556 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



colour; ouo|>euing one loroe time titer, 1 found tht 

 stamina an J germen entirely consumed, the withered 

 petals forming a hollow globe (fig. 1), within which was 

 lying a brown pupa : about the middle of June three of 

 the Apple-weevils hatched, and on examining the buds, 

 I found a hole on one aide from whence the bectloa had 

 ' escaped from their tombs (fig. 2). In some seasons the 

 larvae are feeding the beginning of May, and the beetles 



have hatched by the 20th. # 



These little animals sometimes occasion great loss 

 to the Apple-grower, especially in cider countries in 

 backward seasons, when vegetation is retarded by cold 

 and wet, which afford the beetles a much longer period 

 to perform their operations ; and such was the case in 

 1816, 1831, 1832, and 1838. Like many other insects in 

 their perfect state, they live through the winter, secreting 

 themselves in the chinks and under the loose bark of 

 trees, beneath stones, clods of earth, &c. In March, 

 when the flower-buds sre swelling, the beetles emerge 

 from their retreats, when the males are seen in sunny 

 mornings flying amongst the trees in search of the 

 females, who generally are crawling over the branches, 

 although they are also furnished with wings. They 

 seem to be very careful in selecting proper objects for 

 the reception of their eggs, and on finding a suitable 

 bud, the female bores a hole with her minute jaws, which 

 are placed at the tip of the slender proboscis, until she 

 has reached the parts of fructification, and turning 

 round, she lays an egg in the hole by inserting her ovi- 

 positor, and then closes it again with her mouth, and 

 seems as if she were forcing in the egg ; this is rather a 

 tedious operation, and is said to occupy three-quarters 

 of an hour ; she then hastens to another swelling flower- 

 hud for the same purpose, and is thus employed two or 

 three weeks, viz. until the flowers begin to expand, 

 when her labours cease ; for, as the larva? can neither 

 bear wet nor sunshine, they require the protection 

 afforded by the closed petals. The eggs arc hatching 

 from the beginning to the end of April, principally influ- 

 enced by the variations of the season ; if the weather 

 be warm, they are matured in five or six days. During 

 this period the bud grows, and the petals appear of their 

 usual rosy colour, but instead of expanding, they wither, 

 and eventually turn to a rusty brown ; and on opening 

 them, in place of the germen and stamina, which have 

 been consumed by a single maggot, one finds rolling 

 about in this globular chamber a pupa, of a deep ferru- 

 ginous colour, which is very sensitive and restless when 

 touched (fig. 4). The maggots are curved, fleshy, and 

 whitish, having numerous segments and wrinkles, with a 

 few short hairs, but no legs ; the head is horny and black, 

 and furnished with small jaws (fig. 3). The exact time 

 they remain in the pupa state has not been ascer- 

 tained, but in about a month from the period when the 

 eggs are deposited the Weevils hatch, and eating a hole 

 through the dry petals, they disperse over the tree, and 

 feed upon the leaves during the remainder of the summer. 

 Like most of the Curculionidae when approached, the 

 Apple-weevils contract their legs and fall down, so that 

 it is difficult to detect and capture them in any numbers, 

 except whilst they are pairing, or when the females are 

 engaged in depositing their e^gs. 



.1 



[Aug. it 



1 reasons, when the buds are three weeks or more in ex 

 pnoding, scared? an Ap^le-blossom sometimes escapes. 

 The best mode of destroying them is to gather the puuc- 

 tured withering flower-Suds and birn them, by which 

 means the lartaj and pupa will be cut off, and the bee- 

 tles may be collected by beating the branches orer a 

 net; but unless this be done as soon as they make their 

 appearance, it will not be of much service, as the eggs 

 will have been deposited. From various statements it 

 seems that the females will not readily fly, and, as they 

 crawl up the trees, their incursions may be stopped, and 

 the crops saved, by winding tarred bandages round the 

 upper portion of the trunks.— R uricola. 



The Apple-blossom Weevil was named by Linneus 

 Curculio pomorum, and it has been distinguished by later 

 naturalists as the Anthonomus pomorum (fig. 5). It 

 is long and pear-shaped, of a reddish-brown colour, 

 punctured, and clothed with short, depressed, whitish and 

 ochreous hairs; the rostrum is long, subcylindrical, 

 curved, and sculptured ; towards the apex are placed 

 the antenna, which are slender and geniculated ; the 

 basal joint is very long, slender, and clavate — the second 

 is oblong, the six following are more or less globose, and 

 the remaiuing four form an oval-conical club; the head 

 is subglobose, with two very prominent little black eyes ; 

 the thorax is semi-ovate, truncated before with three 

 "dwtinct stripes of a paler colour ; the scutel forms a 

 white dot j the elytra are elongate-ovate, with nine punc- 



hJn. ,tn n 0n , eMl1 ' be y° nd the mlddIe i8 a lar S e P ice0US 



TnL V f '• Wlng a P' dle obli <i u e stripe across the 

 »npv ll° r » ming a u aDgle at the sutur e> and towards the 

 modeAtelwTn. aT §p0t8 ' "»g»*ery ample; legs 



they are all terminated byT claw the t I T^' ?"? 

 the third joint being bilobed,7h'e fourth f'™-^^ 



minute claws, Thf smalle/fc^enot U?e ^atu^l 

 sizes of the animals* c " atulttl 



These beetles will also lay their eirrs in *\,* a 

 buds of Pear-trees, and it is'on calnfR," £ *££ 

 are occupied in depositing them ; for in windy or frostv 

 weather they retire to sheltered situations. I a genial 

 springs, when the blossoms open in a week or ten davs 

 these Weevils do little mischief ; but in co i u . d ^ 



«n*HH ee SS5£ Brir - Eot.,fol. and pi. 562, where direction* 



and descriptions of the genus and.species will be found 



r*bic 



ON THE HYSSOP OF SCRIPTURE. - 



At the meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, on the 

 15th of June, a paper was read by Professor Royle, on 

 the plant which he thought was the Hyssop of Scripture. 

 Having so recently read a paper on a kindred subject, 

 the author referred to it for the principles which should 

 guide, and for what should be considered as proofs in 

 such investigations; and stated that in this, as in the 

 case of the Mustard-tree, he had been led to the discovery 

 from the similarity of the Hebrew name to one occurring 

 in the lists of drugs in the writings of the Arabic writers 

 on Materia Medica. Dr. Royle then proceeded first to 

 enumerate the passages of Scripture in which Hyssop is 

 mentioned : first, in Exodus, ch. xii. v. 22, where the 

 Israelites are directed to take a bunch of Hyssop, dip it 

 in blood, and sprinkle the lintels and posts of their doors; 

 second, in Leviticus, ch. xiv. v. 4, 6, and 52; and Num- 

 bers, ch. xix. v. 5, where Hyssop is directed to be used 

 in the ceremonies of cleansing the leper, and for sprink- 

 ling the water of separation. To this ceremony reference 

 is made in Hebrews, ch. ix. v. 19 ; thirdly, Psalm xli. 

 v. 2, H Purge me with Hyssop, and I shall be clean ;" 

 fourthly, 1 Kings, ch. iv. v. 23, " And he (Solomon) 

 spoke of trees from the Cedar that is in Lebanon, even 

 unto the Hyssop that springeth out of the wall ;" fifthly, 

 The last mention is in the crucifixion of our Saviour, 

 John, ch. xix. v. 29, "And they filled a sponge with 

 vinegar, and put it upon Hyssop, and put it to his 

 mouth." Matthew and Mark in mentioning the same 

 circumstance, state that the Hyssop was affixed to a reed, 

 or small stick. From these passages the author inferred 

 that any plant answering to what was required, should 

 be found in Lower Egypt, in the Desert of Sinai, in and 

 near Jerusalem, grow naturally on rocks or walls, and be 

 large enough to yield a stick, and be supposed to have 

 cleansing properties, and have a name in the Arabic or 

 vernacular languages similar to the Hebrew name. 

 Numerous plants have been brought forward as the 

 Hyssop of Scripture, but none of them possess all the 

 above requisites. Some authors have adduced Mosses 

 and Ferns, others the bitter Artemisias ; but the greater 

 number have considered some sweet herb of the family 

 of Labiate plants, to be the Hyssop of Scripture. The 

 Artemisias are probably the only plants which arc found 

 in all the above localities, but they do not grow upon 

 walls ; and of the Labiate plants, the Rosemary is the 

 only one large enough to yield a stick, and we do not 

 know any species which grows upon walls, and is found 

 in all the required localities. In attempting, however, 

 to identify the Hyssop of Scripture, it is necessary, the 

 author observed, to know the names by which it is de- 

 signated in Hebrew writings ; in these it is written 

 both Esob, and Esobh, and Esof ; and in the Chaldee 

 version, Esofa. Dr. Royle then stated that his attention 

 had been drawn to the subject from observing in Rhases 

 that there were two kinds of Hyssop, one of them growing 

 on the mountain of the Temple, that is, Jerusalem ; and 

 this, in connection with Burckhardt describing a plant 

 called Aszef which he found in several wadies about 

 Mount Sinai, creeping up the mountain side like a para- 

 sitic plant, its branches covered with small thorns. 

 From the name and description, Dr. Royle inferred that 

 this must be the Caper plant ; and on investigation found 

 that Ash/ is one of the well-known names of this plant, 

 as may be seen in the " Camus," also in Richardson's 

 "Arabic Dictionary," and in the " Ulfaz-Udwieh," &c. 

 The similarity in name being sufficiently great, the author 

 proceeded to show that the plant corresponded in a 

 number of the necessary requisites. Thus the Caper 

 plant is well known to be indigenous in Lower Egypt ; 

 Hove found it near Mount Sinai, also on the ruins in the 

 neighbourhood of Jerusalem, as has been done by others. 

 That the habit of the Caper plant is to grow on rocks and 

 walls, is too well-known to require to be proved. Hence 

 we learn this : the Asuf has the habit, and is found 

 in all the situations where the Esof must have been in- 

 digenous for the Israelites to obtain it. That it possessed, 

 or was supposed to possess, cleansing or detergent pro- 

 perties, may be seen in the account of its properties from 

 the time of Hippocrates to the present time. Piny says 

 it is useful in a skin disease nearly allied to leprosy : in 

 the cleansing ceremonies for which Esof was employed by 

 the Israelites. It has long formed one of the *• Quinque 

 radices apenentes minores," or the five lesser aperient 

 roots. It holds a place in some of the Continental Phar- 

 macopoeias, and is universally esteemed in the East. It 

 remains only to see whether the Caper plant would yield a 

 stick long enough for a man with his outstretched arm to 

 be able to raise the sponge dipped in vinegar to the lips of 

 our Saviour. The cross, to be strong enough, could not 

 have been very lofty, for it to have been borne by our Sa- 

 viour, and therefore, an ordinary-sized stick would be long 

 enough for the purpose. Such a stick a shrub like 

 the Caper plant, growing in a congenial climate, would 

 be able to yield, as Pliny describes the Capparis as a 



shrub of a hard and more woody substance. Hence, J 



much the 

 serious grou 



mu 



we have seen that the Caper plant has an A 



Asuf simdar to the Hebrew Esof— it f ound ._ , 

 Egypt, in the deserts of Sinai, and near Jerua.i 

 grows upon rocks and walls-was alwaya sup poi€d ^^ 

 .possessed of cleansing properties, and is | ar ve enr>„ u 

 yield a stick. Dr. Royle, therefore, concluded b T 2? * 

 that as he could not conceive it accidental that all tk? 

 circumstances are united in this plant, as they muitS 

 been in the original Esof he must consider it as rr «*!l 

 that the Caper plant is the Hyssop of Scripture. 



Home Correspondence. 



Watering b:dded-out Plants.— I am rather' astomikj 

 to find such serious complaints about the season f 

 flower-garden purposes. I imagine that it hus be* 



same in all parts of the kingdom, and the oak 

 ound of accusation appears to be the drouik 

 As far as my experience goes however, I much prefer, 

 dry season, if warm, than one in which heavy raliu pre 

 dominate. As, however, in a dry season watering 4 

 indispensable, and as in this, like most other process*, 

 there are various modes as well as degrees, it becomeM 

 utter of some importance to inquire which is the beat. 

 The importance of bottom-heat is now pretty well under- 

 stood : it is also admitted that moisture is a heat-carrier! 

 In the face of such facts, then, I cannot conceive how it 

 is that evening watering should be so much persisted ia 

 out of doors. A great deal of the weather we experience 

 through the months of May and June in each year, cos- 

 sists of sunny days, with cold nights. Now, one of the 

 most important measures to adopt in this case would be 

 to arrest radiation by some covering ; but as this is ex- 

 pensive, it is not to be generally recommended. How- 

 ever, if we cannot shut in the heat, we ought not to 

 take active means to disperse it. There are, it would 

 seem, two distinct objects sought to be obtained by 

 watering in general: — The one called a thorough waterinf 

 is, of course, intended to facilitate the decomposition of 

 organic, and enriching matters in the soil, and to fill the 

 tissue of the plant with fluids ; and the other such as we 

 apply to cuttings, &c, and designed merely to prevent 

 excessive and debilitating perspiration from the leaf. 

 Now, I contend (and from long experience of the matter) 

 that this latter mode of watering is the true and rooit 

 eligible one for flower-gardens, in which the great ra* 

 jority of mass plants are natives of more genial climn 

 than we can boast in Britain. As a question of bottooo- 

 heat, too, it will be admitted that it is only by slowly pro. 

 gressive accumulations that the temperature of the earth 

 advances from the freezing point to 70° or 80° in summer. 

 This accumulation, then, in the case of acclimatising, 

 should not be too rudely dealt with ; for I make little 

 doubt that a heavy watering after a bright sunny day, 

 will at any time rob the earth of 5 Q in the course of a 

 few hours, more especially if the day has been calm ; on 

 such days the bottom-heat accumulates with great rapi- 

 dity. Early morning watering, then, will be found the 

 most eligible by far for flower-garden purposes in general, 

 except perhaps in July and August. xMoreover, the 

 watering of newly-planted masses should not be intrusted 

 to men who have only one idea, viz., that of drenclnog. 

 If the waterer will give the beds as much as will meet 

 the demands of the plant through that day it is enough. 

 Much depends on the way in which plants arc transferred 

 from pots into beds ; plants taken from the cutting-pit 

 only a few days previous must be expected to undergo a 

 severe stagnation, if transferred to the beds before 

 undergoing a gradual hardening process. This may or eo 

 be perceived in such plants as the Heliotrope or the 

 scarlet Pelargonium ; the leaf of the Heliotrope frequent y 

 assumes a dark-purple hue from the sudden change. 

 Cuttings should not be struck in a temperature unnecei 

 sarily high for clumping out. Nothing is t™* 1 *"" 

 end bv such hurry. All single plants on e le vat b ds 

 should, when planted, have a small basin hollo**! in the 

 soil round the stem, or the consequence is, u« : s 

 becomes battered by the application of ■° mac \™«dr 

 account of the convexity of surface, and form "° f /. 

 channels to the side of the beds, escapes without 

 ring any benefit.— Robert Errington. 



Flower Gardens.— I can bear testimony <° luc * r J 

 appearance of the Flower-garden at Tan fl na b 

 and I believe what Mr. Clark states to be true, viz.. 



loam ; at that time no precaution was taken «* ~ ^ 

 and consequently it became so wet and damp 

 turf had to be removed, and gravel-walks * ,[l „ 



ing substituted in lieu of the turf; it also at tu ^ ^ 

 time, underwent a thorough draining. INowi 

 need for the watering-pot where sufficient n 

 exists, as is well known to be the case at ^ 

 Court. Since visiting Tandridge I have seer i the * 



». t>.~..»«r HrPPn. thp seat of C MaMci- i. 



dTwas agreeably surprised to find it quite a maw^ 

 on inquiry Mr. Sherman, the garden * J* 



garden at Barrow Green, the seat of 



an 

 beaut v 



th 

 a 



Wl 



Surre v.— Another correspondent adds— « - - §l thil 

 the Calendar lately has justly remarked £* & 

 has been a trying season for gardeners ; ro fcJ| 



the air parting with its moisture to veget Uioo^ ^ 

 been making a continual drain upon the leave , ■ ^.^ 

 so, as to prevent newly turned out plant i Irom i ^ 

 either roots or branches. This, I da re say, ^.^ 

 deners are aware arises from an insuffi ™™l ^ fbis 

 in the air compared with its power of carrying 























