588 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[Ave. 26, 
to any extent. But as the drains increase, they may 
e made less and less, until a space two inches wide 
and four inches deep is sufficient to collect the super- 
uous moisture. Such drains may be made in a 
retentive subsoil at a trifling expense, and spread over 
the land—like the veins and arteries of the animal 
body, increasing in dimensions as they collect more 
small streams, and ending in a capacious tile-drain, 
which pours out the water of many acres into the open 
ditches. We will explain our meaning in the next 
Paper, and we shall not be surprised if many of our 
readers have already anticipated our plan.—@dZ. 
ON CONSERVATORY CLIMBERS, &c. 
Ar this period, when people are busily engaged in 
planning out new modes of heating, and re-arranging 
houses, pits, &c., or in contemplating new ones, let me 
suggest a simple, cheap, and efficient mode of rendering 
the conservatory superior and more interesting than any- 
thing that has hitherto been done, with the exception of 
a few instances, which proved highly successful. It is to 
clothe the rafters with the best stove and half-stove 
climbers, for seven or eight months in the year, and thus 
to impart to it all the character and importance of an 
exotic stove, with the cool, refreshing atmosphere suitable 
for conservatory plants, where those who cannot endure 
the broiling heat of the former may enjoy this luxury in 
a more congenial climate. 
Something of this kind seems now to be wanted, seeing 
that the better and more delicate greenhouse climbers are 
being encouraged as dwarf plants on trellis-work—a plan 
very suitable to tender and small flowering-plants, but 
which does away altogether with our ideas of the bold, 
unrestrained freedom of a fine climber—and also that the 
stronger greenhouse climbers are now turned out against 
conservatory walls, so that we are left in the dilemma of 
having the same kinds of climbers in the conservatory a8 
against the hot walls in the open air, or we must contrive 
to grow others in-doors more suitable to our tastes and 
ideas ; or, at all events, more in accordance with the higher 
branches of gardening. 
The plan which I propose for effecting this change is 
exceedingly simple, and not at all expensive, having had 
a less economical mode for the same purpose in operation 
for some years, and I can speak confidently as to the result. 
This plan is, simply, to build a narrow pit along the back 
of the conservatory, or along one end of it, if that is not 
in sight of the main walks ; to keep up a constant stove- 
heat in this pit; to plant out stove-climbers in it, and 
when they are of sufficient length, to introduce them 
through holes pierced in the back wall of the conserva- 
tory: or, more in detail, to build a pit, six feet wide and four 
feet high, the whole length or breadth of the conservatory, 
as the case may be, with glass sashes, in the usttal way, 
at an angle sufficient to leave you head-room along a 
path next the back wall of the conservatory. This path 
may be two feet wide, leaving room for a bed four feet 
wide, excepting the four-inch wall along the path to keep 
up the soil. This bed is to be made after the manner of 
a Vine-border, well drained, with a layer of rough bones 
over the drainage, and a good portion of them mixed with 
fresh turfy loam and a little peat and leaf-mould, to the 
depth of three feet. If you wish to try the effect of 
bottom-heat, nothing is easier than to run a trough under 
the drainage, with a two-inch pipe, to heat the water 
after the manner of Mr. Green’s pits. Mr. Rendle’s plan 
will not answer this purpose. A common flue may be the 
mode of heating, if you want to go the cheapest way to 
work, and the heat may be from 75° to 85° in summer, and 
from 50° to 55° in winter. 
About the end of November prune all the side-shoots 
from the climbers to one eye, leaving the leading shoots, 
the first year, their full length, and draw them back to the 
pit, to be wintered there. For the first few weeks let the 
temperature of the pit be about what that in the top of the 
conservatory was for the last month, say 45°; this is to 
induce the plants to rest, because if the temperature here 
were kept higher at this time it might cause the plants to 
make a fresh growth at that dull season, after being so 
closely pruned, which would derange their economy, and 
probably defeat your expectations for two or three years. 
it may appear strange to some that the tops of plants 
will thus grow ina much lower temperature than that 
necessary for their roots, but such is the case, and my 
attention was first drawn to it on seeing it so well ex- 
plained by the Honourable and Very Rev. the Dean of 
Manchester, in his work on the Amaryllidécee, p. 402; 
but we have a case far more curious bearing on the point, 
recorded in vol. i. of the Chronicle, p. 150, by Mr. Fox, 
of Bridport, who states that a shoot of a tender Passion. 
flower escaped into the open air in summer, “ through a 
small hole in the glass,” and remained outside all the 
hard winter of 1840-41, ‘‘ without being much injured.’ 
Could anyone have believed such a thing possible, unless 
well authenticated? I am almost satisfied, although I 
have not yet proved it, that the tops of many of the stove- 
climbers mentioned below would live well enough in the 
conservatory all winter, and be the means of making 
‘others that are shy flowerers bloom freely. 
Where a stove joins a conservatory, this experiment 
might be tried at once; and in the case of a new con- 
Servatory, an intermediate house would suit better for 
some of the plants chosen for this purpose. If the 
conservatory stands in an open part of the flower-garden, 
this is impracticable, without planting screens to hide 
the pit; and if the conservatory is built with glass 
* all round, like the great Chatsworth conservatory, or the 
nein the Chiswick gardens, the difficulty might be over- 
RENT  & 
come by painting the outside of the glass the length and 
height of the pit. The gardener would find such a pit 
as useful as any other on the establishment; it would be 
the best place for many kinds of propagation, for storing 
away bulbs, &c., for smoking the conservatory plants in, 
and for cleaning their leaves in wet days; it would also be 
a good place for many Orchidacese: in short, there is no 
end to the uses to which it might be applied, as well as 
for furnishing the conservatory with the most gorgeous of 
the stove climbers.—D. Beaton. 
(To be continued.) 
ENTOMOLOGY.—No. XLVII. 
Tur Smanu Wurrer-Scaxx, or Oleander Shield-bearer- 
Aspidiotus Nerti. (Bouché.)—This insect belongs to the 
2d section of Cocci, in which the scale is not fastened to 
the animal, but is left sticking to the leaf when the scale 
is removed ; whereas, in the Ist section the animal cannot 
be removed from it. This group Bouché has distinguished 
as a genus, under the appellation of Aspidiotus, or Shield- 
bearers ; the males differ also from Coccus in having two 
little processes issuing from the mesothorax, analogous to 
the balancers in the Diptera. 
The small White-scale is a most abundant species upon 
various hothouse and greenhouse plants, and I have seen 
it in multitudes upon the Olive and Oleander in conser- 
vatories‘in England. They are generally scattered all over 
the undersides of the leaves, but first attach themselves to 
the midrib. The larger ones (Fig. 1) are females, the scales 
being dirty-whitish or buff-colour, very thin, slightly con- 
vex, more or less orbicular, and are very much like Oyster- 
shells in miniature, even to the impression on the inner 
surface (Fig. 2, greatly magnified) ; onremoving the scale, 
a fleshy yellowish animal is disclosed (Fig. 3), which is 
fastened to the leaf by an exceedingly fine proboscis, that 
proceeds from a nipple in the breast, about one-third from 
the anterior margin. I could not discover either legs or 
horns, but there is often a little cottony substance beneath 
the scale,’ especially at the tail of the female, where the 
eggs and the recently-disclosed young are often grouped 
together (Fig. 4) ; the former are oval, and yellow o} 
rownish, and the latter are pale green, oval, with two 
short antennz, and six small legs. The lesser scales 
(Fig. 5), of which there is always an abundance, are per- 
fectly white and generally oval ; on lifting these up, a little 
brown pupa is found beneath, which produces the male 
insect ; this sex differs so astonishingly in all the Coccide 
that have come under my observation from the female, 
that nothing but a perfect knowledge of the economy of 
this family could satisfy any one that they were even rela- 
ted to each other; for whilst the females are either horny 
scales, or fleshy masses concealed beneath a scale, which 
are constantly drinking deep of the sap, and never move 
from the spot where they are once located ; the males, on 
the contrary, are little flies, which appear never to require 
any sustenance, and whose only object is to fulfil the great 
law of Nature. The male of the small White-scale is infi- 
nitely smaller than the female, slender, and reddish brown ; 
the little head has two distinct black eyes, the antennz 
are hairy and said to be 8-jointed—they appeared to be only 
6.jointed in my specimen, which was dead and injured ; 
the abdomen is furnished with two longish sete, or bristles, 
at the apex ; the six legs are moderately long and hairy at 
the extremity ; the tarsi apparently consist of one joint 
only, which is terminated by a single claw: the two wings 
are dirty-white and irridescent, and are more than twice 
the length of the animal, rounded, and lying flat on the 
back in repose (Fig. 6, magnified). With the small White- 
scales are sometimes found clusters of elliptical white 
powdery cases (Fig. 7), not adhering very closely to the 
leaf ; they contain a long cylindric greenish pupa, with 
two black eyes, and a stout process at the tail; these I 
suppose are the pupz of the males : but since I have found 
under the scale, Fig. 5, the male represented, 1 am now 
doubtful regarding them, and think they must belong to 
another species, possibly to the Aspidiotus Bromelia, 
(Gard. Chron., vol. i., p. 131, fig. 2); the thoracic scale 
has two elevated lines forming a cross, the sides of the 
abdominal margin are raised, and there is a stout elevated 
ridge down the back (Fig. 8, magnified). Obs, : all the 
small outlines denote the natural sizes of the different 
objects, as they are shown upon the leaf. 
g 
The small White-scale is, I believe, more difficult to 
eradicate than any of the others. It is supposed to have 
been introduced irom America, and does not require the 
heat that most of the exotic species do; it is therefore 
found in myriads on a variety of plants besides the 
Oleander,; 28 Acacias, Arbutuses, Aloes, Palms, and 
similar plants. The Olive, as we have observed, is infested 
by it: but this is a very different species to the Coccus 
Olez, which inhabits the Olives in their native soils in the 
South of France, Italy, &c., where those valuable trees 
suffer considerably from the immense quantities of the 
Scale-insects which are produced, as many as 2,000 eggs 
having been found under one female, and as the sap of the 
Olives is always in circulation, no interruption is offered 
to their increase, and consequently they are breeding the 
whole summer, if not in the winter, sometimes spreading 
to the Myrtles and Phillyreas also. I find that the peasants 
call them lice, and believe that they are produced by the 
ants, from those insects traversing the Olive-trees in 
search of the scales to obtain the sweet fluid secreted by 
the Cocci, as already stated in a former communication.—. 
Ruricola, 
SPRENGEL ON VEGETABLE MANURES. 
(Concluded from page 572.) 
12. Peat-earth.— Peat is a substance composed of 
vegetable remains, which are more or less decomposed 
and deposited in boggy or wet soil. When used as litter 
it is necessary to throw it in large heaps, that it may lose 
its superfluous humidity. At times, the vegetable remains 
of which peat is composed are of a very filmy texture, in 
which case the heaps must be well cut through several 
times, else, when placed under cattle, it will not properly 
mix with the animal excrements. Where, however, peat 
moors are under cultivation, this is not required; in that 
case it is sufficient to shovel up the earth from the surface 
of the fields, which, by burning, ploughing, and harrow- 
ing, have already become soft and dry, and this earth may 
e used at once for litter. 
It has been proved by long experience, that peat-earth 
yields a superior manure, especially if it contain mineral 
substances, required for the growth of plants. As, how- 
ever, the different sorts of peat-earth contain different 
quantities of mineral substances, their manuring value can 
only be ascertained by the chemical analysis of their ashes. 
The upper stratum of peaty moor generally consists of half 
decomposed mosses, which, as has been already stated, 
possess little value as litter, being deficient in the mineral 
substances important to vegetation. Hence, it follows that 
moss-peat cannot be a very good litter, as indeed is proved 
by experiments on a large scale. The brown fibrous-peat 
which lies under the moss-peat is much better, because 
its ashes contain much gypsum, phosphate of lime, mag 
nesia, andl common salt; but even this sort of peat does 
not yield a very superior manure, being (in almost ail cases) 
deficient in potash, and generally in nitrogen also. If 
therefore, manure obtained from littering with peat-earth 
is to supply the crops with all necessary substances, the 
cattle must be fed with substances containing much potash 
and nitrogen, so that what is deficient in the litter may 
be supplied by the animals. = 
Peat-earth litter will be most advantageous in localities 
which are very dry and sandy, for the soil will then be 
supplied with plenty of humus, which (on account oie 
hygrometrical quality) will keep the soil sufficiently mo!s™ 
One of the chief advantages of littering with peat-earlhs 
however, is, that not the smallest particle of nitrogen. ee 
the animals will be lost, because all the ammonia that 18 
j ; es Phi cattle 
given off from the urine or otherwise, or which the sth 
may perspire, will be at once chemically combined yes 
the humic acid of the peat-earth ; at the same time © 6 
part of the superabundant humic acid which would inJ™ 
vegetation will be neutralised, J 
Tn order that peat may be uniformly mixed wit aaeita 
matter, and that it may be perfectly rotted, it is bee for 
throw the peat-manure into large heaps, and to Lea ee 
some time (say two or three months), previous to ona 
carted on the land. Itis true that in doing 5° 5 
carbon will be lost in the shape of carbonic acid $ ily re 
need not be taken into account, for it will be eas"Y i 
placed by the layer of peat. The rotting of ee be 
manure in large heaps is the more necessary, aeeort 
parti ry in pr tion to the un 
carried on the longer, in propor decom 
o 
hn animal 
n’ 
and sheep, as in this case it will fix that gre sheep-folds 
ammonia which these animals furnish. ae so prevent 
straw may be strewed over the earth, in OF 
the wool from being soiled. at-earth are 
In order to show that -some sorts OE eel contents, 
really very valuable on account of their ™ valyee 
I shall insert here the result of one of seb oe 
100,000 ‘parts of dry peat-earth contain :— 
7,960 parts of silica 
760 
) 
6 lime (carbonate 0! ie 
160 4 magnesia (carbonate f) 
620, alumina 
320 , sum “ 
av 4 phosphate of lime 
120 M4 corny of iron and manganese 
” 
they wi 96 lbs. of gypsu Be 1b 
wey vil supple magnesia, 186 lbs. of ala eae i 
of sexton salt, and 12 lbs of phosphate or fons) 
will produce a considerable effect on the gro 
especially in a OS ae that there are also pea 
tity © minexal 
7 f 
But for the sa Got die 
earths, which, on act 
substances, Possess 
count of the small quan 
little value as litter, 
