886 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONI 
CLE. [Dzc. 19, 
forward their contributions to the Rev. GEoRGE 
James Cusirr, St. Thomass Rectory, Winchester. 
And now a word to those who have endeavoured 
to persuade the public not to listen to the valuable 
lessons of Mr. Meek. Let us observe their position. 
They began by asserting that houses could not be 
heated at all on the Polmaise system ; the allega- 
tion now is that they are overheated! After main- 
taining the plan impracticable, it is now found to be 
only too easy. A truce to such disputation. We 
ive them credit for having exercised legitimate 
caution ; let them admit.that they have been mis- 
taken, and so balance the account. Let it never be 
forgotten that a principle is one thing, and the right 
way of applying it another. The pen in this 
case is established beyond all further dispute : let 
us now see how it can be worked most profitably. 
The ingenuity of gardeners is proverbial ; they will 
soon find how to manage Polmaise. The Greek 
engineer boastingly said, * Give me a fulerum and 
I'll upheave the world.” We say, with more reason, 
give gardeners a heating power, and they will soon 
learn to apply it advantageously. 
CULTURE OF THE PINE-APPLE. 
[Fifth Notice.] 
Tue plan and sections accompanied with details of 
one of the Meudon pits present nothing remarkable, 
unless it is that of being simple and scarcely different 
from pits used for other purposes in this country years 
ago. It is in consequence of this that I have consi- 
dered it worth while to give a represenfation of them, 
as no pits ever erected in Britam have produced sueh 
results, "The “hidden virtue," therefore, cannot be 
ascribed to these. I think it lies much more in the 
proper application of the right principles of cultivation, 
which are so successfully carried out at Meudon, and 
which I have given in detail in the belief that much 
good will result from an exposition of the system,which 
stands at a great distance from others in its results, 
besides its cheapness and simplicity. 
I have now to detail the method adopted by Mr, Pel- 
vilain in arranging and planting his fruiting pits. The 
soil, as in the case of the wooden boxes, is filled in to 
the depth of 18 or 26 inches ; nothing further is re- 
quired than the pure peat, of which you possess a sample. 
The pit is at once ready to receive the plants and 
the mode pursued in that operation is as follows: 
Those which are advanced to a fruiting state in the 
wooden boxes are selected ; such only as haye arrived 
at this state should on any account be brought into the 
fruiting pit. There is no difficulty to a practised eye in 
detecting these. The reason for this is that they may 
be brought into a fruiting condition within a month or 
two of each other, and this is also the reason wh: 
Mr. Pelvilain has four fruiting pits, as the sequel wil 
s 
The operation of transplanting them when the selec- 
tion has been made, is easily performed. The plants 
äre dug up with their roots entire, and carefully re- 
moved into the bed of fresh soil—their final position. 
The roots must be carefully spread out, and the new 
soil intermixed with them. The pits at Meudon are 
narrow andad- ` 
mit -only of 
three rows, of 
which “the an- 
nexed woodcut 
ives a repre- 
sentation when 
in fruit. The 
transplanting 
and being an 
unnatural pro- 
eess, butIshall 
presently ex- ca 
plain why it is"adopted. Ascon as a sufficient 
number of plants has been selected; and removed 
totheir new quarters, the whole of the bed then gets 
a good watering with pure rain water. "The bottom- 
heat of course has been previously set in motion, by the 
application of a supply of hot stable litter to the chamber, 
beneath the bed of soil ; and the air of the pit has been 
raised by the hot water pipes at least 10° or 15° above 
the air in the boxes, 60° being considered a healthy 
rowing temperature for the young stuff. So far as 
artificial heat is concerned, and irrespective of solar in- 
fluence, Mr. Pelvilain regulates the bottom heat, which 
is supplied by the stable litter, by allowing it to pass off 
atthe drains as shown im the section, that is, when the 
bed in which the plants are growing begins to indicate a 
t trial temp itable to luxuriant and 
healthy vegetation, not such as the Pineapple plant 
delights in, nor such either as Nature, an unerring 
guide, would furnish, The maximum temperature for 
the bed may be safely set down at 90° ; this will injure 
no plant which is found to vegetate in a healthy condi- 
tion under the hottest of the tropics, and 80° should be 
the miaimum. Having secured these conditions per- 
fectly, the only precaution necessary is to maintain 
them. Mr. Pelvilain—no bad authority in Pine grow- 
ing— considers that much of his success depends on 
this. It is one of Nature's laws to produce them where 
the Pine-apple is a natural production. It is one of 
Mr. Pelvilain’s maxims to create and maintain them 
where it is, as in his case, a work completely artificial ; 
and this he pursues with an ardour and an industry 
amounting to enthusiasm. 
Having explained the pherie and t trial 
desiderata as regards temperature, I have a word to 
say on watering. As I have formerly stated, when the 
plants are first put out they receive a heavy watering. 
After this they should be sparingly supplied, and no 
artificial steam created until the plants have laid hold 
of the new soil. They will at the same time, or almost 
immediately after, start into fruit; water may then be 
t " 
g 
ES 
E 
o 
year; the dryness or 
moistness of the atmosphere must bear some pro- 
portion to this. When the plants are in blossom a 
drier atmosphere must also be kept, more particularly 
in winter. When the fruit begins to swell, a more 
liberal supply of water is given. The nature of the 
peat soil admits of this. It is never at any season 
liable to get soured and 'glutted like a stiff loam 
crammed into an earthen pot, which hastens on much 
of the ruin attending that unnatural system of cultiva- 
tion.—Mirabile dictu. 
COURT OF WICK APPLE. 
Synonymes. — Court de Wick, Rival Golden Pippin, Fry’s 
Pippin, Golden Drop, Knightwick Pippin, Wood’s Hunting- 
don, Wood’s New Transparent, Phillips’s Reinette, Weeks’s 
Pippin, yellow. 
Faintly 
Brownish, 
streaked 
Orange yellow. 
with red. 
It is stated in the “ Guide to the Orchard and Kitchen 
Garden,” that this most excellent and beautiful little 
Apple originated from a seed of the Golden Pippin at 
Court de Wick, as it was formerly written, in Somerset- 
shire. Throughout this, and indeed throughout 
almost all the western counties, it is held in the highest 
estimation as a table fruit. The trees grow to a good 
size, are very hardy, standing in some places the most 
severe blasts from the Welsh mountains, and there 
bearing in the greatest abundance, becoming the most 
perfectly ripened of their orchard fruits. It cannot 
have too extensive a cultivation." 
The flesh is yellow, brisk flavoured, rich and sugary. 
In perfection from October or November till March or 
April. The tree is hardy, not subject to canker, and a 
good bearer. Shoots dark-coloured, with numerous 
small whitish dots. Leaves middle-sized, ovate, acumi- 
nate, acutely crenated ; stipules rather broad. Flowers 
large, petals oblong, cream-coloured.—R. T. 
ENTOMOLOGY, 
ALEYRODES PROLETELLA or Linnaus (the Cabbage 
powdered wing), called also by Latreille A. Chelidonii, 
from its living upon the great Celandine (Chelidonium 
majus), and it is said to inhabit the Oak also ; but this 
I think requires to be confirmed, as these minute in- 
sects very much resemble each cther. In discussing 
the economy of a species of this genus, which was com- 
mitting serious mischief amongst the Cocoa-nut trees in 
Barbadoes;* I alluded to one that infested the Cabbage 
tribe, and as it was unusually abundant in some parts 
of England last month, its natural history will be the 
more acceptable, The first week in November I heard 
that the whole of the Broccoli and Cabbages in the 
neighbourhood of Romford, in Essex, were infested 
by millions of Aleyrodes in the fly-state. They were 
first noticed in May, and the October rains did not 
diminish their numbers, or offer any check to their in- 
crease ; it was therefore feared, if frost did not impede 
them, that the whole crop would be destroyed. In 
another place, towards the end of the same month, the 
Broccoli leaves are turning quite brown and falling off 
fast. The flies live under the leaves, where they are 
hatched from the brown seales which are scattered in 
patches over the surface. Fig. 1, portion of a Cabbage- 
leaf, with the scaly pupse and the Aleyrodes of the 
natural size. 
The Aleyrodes is a minute fly covered with white 
powder, which takes short flights, like many little moths, 
and so much resembles them that Linnzeus and other 
authors considered it to be a lepidopterous insect ; but 
its metamorphoses are different, and more resemble 
those of Coccus, whilst the structure of the mouth is 
the same as that of the Aphides (fig. 7), On touching 
a Cabbage-leaf, these little flies will dance about in the 
air like atoms of snow, whilst others remain, with their 
wings closed, upon the outside of the leaves ; these pro- 
bably are the females, or they may be either sex engaged 
* Gard. Chron, 1846, p. 284, 
in abstracting the sap, and having pierced the leaf with 
their rostrum, it is not readily withdrawn. 
Although found in every season of the year, they 
abound most in June, July, and August; and the 
females have been observed about Midsummer to re- 
main quiet on a leaf for several days, when about to la; 
their eggs, and when they left the spot where they had’ 
rested, a small circular space, covered with white 
powder, was observable, around which were irregularly 
deposited from 9 to 14 eggs. These eggs are transpa- 
rent, like water, at first smooth, and somewhat oval; 
but afterwards turn of a yellowish tint. They hatch in 
about 12 days, and the young larvee immediately run a 
short distance to spread themselves more about the leaf, 
but in a few hours a scale is formed over them, so that 
they look like little Tortoises or Cocci, and exhibit no 
signs of life ; they are oval, with the scale pressed close 
to the leaf in front, owing probably to the animal benea: 
immediately inserting its beak into the cuticle to obtain 
nourishment, The colour is almost white, with two 
yellow spots behind. They are not absolutely stationary, 
but only move very short distances as they increase in 
size, being furnished with six pectoral legs; four or 
five days after their birth, Reaumur observed they 
became Pear-shaped, and in five days more they 
assumed their original tortoise shape, but were more 
elevated ; at this time they were spotted irregularly, 
with two brown spots like eyes towards one extremity. 
This was the pupa state, when the oval animal contracts 
and recedes from the margins of the scales ; it is then 
fleshy, of a pale green colour, with two red éyes, the 
rostrum and legs are partially developed, and there are 
two large white patches on the underside of the abdo- 
men (fig. 2). In four days more the perfect insects 
hatched, and they effected their escape by burstin, 
through the thoracic suture of the scale. I have found 
them dead in the act of extricating themselves, with the 
head, thorax, and ded wi ding, as 
shown at fig. 3. 
Aleyrodes proletella, the perfect insect, is covered 
with white powder (fig 4) ; the head (fig. 5) and thorax 
are black, variegated with yellow ; the eyes are divided 
and black ; the antennze are nearly as long as the tho- 
rax, slender, and five-jointed ? basal joint stout, second 
very long, third and fourth shorter, the remainder slen- 
der(6); the rostrum is bent under the breast in re- 
pose, stout, biartieulate, with two very fine bristles 
passing through (7); the thorax is sub-globose, the col- 
lar short, with three black spots; abdomen short, yel- 
low or rosy; the apex obtuse and dark ; wings forming 
a triangle in repose, and more or less deflexed, pure 
white, mealy ; superior the largest, with a single nervure 
curved at the centre, where there is an obscure black 
fascia, with a black spot at the extremity; inferior 
wings smaller, with a central longitudinal nervure ; six 
legs rather long, black, and powdered with white ; feet 
long and composed of two equal joints, terminated by 
pus e fine curved claws, with a hook between them 
(fig. 8). 
is P 
— 
These little ereatures seem not only to withstand the 
cold, but even multiply during the winter; for Reau- 
mur says he ‘found them in every state in December 
and January as he had done in summer, and this will 
account for their extraordinary increase, which, from 
the small number of eggs laid by each female, appears 
at first to be inexplicable. Moreover, in less than a 
month, the insects undergo all their changes—from the 
deposition of the egg to the pairing of the perfect pro- 
geny ; it is therefore possible to have 12 generations 
in a year, and the learned naturalist whom I have 
quoted has caleulated that a single female may be the 
source of nearly 200,000 descendants in the course of 
one season ; for taking only the seven warmer months, 
viz., from the beginning ‘of March or April to the end 
of September or October, and supposing that 10 eggs 
were laid by one female, five of which were males an 
five females, and allowing a month for the perfecting of 
each brood, the number would be 195,310. This is ex- 
clusive of those which might be produced in the other 
months, and the eggs are taken below the average 
number, 
When these insects have made their appearance, 
plants should be carefully examined in the winter and 
spring, when the infested leaves ought to be cut off and 
burnt. If it were desirable, fumigation might be ap- 
plied in small gardens, with a hand-glass sufficiently 
high to cover a plant. The larvz of a species of Seym- 
nus * apparently live upon those of the Aleyrodes, as 
well as upon the pups; and Latreille also mentions a 
Cynips and Acarus that destroy them.—Ruricola. 
Home Correspondence. 
Planting and Management of Woods.—Mr. Young, of 
Perth, proposes, p. 787, to plant Oaks 28 feet apart, and 
* Flavilabris? .Curtis's Guide Gen., 436, 7. 
