- 
740 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE, 
[Nov. 7, 
2. Keen’s Seedling, British Queen, and Elton Pine 
are undoubtedly the three most useful kinds in cultivation. 
3. My S i ave ded the crops of 
middle-sown Peas, and, with the exception of the time 
necessary to well manure and dig the ground, followed 
immediately ; having all been laid into 3-inch pots as 
soon as the runners were fit, in the same manner as 
Strawberries for forcing are managed. 
4, I consider this an important feature in my prac- 
tice ; because we frequently have (as this year) very 
hot and dry weather in September, and you are apt to 
lose many plants between the extremes of burning sun 
and saturation of the soil ; whereas, after they are once 
laid in pots, they require but to be well watered when 
they are planted out, and they then go on without fur- 
ther check, making much finer and stonger plants, and 
producing a good quantity of fruit the first season. 
5. If magnificent fruit is desired, 2 feet 6 inches is 
not too much distance from plant to plant, Too much 
water can hardly be given during the swelling of the 
fruit, and covering the surface with clean and straight 
straw is an old and valuable practice. ( Vide Sir Joseph 
Banks in “ Horticultural Transactions.” 
6. Having a large family to supply, I generally plant 
between my rows of Strawberries Coleworts, which are 
drawn in spring ; this I would not recommend gene- 
rally to be done. No bed should remain on the ground 
more than two years; destroying one every year, and 
planting one, keeps up the succession. 
About the 20th of August every year the two-year 
old bed is sueceeded by a crop of late Celery, for use in 
February and March ; this completes the routine. 
With the most difficult of all Strawberrries, and the 
best (the Hautbois), to insure success, you must select 
your runners from those only which bear fruit, rooting 
out all others. The popular opinion of their being 
dicecious is I think a fallacy, as I have generally ob- 
served the rudiments of both organs. I could fain 
appeal to the Editor to throw some light on the subject 
in a leading article. 
I subjoin a plan of forming a bed of Hautbois Straw- 
berries given to me by the late Rev. Sidney Smith. It 
is in quincunx, 
Ladies. Ladies. Ladies. 
(Or female Hautbois.) 
Gentlemen. Gentlemen, 
s * 
s 
* * 
* s * 
a * 
* * 
Each gentleman is surrounded by four ladies. 
No Strawberry is so highly valued by the great 
world as the Hautbois, and yet many of our first 
gardens do not produce it. It has disappeared from 
the metropolitan markets ; you cannot buy the “real 
Hautbois” although the call everywhere assails the ear 
but to tantalise the sense of taste with the remembrance 
of their delicious aroma. How is this? Surely, if the 
continental gardeners prize the Alpine Strawberry so 
highly, the Hautbois deserves all the attention of 
British gardeners, — Henry Bailey, Nuneham-park, 
Oxford. 
ENTOMOLOGY. 
HLuncus PrNIPERDA. (The Pine-destroying Beetle). 
—Amongst the numerous insects which affect the Coni- 
fers, this little beetle acts a prominent part, and al- 
though it evidently gives a decided preference to the 
Scotch Fir, yet in many places other species of Pine 
have not escaped its ravages. It is 20 years since 
its economy was investigated by Dr. Lindley, and the 
result published in Curtis’s Brit. Ent., and as it appears 
from recent communications to be causing great mis- 
chief at the present time at Inverary, and in the vicinity 
of Leeds, its history may be serviceable to some of our 
readers. 
It seems that a shoot one or two years old is required 
to nourish the beetle, for the green twigs of trees 100 
years old are attacked as well as young plantations. It 
is said that this insect only affects the Spruce when it 
cannot meet with the Scotch Fir. In 1842 its opera- 
tions were extended to some young plants of Pinus in- 
signis, and it then bored into the main shoots more 
than the others. Thirty years back it attacked recent 
plantations of the Weymouth Pine (P. strobus), in 
Norfolk, and in Germany the Silver Fir (P. picea), is 
recorded as suffering from its inroads. As early as 
April I have found these beetles in fine days on planks 
of Fir-wood in carpenters’ yards, on palings surround- 
ing Fir-groves, and on broken down Scotch Firs, run- 
ning about and getting into holes they had bored in the 
wood. It may therefore be inferred that they are 
hatched in the early spring, or live through the winter, 
when they pair, and in June the beetles are far from 
uncommon in most places where old Fir-groves abound. 
The first question is, where are the eggs laid? 
Kollar says, beneath the bark of sickly and felled Pines, 
on the inner bark of which the larvee feed ; and such 
appears to be the fact ; for some bark of an old tree 
infested by H. piniperda was transmitted to me full of 
labyrinths excavated by them, He further states that 
they only deposit their eggs on healthy trees when they 
are compelled to do so by necessity. He seems to con- 
tradict himself by saying “ the abode and place of pro- 
pagation of the perfect beetle are in the pith of the 
young shoots of the Pine, particularly in the side twigs,” 
and to reconcile the two statements, we must admit 
that the economy of the insect is different in old decay- 
ing trees and in young healthy plants ; and such, pro- 
bably, is the case. x 
If young shoots be examined, a round hole through 
the bark and wood is observable below a lateral branch 
(fig. 1 a), where the beetle ate an entrance, as is evi- 
dent from the size of the orifice, and having consumed 
the pith in its upward course, it eventually made 
its exit through. the terminal buds, or before arriv- 
ing at the extremity (b). This is more clearly 
exhibited in fig. 2, where the same portion has 
been divided longitudinally, and the channel 
from c to d is clearly exhibited ; several of these bur- 
rows are figured in the work already referred to, one of 
them 2 ins. long, and showing a variety of points of 
exit. Dr. Lindley ascertained that a beetle was five 
days informing a channel about an inch long, including 
the erosion of the bark and wood, which at the com- 
mencement consumed about 16 hours. One would 
infer from analogy that the female deposited her eggs 
in these galleries ; but I am not certain it is that sex 
which undertakes this operation of boring, and I have 
never been able to detect any, eggs, which I am inclined 
to think are concealed in crevices of the bark. A con- 
tributor to the “ Gardeners’ Magazine,” resident in 
Ireland, has stated that “the eggs are hatched under 
the old bark, and in May when the trees make their 
young shoots, the larva inserts itself into the base and 
works upward, until it makes its way out at the ex- 
tremity ;” vol. ii, page 355. This is clearly a mistake, 
for it is the beetle as we have shown, that does the 
mischief, and specimens were alive last October in 
numbers of the twigs that had fallen from the trees. 
One of the first indications of this insect is the shoots 
turning yellow, and dropping down they lie scattered on 
the ground ; but I ber once in Sep seeing 
turpentine exuding in whitish opake lumps from holes 
in the bark of standing Scotch Firs in Hampshire, and 
my memory fails me exceedingly if I did not cut out 
specimens of the H. piniperda from beneath. 
Sin 
v 
The maggot is fleshy, thick, and cylindrical ; some- 
what like those found in nuts, being of a whitish colour 
with an ochreous head, the tail tinted with the same. 
Its pupa is probably of a yellowish white, exhibiting 
traces of the future beetle, which has been included i 
various genera, but is now identified as the Hylurgus 
piniperda (fig. 3). Some specimens are ochreous, but 
the mature ones are of a shining pitch-colour, rough, 
with punctures, and longish hairs are scattered over 
the whole body, to prevent the turpentine from adher- 
ing to it. As the mouth is well adapted for gouging out 
the wood, I have figured the various parts *; e e exhibit 
the two strong jaws ; g g the hairy maxillee, and stout 
feelers ; f being the chin with similar palpi. Fig. 4 
shows the beetle greatly magnified ; the head is conical 
and drooping, the muzzle being wedge-shaped with a 
short capitate ferruginous horn on each side ; the eyes 
are vertical, elliptical ; the thorax is conical, but trun- 
cated before; the wing-cases are broader and semi- 
cylindrical, with nine lines of punctures on each, and 
others scattered between them; the wings are folded 
beneath, and enable the beetle to fly well ; the legs are 
short and strong ; the shanks dilated and spiny at their 
extremities ; the tarsi are ferruginous, and appear only 
four-jointed. 
When old trees are infested by the Hylurgus, they 
should be cut down and burnt. If young plantations 
be only slightly affected, the diseased shoots may be cut 
off and burnt; but this must be done in good time to be 
of any servíce.— Ruricola. 
E 
Home Correspondence. 
Heating.—l take the liberty of commenting upon 
Mr. Meek's letter of October 24. In the first place, 
Mr. Meek arrives too bastily at the conclusion that 
glass is insensible to radiated heat, from the mere faet 
of the absence of hig! in the burning-glass, 
having forgotten that the rays of the sun are not con- 
centrated in the lens but atthe focus. The fallacy of 
the hypothesis may be easily shown by suspending the 
same lens before a parlour fire, where it will speedily 
become too hot to be incautiously handled. He is also 
wrong in attributing the sensation of cold in elevated re- 
gions solely to the incapacity of air for absorbing 
radiated heat. It depends chiefly upon the rarefaction 
of the air p itting a less i pted radiation, by 
which all matter within its limits is rapidly cooled down. 
There is another cause which acts upon ourselves in 
* They are fully described in Curtis’s “ Brit. Ent.” 
these situations, viz., a more free evaporation from the 
skin (also the effect o faction of the pl 3 
tending, as is well known, to produce cold. But these 
are questions of abstract science, upon which it is not 
my present purpose to dwell further. To the attack 
upon hot water I have nothing to object. do not 
approve of hot-water warming, and am quite willing 
that it should be condemned ; it is expensive and non- 
ventilating, and must be relinquished ; at the same 
time I think it fair to acknowledge that it is better 
than most hot-air stoves, which dry and burn the air 
to a degree that renders it both unpleasant and un- 
wholesome. I now come to that portion of Mr. Meek's 
letter which relates to myself, wherein he seems so 
grievously alarmed at the unlimited ventilation which 
lrecommend. He is afraid that I shall not be able to 
control the supply of fresh air to a mere sufficiency for 
the respiration and existence of 1000 persons congre- 
gated in a church capable of containing 4000. Poor 
people! he fears that you will be absolutely surfeited 
with fresh air! However, I do not anticipate that any 
clergyman or country gentleman will object to this 
healthful inundation, always provided that it is made 
comfortably warm. But it appears that Mr. Meek 
doubts the possibility of doing this except at an ex- 
travagant cost ; and although I have before quoted 
instances showing that the winter cost of warming a large 
suite of publie rooms, with ap area of nearly 120,000 cubic 
feet, has not exceeded 6d. for 24 hours, yet is not he 
convinced, and I am pelled to the i task 
of pulling to pieces his calculations, and to exhibit one 
of my own. Mr. Meek has told us that in order to 
maintain a temperature of 60° in a building, it is best 
to collect the coldest air from within (probably at about 
40°) in preference to fresh air from without, which may 
be as low as 209. He proceeds to say that half the 
fuel will suffice to raise air at 40° to 60°, over an inter- 
val of 20°, as is needed to raise air at 20° to 602 over 
an interval of 40°. This may be quite true ; but does 
Mr. Meek suppose that he will be able to keep the tem- 
perature of his houseat 60°, by supplying air heated to 
60° only, while there is a constant struggle on the part 
of the frost outside to reduce it to 20°. Let him plunge 
his thermemeter into the air-tight chamber, where the 
atmosphere is submitted to contact with the heated 
iron plate, and I suspect he will find that his practice 
is to warm the air, not to 60°, but to 200° or more. 
We thus see that Mr. Meek’s calculations are based 
upon wrong data, and I, therefore, request attention to 
a eorreeted statement of the case. It requires a cer- 
tain quantity of fuel to raise air from 40° to 200° over 
an interval of 166° ; an additional eighth will be needed 
to raise air from 20° to 200° over an interval of 1809, 
showing an apparent loss of one-eighth to the ventilat- 
ing system as compared with Polmaise. But this loss 
is partly compensated by the smoke yielding up more of 
its caloric. to: the eontaet with the colder current, 
and, therefore, it is only fair to compute that 
one-sixteenth of the fuel is employed to procure 
the advantages of thorough ventilation, I mean 
next to prove that the principle upon which my 
Stove is constructed, derives twice as much heat 
from the combustion of the same quantity of fuel as do 
any of the ordinary arrangements. Mr. Meek gives 
well-merited praise to Dr. Arnott, I would gladly add 
my tribute, could I by so doing add honour to such a 
name, I am satisfied that his method of consuming 
fuel is incomparably superior to any other, upon which 
account I employ it in my stove. There is, however, a 
great loss of heat in the discarded smoke, even from an 
Arnott- stove, and I suppose few of your readers will 
be prepared for the result of my experiment upon one. 
It stood in a room, 16 feet by 14 feet ; instead of allow- 
ing the smoke to escape direetly into a chimney, it was 
carried through the wall into.a series of pipes in the 
next, which was a large oom ; after traversing these 
pipes, it was discharged into the chimney. ‘The waste 
smoke giving off its heat over the large surface of the 
pipes, raised this latter room to a temperature exceed- 
ing that containing the stove by 12? ; I have there- 
fore added to the advantages of Dr. Arnott’s combus- 
tion a more economical application of the products, 
from which I abstract more than double the heat gene- 
rally made subservient to the purposes of warming. I 
can therefore well afford to spare one-sixteenth for 
yentilation, of which also I am happy to say that Dr. 
Arnott is a distinguished and able advocate. I cannot 
conclude without protesting against any insinuation 
that my system has been “ accompanied by such prae- 
tical difficulties as preclude its general employment,” 
I positively assert that in no one instance has this been 
the ease ; and it is only because I have been too fully 
occupied with my business here that I have not before 
corrected Mr. Meck’s reiterated statements respecting 
the economy of the Polmaise return-air-drains.—Robers 
Hazard, Bristol, October 29. 
Cabbage Sprouts. — Having observed that sprouts. 
from Cabbage stalks when they came near the soil sent 
out roots, I thought that if cut off and planted in the 
ground they would take root, and thus become larger 
than if left upon the stalk. I cut several sprouts off, 
and slashing the bottom of their stalks across with my 
knife, I planted them in the ground, and ina very short 
while was gratified by seeing that they had evidently 
taken root, and were growing as well as I could pos- 
sibly wish. They soon became large plants, and Cab- 
baged in a much shorter time than seedling plants would 
have done, Thus it would appear that we can not only 
increase our stock of Cabbages without having recourse 
to the slow process of growing them from seed, but we 
