

fa 





^unifE FIOWERS AND PLANTS IN POTS— 



C H i?rMFHRETS'S INODOROUS SOLUBLE COMPOUND. 



V \JL A^ntsof «rreat power are here combined in a highly- 



*" i ^^«£rm <o that a few grains of the powder dissolved once a 



caeca fortnight, in the water used with plants, are suf- 



ibrflt* 



re 



|THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



275 





1M. Upper 



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»p8n 

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 uid 



tefe. 

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It. ft; 



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H **^S in Bottles, I*. 9rf. each, by tne ieaaing seeasmen in row 

 * f -."2Sir Wholesale Agents: Daw, Macjiurdo, and Co., 

 **■ Thames-street, London. 



HTSriCULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 

 EXHIBITIONS AT THE GARDEN.-The First Meeting 



i .. " t -.'ace on Saturdat the 18 th nl May: subjects for Ex hi. 

 SS^Mrt be at this Office on Friday the l~th ; or at the Garden 

 **TJ* ufM.t Eight o'clock a.m., on the day of Exhibition. 

 K«Laltors will be provided with a printed form in which they 

 m | iuie for the information of the Judges, whether their 

 wtato'u *'•• have bee " 8nown previously during the Season. The 

 JUjTInil be open at One p.m. Tickets are issued to Fellows at 

 JJa Otfee. price 5s. each ; or at the Garden, in the afternoon of 

 Satfatsof Exhibition, at 7s. 6d. each j but only to orders from 

 owl of the Society. 

 K B No Ticket- will be issued in Regent Street on the day of 

 .-*!, Regent Street. 



<&avftmtv& Cfii-ottfrle 



SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1844. 



MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 



Mi— it. Mays . Entomftlqfrical . . . 8 p.m. 



TrB ,.. M . r7 f Horticultural . . . 3 p.m. 



Tc»Mf, Mir 7 .} Linne;in .... 8p . M . 



WBanwAT, Ma; 8 

 it, May IS 



COUNTRY SHOW. 



r, May 55 • Hammersmith Heartsease. 



Entomological 

 ( Horticultural 



"\Linnean 



. Society of Arts 



. Microscopical 



8 p.m. 

 8 p.m. 



mix. 

 ftlfca 



■til 



Those who wish to know when not to plant, should 

 *Wt the Nurseries just now, and see the condition of 

 rei Spring-planted trees. They will find them 

 !etd md dying by thousands. That this must be so 

 s only what common sense, and a very limited 

 acquaintance with the nature of things, would indicate. 

 Nevertheless experience tells us that many people are 

 ■is deficient in good sense as in Vegetable Physio- 

 logy, and that in spite of both they will plant late in 

 the spnng. The practice of the Nurserymen, who 

 nust, it is said, have much experience, and whose 

 interest it is to perforin this operation rightly, seems to 

 unction the custom. But it is forgotten that Nursery- 

 men plant late in the spring because they cannot help 



Lfl*7 arC f ° rced l0 defer their own operations 

 until their customers discontinue buying ; and because 



inli '"il h°T rS Ch °?f? to . P r °c««tinate, till transplant- 



Srf.? lmp ° SSlble % the Nu ^erymen are annually 

 constrained to attempt the impossibility. ' 



Wl? H n r aS i been „ f ° rmall y discussed in *e 

 tnvS t Hortlc " lture > and we are not aware that 

 «2^ng more can be said upon the subject. Never- 



"*"»!». ma 7 pe °P le wiI1 re ad a newspaper who 



bJ^j^nf™ CXplain the a ^ Uments a S ainst 



- YewsTol e ml! inC ? pIa r erhad some "ther large 

 iS «S T he wrZrW AS SUCh Plants are hard t0 Proserve, 



k <*5ed " L.t PV U Cd a ,P erson who had had what is 



mm 



ml 



t 





i 



M 







■OB** 



nine*' 



■"•n to remove th^m k n r*^*«»B, wuu a 



*iee was fnlin i Z allmea »s in the spring. 



^«S^? em0Dth of » was taken, 



**» by the « eL ?" *!? ** Now > the roasons 

 La .J™ ^Penenced ' man were, first, that if 



P anted in the autumn they would be 



ZT !u d Chafed half trough at the 

 condly, that their roots wouFd all be 



erl f f ing about them ^ winter ; 



JJ* trees w. 



"^n about 

 pound-ling. 



^ted bv ; 



%> that 



ier,*J! aesson 

 *ll his 



rr ;u. 



V- u » experience" K Cr f e ? ns ; and fourthly, that in 

 Jf *«tmnn with „m had TT never Panted Yews in 



^TV n s P ri '»g as w I 688 ' , H 1 for S ot that the ^«d 

 Z? ^ chafing a S? ? s l at other "easons of the year, 



^^ted by a doM n h f Was so alarmed misrht be 



SP* 11 ^ »kut roorJ ,,nP COntrivances ' that water 

 J* « any other Zl m ? r . e misch ievous in spring 

 Wwh h eT ; and U is not impossible 1 that 

 W^^ e , autu ^n; was tl e It r Planted Yews successfully 

 £*£j lik ^, sin^e h e a l be » ev ^ tried ; which was the 

 > Rearing Uce wh ? « e was one of a chattering over- 



S* f *ta, thinkin. h n abuu fy confounds assertions 

 ^ber. n ^ng one perhaps to be as good as the 





K\ 



'■nee 



t»T? ar K u «-ent i^ Tr f ent the y are examined - 



",'SS; J ^ "'« is of al S favour is its occasional 



^'•22: Thcre are men •"?" the most^unsatis- 



^r co quant »i^ fts s r mry wh ° drink 



***J** »ho, tS?'' indicestion « d hve t0 a 8 reat a S e . 



. ,n "'= same w,' < I aS , ,aV,u,rabk ' t0 (I «'P 



H< 



»neu 



Jtiona. 

 ism 



,/rP 



^ane M;i tu > out whn «,« r, ,' u " ie y nave 



ThV ^ 8Ummw . or AulU d d , rea,n of «^»g 

 •Ct ^ USe , of death "I?'' . f0r the operation ? b 



^^ w ^iytb a tthe yl S e t n he fl ees , are removed is 



/'osetheflmd contained within 



them faster than it can be renewed ; the end being 

 the drying up of their vessels, which is immediately 

 followed by a loss of vital force. If we inquire 

 whether the circumstances to which spring-planted 

 trees are exposed are favourable or unfavourable to 

 this fatal loss of fluid, we find them to be the former 

 in an enormous degree. The air is peculiarly dry in 

 the spring, and frequently in rapid motion at the 

 same time; all objects exposed to a current of dry air 

 must part with their moisture rapidly ; and conse- 

 quently, such a state of things is mostunfavourableto 

 plants which require to retain their "moisture. At 

 first their young bark is the channel through which 

 the moisture flies off; but as soon as voting leaves 

 appear, should the trees live long enough, and the 

 perspiring surface is thus extended, this loss goes on 

 with far greater rapidity, and life is soon extinguished. 

 Evergreens, which have always a very large perspiring 

 surface, are on that account exposed to much more 

 danger, and consequently the losses among them are 

 much greater. That the excessive loss of fluid from the 

 interior is the true cause of death in newly-planted 

 trees was proved, by we think, Mr. Knight, who sur- 

 rounded their stems with damp moss and thus pre- 

 served them. 



Established trees suffer nothing from the dry air of 

 spring, because their roots areunmutilated,and restore 

 the moisture as fast as it flies off from the surface. 

 But newly-planted trees, whose roots are necessarily 

 much mutilated, suffer, because they cannot obtain 

 fluid from the soil until the roots are renewed, and 

 before that can happen they are dead ; for the feeble- 

 ness of the stem actually diminishes the capability of 

 the plant to renew its roots. 



But it is said that if a tree is just budding when 

 planted it is in the most favourable state, because it 

 will immediately make fresh roots, the act of vege- 

 tation upwards being simultaneous with growth in a 

 downward direction ; and that is true. There is here, 

 however, a fallacy : it is assumed that the upward and 

 downward vegetation will go on when a plant is 

 transplanted as well as if it is left in its former place ; 

 that, however, depends upon the external conditions 

 to which it is exposed. Jf the surrounding air is 

 damp, and remains so, evaporation being thus pre- 

 vented for a sufficiently long time, roots will be quickly 

 formed, and the plant will go on growing ; on the 

 other hand, if the air is dry, and exhausts the branches 

 of their moisture, new roots cannot be formed, and 

 the plant will die. Life, in such a case, is staked 

 upon the chance of the atmosphere being in a very 

 favourable state; and the chances are ten to one 

 against its being so. 



These considerations abundantly prove the spring 

 to be the worst of all seasons for a planter. We shall 

 hereafter consider what the best season is. 





NATURALIZATION OF THE CAMELLIA. 



The climate of the west of Normandy being generally as 

 severe in winter as that of considerable portions of England 

 and Ireland, it is reasonable to conclude that plants which 

 are found to thrive in the open air in the former country 

 will succeed in the other two. M. Bataille, the curator of 

 the Botanic garden at Avranches, in the department of La 

 Manche, has about a dozen fine Camellias in his private 

 garden, where they have been seven or eight years, with- 

 out suffering injury from the influence of w'inter ; they 

 have had no protection from the weather, except a little 

 matting around them in hard frost. The seeds were 

 sown by M. Bataille in the open ground, in August, 1836 ; 

 these were examined in the following spring and found to 

 be enlarged ; the radicles had burst from the envelopes, 

 and were directed inwardly to extract the nourishment 

 necessary to the farther development of the young plants, 

 which then exhibited the primitive leaves. During the 

 summer they attained some vigour ; and straw was occa- 

 sionally laid over them during the ensuing winter, which 

 so completely secured them from the effects of frost, that 

 they were in full possession of their vegetating powers in 

 the spring following. One of them flowered in 1841, for 

 the first time, and last year five flowered ; and the same 

 plants are now about to produce their showy blossoms. 

 I have seen Camellias in the open ground in England and 

 Ireland ; last year the Earl of Shannon had several at 

 Castle Martyr, but those were raised from seed sown in 

 hot-houses, and the plants were transferred from the 

 greenhouse to the garden, and therefore have a very un- 

 certain existence there. Common sense would lead one 

 to form this conclusion ; but besides, actual experiment 

 tends to prove that seeds unnaturally forced into germi- 

 nation, and kept in their subsequent early stages in 

 warm habitations, will ever afterwards preserve a constitu- 

 tional delicacy that cannot resist severe pressure. The pre- 

 decessor of M. Bataille, supposing that he might render the 

 Camellia an acclimated shrub in Normandy, removed 

 from the greenhouse a single flowering plant of that kind 

 to the garden, where it matured its seeds, from which 

 many plants were obtained that yielded (by grafting) 

 double flowers ; but as he committed the error of sowing 

 the seeds in a hot-bed—which seeds, be it remembered, 

 were the produce of a plant which had been reared in an 

 unnatural state, for such the greenhouse surely is— all the 

 plants raised by him, excepting one, which has a very con- 

 sumptive appearance, have died. The Camellia, or Rose 

 of Japan, in its native clime, attains the height of 12 or 



15 feet, and though 

 together acclimated 

 element of heat, co 

 reason to hope that, 

 bestowed on it, this 

 dered, in the course 

 occupy a permanent 

 J far tin Doyle. 



we cannot suppose that it can be al- 

 in our ungenial country, where the 



mpnratively, is so deficient, there is 



with such nurture as M. Bataille has 

 very ornamental plant may be ren- 

 of some year?, sufficiently hardy to 



position in the British shrubbery. — 



-* ENTOMOLOGY. 



The Earth-worm Fly (Sarcophaga camaria.)— 

 There can be no doubt that Earth-worms are exceedingly 

 useful in loosening the soil, and enabling the rain to pene- 

 trate to the roots of plants more freely ; at the same time 

 they manure the land, and very probably render it more 

 productive, by the change which it undergoes in digestion; 

 for the innumerable casts one sees piled up on the surface 

 have all passed through their bodies. Worms are, how. 

 ever, such enemies to neatness on gravel walks and lawns, 

 they do so much mischief by drawing young plants into 

 their borrows, and render those in pots so unhealthy, that 

 the gardener naturally enough considers them a very great 

 nuisance ; he has, however, a friend amongst the Diptera, 

 which may assist extensively in their diminution. And this 

 is a fresh instance of the services rendered by that order 

 of insects ; for troublesome and even offensive as flies are, 

 often compelling us to protect our food from their inroads, 

 and others destroying the productions of our kitchen- 

 gardens, yet the Muscidse, in their larva it ite, are amongst 

 the most numerous and efficient of Nature's scavengers, 

 sweeping away the putrescent matter which is hourly 

 tainting the air we breathe : and there are many others 

 that are eminently useful in keeping under the vegetable 

 feeders in this extensive race of minor animals. Amongst 

 those which may be termed animal-feeders is the larvae of 

 the fly above alluded to, which is a natural parasite of the 

 common Earth-worm, Lumbricus terrestris. The parent 

 (lies are abundant in gardens and fields, on heaths and 

 probably in every place inhabited by worms; in fine 

 weather one sees them flying in pairs, generally along 

 pathways, and alighting at short distances when disturbed ; 

 they likewise resort to many umbelliferous flowers, from 

 which they imbibe honey with their large fleshy lips. 

 They are numbered amongt the flies whose larvae feed 

 upon meat, but there is a part of their economy which was 

 unknown to me until a very ingenious observer of the 

 habits of insects* communicated an interesting fact which 

 came under his own observation. On the 18th of June, 

 after a shower of rain, he found in a garden-path a common 

 Earth-worm, motionless, with several small white maggots 

 crawling over its body ; on taking it up the worm began 

 to writhe about, when the little maggots made their way 

 to a hole in the thickened band encircling the body, which 

 they immediately entered, their tails only being exposed, 

 which Mr. Bolt believed was for respiration. The Earth- 

 worm lived about four days, when the maggots had mate- 

 rially increased in size ; another live worm was then given 

 to them, but it did not live long; the maggots, however, 

 only six in number, nearly devoured the first before they 

 began the second; by the 25th it seems they had arrived 

 at their full size, for three made their escape, but the 

 others were put into a small box with some damp mould, 

 where in a few days they became pupae ; these were trans- 

 mitted to me, and in the beginning of the following June 

 I bred three female flies from them. The maggots, De 

 Geer says, are exceedingly like those of the common flesh- 

 fly, or blue-bottle, and the pupae are oval, coriaceous, of a 

 chesnut brown ; ringed, with two minute points at the 

 head, and an aperture at the tail surrounded by small 

 tubercles. 





' The Muscat of Linnseus, which contained a very large 

 portion of the Diptera, have been divided by recent 

 writers into many genera, as may be seen by the arrange- 

 ment in Curtis's " Guide. "f One of these new groupg 

 has received from Meigen the appellation of Sarcophaga, 

 in allusion to the larvae living upon flesh ; and to this 

 genus belongs the Earth-worm fly, which was described 

 in the " Fauna Suecica," and is now called Sarcophaga 

 camaria. The male is black and shining, with a slight 

 blue tinge; it is also pubescent, with numerous long 

 bristles scattered over its whole body ; the antenna; are 

 drooping, with a feathery bristle ; the lip is long, the palpi 

 distinct and clavate ; the head is produced in front, having 

 a silky lustre of an ochreous tint and a broad stripe of 

 black down the crown, near the base of which are placed 

 three minute ocelli ; the eyes are not contiguous ; they are 

 large, oval, and rusty brown ; the scutel is large and 

 semi-orbicular ; the abdomen is oval, the apex a little 

 incurved, curiously formed, and very bristly; the back is 

 beautifully tessellated with silky gray and chalybeous 

 black ; the wings are longer than the body, dirty white, 

 the nervures brown, the two large posterior cells closed at 

 the extremity by oblique sinuous nervures ; poisers con- 

 cealed beneath large pocket-shaped whitish squamulse, on 

 each side of the scutelium ; legs stout, very hairy, and 

 bristly — anterior pair the shortest ; hmder tibiae clothed 



* Mr. John Bolt, of Lyndhurst, Hants, 

 t See Genera 1269 to 1291, &c. 



