44d 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
[Juny 1, 
habits, that they may with great propriety be divided 
into three sections, which will form as many genera : Ist, 
there is the true or typical Coceus, the female of which is 
covered with a scale, inseparable from the animal; fa- 
miliar examples are the C. hesperidum and C. vitis of 
Linnzeus; 2dly, a large number is distinguished by Bouché 
under the name of Aspidiotus, of which C. Nerii of that 
author and C. Bromeliz* are examples. In this group 
the females are covered with a scale, which does not adhere 
to the animal ; 3dly, those species, comparatively few in 
number, I believe, whose females are not furnished with 
scales, but are merely powdered over ; they are very dif- 
ferent, also, in not being stationary, but run about when 
full grown, as well as when young ; I propose calling them 
Trecuocorys (Running-bugs), of which the Coccus 
adonidum of Linnzus will be the type. 
I have seen several species of Turtle-scales which belong 
to the Ist section; they generally live upon the leaves 
and stems of plants, requiring great heat; the species 
sent to me as the Black Turtle-scale (fig. 1) infests both 
SS 
sides of the leaves, preferring the undersides, to which 
the females adhere, generally lying in lines along the mid- 
rib. On lifting up one of these female scales several 
hundreds of eggs and young ones were lying upon the 
leaf, and in the cavity of the mother: they were of a pale 
orange colour; the former were oval, cylindrical, and 
shining ; the latter were flat, oval, and like little wood- 
lice ; they were furnished with two fine antenne, hairy at 
the apex, two little black eyes, six legs, anda notch at the 
apex of the abdomen, which produces two long hairs or 
sete; the back is transversely striated with the lines 
formed by the numerous abdominal segments. They ran 
fast, and kept pushing about the eggs, which were only 
partially and sparingly supplied with the’cottony substance 
so abundant in some species; they were also intermixed 
with the pale, empty shells of the hatched eggs. Fig. 1 
represents part of a leaf of Brexia spinosa, with two of the 
adult females and a younger one between them ; they are 
oval, very convex, dark-brown, and from their similarity toa 
tortoise, I have named this scale Coccus testudo; there 
is an elevated ridge along the back, with two transverse 
ones, the first being nearest the middle, the secon 
towards the tail; the whole surface is finely shagreened 
with small white tufts scattered over the whole. Fig. 3, 
highly magnified, the upper end being the tail. 
never seen it remarked that the scales are invariably fixed 
with their heads downward, so that as soon as the young 
hatch they are ready to ascend the plant, and consequently 
spread over the fresh and more tender portions. The 
underside of the scale has a broadish margin, which is 
ciliated, and there is a long cleft at the tail; the skin of 
the body is concave, dark, with a purplish tinge, with six 
minute legs, and a largish lobe towards the anterior por- 
tion, which is furnished with a fine proboscis. Fig 4 
shows a multitude of eggs, the young, and (the whitish 
exuvize adhering to the female ; and fig. 2 the impression 
from a scale which has been removed. 
In Feb., 1841, I received a twig of a Mexican plant, upon 
the stalk of which were about 30 specimens of a similar 
Coccus, but the leaves were free from them; they were of 
achocolate colour, somewhat oval, very gibbose, and had a 
fleshy appearance, resembling rather aphides that had 
been punctured by parasites than scale insects; the out- 
side was shining chesnut-brown, with irregular punctures, 
and minute tubercles scattered over the surface; in pro- 
file it was very gibbose, being pyramidal truncate, the 
anterior surface nearly vertical, with a lobe over the apex 5 
the hinder extremity was more sloped off, and when 
removed from the stem the slender siphon of the rostrum 
was visible; I could also see six minute legs, the anterior 
pair moved about whilst I was examining the scale, and 
was the only evidence of vitality it exhibited; the four 
hinder legs were closer together, but obscured by the 
eggs, which amounted to 50 or more ; they were larger 
than usual, oval, dull, ochreous, and shining. I could not 
detect either eyes or antenne, neither have I ever seen 
the males of these scale insects. It is difficult to imagine 
how these immovable females contrive to get the eggs so 
completely under their bodies, unless there is an oviduct 
which is protruded from the anal suture, and directs the 
eggs to that position. 
A third species I saw in vast numbers in July on the 
underside of the leaves of a plant in a hothouse ; they had 
swarmed over each other like bees, and being of a dark- 
brown colour were very visible ; they were either round 
and hemispherical or oval, with a smooth and rather 
shining surface, but, under a powerful lens, appeared 
covered with minute tubercles; the entire margin was a 
* Vide Gard, Chron. vol. iy Ps 1315 figs. 1 to 6, 
beneath at the tail. On removing them there were a few 
small young ones of an orange colour, and an immense 
quantity of dirty white skins, leaving the egg-shells from 
whence the young had escaped, which at once proved that 
this was a very prolific species. —Ruricola. 
ON POTTING AND SHIFTING PLANTS. 
Mucu, if not the greater part of the success in culti- 
yating plants in pots depends upon a proper method of 
potting and shifting them, and this as much in the state 
of the materials employed as in the manner of employing 
them. But in vain may soil, situation, and treatment be 
consonant to their natures if care and attention have not 
been paramount in this branch of their treatment. When 
plants are in open borders they are in a great measure 
attended to by Nature herself. But when we place them 
in pots, we give them an artificial habitation, and they 
then require of us artificial treatment to reconcile them to 
an abode foreign to their natures. First, the soil will, of 
course, be a composition suitable to the particular plant 
or plants to be potted ; but of whatever it may be com- 
posed, particular care should be taken that it be not too 
wet nor too dry. If the former, it becomes, during the 
process of potting, a compact mass, which, contracting as 
it gets drier, leaves a vacuum between the exterior of the 
pod and the ball of the plant; thus allowing the free 
admission of light and air, which is, of course, anything 
but beneficial to the plant. If, on the other hand, it be 
too dry, it prevents for a considerable time the free pas- 
sage of moisture to the roots; and it will often be found, 
especially if the plant itself is dry at the time of potting, 
that it will suffer greatly ere it receive sufficient moisture 
to recruit the evaporation of its juices. Secondly, the 
pots, if not new ones, should be scrupulously clean ; for 
if the advantage were nothing more than the facility 
obtained in turning out the plant to examine or re-shift 
it, it would amply repay the trouble. But independent 
of this, a plant enjoys better health in a clean than in a 
dirty pot; andif no other consideration would urge to 
cleanliness, appearance would, I presume, decide in its 
favour. Thirdly, drainage should combine two proper- 
ties, to allow free exit to the superabundant moisture, and 
to prevent the entrance of worms ; and although the latter 
object is somewhat difficult of attainment, we should 
seldom have to complain, if plants, when placed in situa- 
tions where worms are likely to abound, were set upon a 
sufficiently thick layer of cinder-ashes, or some similar 
material ; cinder-ashes, I think, claiming the preference, 
as we seldom see worms attempt to penetrate them, if two 
inches in thickness. To allow a free passage to the super- 
abundant moisture, let the crock covering the drain-hole 
be placed so as to form an arch, with a few smaller ones 
placed round it, covering the whole with a slight quantity 
of moss, sufficient to prevent the finer particles of soil 
being washed round the larger crock, which would effec- 
tually obstruct the drainage, when the soil would become 
sour and unhealthy ; and, as a natural consequence, the 
plant would follow its example. Fourthly, the depth of 
potting should be regulated by the mark which nature 
points out, and which is always conspicuous in plants 
raised from sced ; at allevents, let it not be placed deeper 
than when it receives its first remove from the cutting or 
seed-pod. To bury an inch or two of the stem of a plant 
is very injurious, although a practice of common occur- 
rence with careless potting. Tifthly, in leaving a sufli- 
cient space in the pots to receive water, on no account let 
it form a kind of basin; that is,a hollow round the stem; 
but let the soil round the stem be as high as the rim of 
the pot, receding gradually to a depth round the rim, 
agreeably to the size of the pot, the nature of the plant, 
or the situation in which it is to be placed. 
J feel confident if these few simple rules were followed, 
many plants which we now see dying, or at best, barely 
yegetating, would be vice versé.—Tyro. 
AMATEUR’S GARDEN.—No. XXVII. 
Tun greatest triumph which gardeners have achieved 
in the management of plants is that by which almost 
innumerable and very beautiful varieties of flowers have 
been raised from the weeds of our fields, as in the Hearts- 
ease and Tulip ; and what, in exotics, are comparatively 
little better, the single Dahlia, the Dianthus, Pelargonium, 
and several other genera. This is effected by what is 
technically designated hybridizing and cross-breeding, by 
which process the properties of dissimilar but allied 
species (and in some cases genera) are so intermixed, 
that the seedling produce will partake of the character of 
both parents, and the flowers be frequently superior 
to either. 
Nature, unaided by art, has accomplished much, and 
has produced the Golden Pippin Apple from the Wild 
Crab, and the Damson and other Plums from the common 
Sloe ; yet it must be confessed that art, properly directed, 
has effected and will effect more in a few years, than 
nature, dependent upon accidental circumstances, would 
do in a long lifetime. As an operation to fill up the 
leisure hours of the lady gardener and amateur, I do not 
know anything more pleasing; for there is something 
akin to creative power init, as we are bringing new forms 
into existence; and though all the offspring may not be 
equally interesting, some may be very pretty, and others 
superlatively beautiful. ‘No one but a parent can have a 
parent’s feeling’ is a trite saying, and certainly the 
pleasure of an enthusiastic florist in viewing a first-rate 
flower of his own raising, amounts almost in some cases 
to a species of idolatry. 
To explain the method of artificial fertilization, it will 
be necessary to offer a few remarks on the formation of 
owers. In all flowers, when divested of the petals or 
corolla, there will be found standing in the centre, and 
attached to the flower-stalk,—of a Fuchsia, for illustra- 
tion—a small pin-like substance, which is called the pis- 
tillum, or female organ, and surrounding it a number of 
shorter pins of various lengths, with rather large heads, 
which are called stamens, or male organs. <A slight 
examination of various flowers will show how beautifully 
nature has provided for the multiplication of the different 
species of plants ; as, in some cases, the farina falls from 
the anther upon the stigma, while, in others, it is depo- 
sited there by an elastic force in the filament, as is exem- 
plified in the flowers of the Kalmia. The pistillum con~ 
sists of three parts, viz., the ovary, the style, and the 
stigma, and has been likened to a column, as the first will 
represent the pedestal, the second the shaft, and the 
third the capital. The stamen also consists of three parts, 
which are called the filament, anther, and pollen or farina, 
a sort of mealy powder which the anther throws out, and 
which, when it falls upon the stigma, or top of the pistillum, 
fructifies it, and a production of seed is the consequence, 
Now, when gardeners wish to produce hybrid or cross- 
bred plants, they divest the flowers which it is intended 
to produce seed from of their stamens, and proceed to 
fertilize the stigma with farina taken from some other 
plant: thus, if I wished for a family of plants between 
Fuchsia globosa and F. Venus victrix, I should take the 
stamens from the flowers of the latter directly the flowers 
were open, and fertilise the stigma with farina taken from 
F. globosa, and the result would probably be plants 
resembling F. globosa in habit, and partaking of the 
colours of ,Venus victrix in the flowers, as the habit of 
the plant generally resembles the male parent, and the 
flowers those of the female ; and for this reason particular 
attention should be paid to the choice of parents, if we wish 
to make decided improvements in the habits of our plants. 
After the stigma is fertilized, it should be guarded 
from the contact of honey-seeking insects by a muslin 
bag placed over the flower, or by keeping the plants in a 
pit or frame covered with strong gauze or fine canvas. 
The best instrument to convey farina from one plant to 
another is a camel-hair pencil, and the best time to apply 
it is early in the morning, when the flower is full grown, 
and the stigma is covered with its own mucus; but to 
make assurance doubly sure, it is well to apply the pollen 
for several days successively. 
As it is reasonable to suppose an highly-organised seed 
will produce a stronger plant than an improperly ripened 
one, no plant should be allowed to produce more than six 
pods of seed, and no flowers after the seed-pods begin to 
swell, but should be encouraged, by proper attention, to 
grow as healthily as possible. 
Where it is inconvenient to fertilize the flowers, a8 
in Heartsease, and many other plants, none but the very 
best kinds should be allowed to produce seed, as it is 
probable that the seed from the six best Heartsease known 
would produce more good flowers than the seed from six 
hundred indifferent kinds. —W. P. Ayres. 
HOME CORRESPONDENCE. 
Manures: Guano.—1 have used Guano on strong 
brick-earth at the rate of 30 ewt. per acre, with consider- 
able advantage, as you will see by the accompanying Pea, 
and they are all much of a size in the row. It was applied 
after they had grown about 12 inches, I mention this 
fact, as there appears amongst your correspondents con- 
siderable doubt as to the maximum of quantity in Guano. 
Less than the above would kill grass, and no doubt would 
be dangerous on hot gravelly soils, or even on undraine 
clays that{would cake near the surface. I have applied 
more than a ton and a half per acre on my flower-gardeD) 
in addition to considerable quantities of Bone-dust, Sooty 
Salt, and Nitrate of Soda; and the extraordinary Juxuri- 
ance of their growth and the size of the flowers in a coll 
aspect bear testimony to its utility. Care should be taken to 
apply it before or during rain, and not to allow it to touch 
the foliage. My Potatoes and other vegetables appear to 
like the Guano. On 8 acres of Oats, on recently-draine 
Guano per acre 0D © 
acres; 4 cwt. of Guano and | sack of Common Salt on 9 
luxuriance, and appears to be commencing to bear freely-] 
Asparagus.—1 followed your advice, and gave my 
Asparagus plenty of salt much to their advantage in 
quantity and size; but previously mine were quite Ee 
all through. ‘This year there was very little greens Bee 
the white was quite tender and good to eat. Did the 5 
affect it thus?—J. B. H. [We apprehend not: and thal 
the’ want of colour was owing to the cold dark spring: ] fs 
observed a paragrap 
Water- 
ood 5 
but as it is not in the power of many to grow them in tee 
way, not having. a spring of water at their command, 
will simply state the way in 
the last ten years, a plan W 
of adopting who possesses eve 
no lntchen- garde ee Piece a aA 
all, and as uld not ge 3 l 
I sould wane it occurred to me that Water-cresses might 
About the beginning of May I prepare & piec 
de + \ 
sfeground, 8 feot by 3, with rather rich soul ; I then pro 
