viz., within 
the last week or 10 days. In addition to the above 
careful inspection, I saw numerous fields of Potatoes 
from a coach-top throughout the country traversed 
between Loch Lomond, Killin, Kenmore, Dunkeld, 
Perth, Queen’s Ferry, and Edinburgh, and in every 
field other passengers, as well as myself, saw clearly 
that the foliage of the Potato was attacked by the 
disease ; some fields looked quite black, as if burned. 
The disease seems exactly the same as that of last year 
in England, but which does not seem, as I learned from 
the farmers, to have been very destructive in the above 
districts at that time. It now threatens an almost total 
destruction of the crop ; the people themselves look 
upon it as “a judgment of Providence,’ or “the 
seventh woe.”— Charles C. Babington, St. John’s 
College, Cambridge. 
Foreign Correspondence. 
Jamaica, July 6.—1 was much struck with an article 
in the Number dated May 30, which mentions that an 
alarm has arisen among some of your correspondents as 
to the state of various kinds of plants, in which they 
think that symptoms of unusual disease are appearing, 
and they are apprehensive lest such general affection in 
the;vegetable world should be forerunners of like 
plagues inthe animal—an apprehension you end d 
to repel. It isdevoutly to be hoped that time will show 
such alarm to be groundless ; but I fear it. There has 
been 'a disease among the Cocoes for more than two 
years in this district ; to the eye, the leaves and head 
appear sound, yet on breaking they prove rotten and 
unfit for planting; of which I hear the negroes com- 
plaining, as it forms a principal article of their general 
provisions. ‘The Yam season has not yet commenced, 
so little can be said of them ; but complaints are made 
that the Plantain-trees are beginning to show disease. 
he Mangoes are failing generally in this district,which 
may partly be accounted for by the drought, as also the 
pp [^ d-fruit. A gentl lately 
pointed out to me several Pimento-trees, which have 
become completely blighted, though I have not heard as 
yet of such being the case elsewhere. The Potato- 
murrain has been truly designated mysterious, and if 
such unusual diseases appear in the vegetable kingdom 
throughout various parts of the globe, it may rationally 
create alarm that some malignant agency is abroad, pro- 
bably through the intervention of the atmosphere.— 
Country Shows. 
Nottingham Horticultural Society, July 29.—At 
this, the third Exhibition for the season, the following 
prizes were awarded :— CARNATIONS (12 blooms): 1, 
Mr. Taylor, for Twitchett’s Don John, Ely’s Lord 
Milton, Earl of Leicester, Taylor’s Lord Byron, Belle- 
rophon, Orson’s Rob Roy, Ely’s Mango, Ely’s Jolly 
Dragoon, and four seedlings; 2, Mr. Gibbons, for 
Prince Albert, Ely’s King, Addenbrook’s Lydia, 
Brown’s Village Maid, Greasley’s Village Maid, Lord 
Brougham, Fair Flora, Hufton’s Rosea, Chadwick’s 
Brilliant, Walliss Beauty of Cradley, and Ely’s Lady 
Ely; 3, Mr. Staton, for Golding’s Satirist, Harvey’s 
Conqueror, Buckwell’s Earl Fitzhardinge, Brown's Vil- 
lage Maid, Ely's Lord Milton, Ely's Lovely Ann, Tom- 
lyws Briseis, Turner's Charlotte, Brabbin’s Squire 
Meynell, Ely's King of Searlets, Martin's President, 
and Hufton's Rosea. Scarlet Bizarres : 1, Twitchett’s 
Don John, Mr. Taylor. Crimson Bigarres: 1, Lord 
Milton, Mr. Buswell. Purple Bizarres: 1, Seedlings 
Mr. Taylor. Scarlet Flakes: 1, Madame Mara, Mr. 
Taylor. Purple Flakes: 1, Taylor’s Byron, Mr. 
Taylor; 2, Bellerophon, Mr, Hutchinson. PicoTEES 
(12 blooms) : 1, Mr. Taylor, for Sir William Middleton, 
Vespasian, Hero of Nottingham, Plus Perfect, Nulli 
