706 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



be cut off. This method of pruning i.s not adapted to 

 trees intended for ornament, particularly single trees, 

 where beauty is desired ; lor Nature, when left to herself, 

 is usually rr.ost picturesque. But it may, however, with 

 advantage be modified for ornamental trees, according to 

 the taste and intentions of the grower. A fine tall tree, 

 with a straight stem and full of foliage, is, in many situ- 

 ations, a beautiful object, and denotes care an J culture, 

 and when required may be rendered useful. Whenever 

 the trees touch each other, thinning is required ; and as 

 this is of great importance, it should on no account be 

 neglected — A. Thompson, Whitehaven. 



PINE-APPLES AT KNOWSLEY. 



The following is an account of the Tints cut here 

 from suckers grown upon the old plant, &c. The 

 suckers are the produce of plants, the fruit of which was 

 cut early in 1843; a good strong sucker has been left 

 upon each plant for a third fruit, to be produced next 

 year from the same plant. The plants have been grown 

 in pots, plunged in a common pit filled with leaves and 

 tan. The twins are produced by allowing two suckers 

 to remain upon the old plant to fruit in one pot : — 



1814. 





| How 





When cut. 



Wnat kind. 



Wei 



ght. 



Grown. 



Remarks. 







lbs. 



oz. 





* 



( All ffrown in pots. 



August 2.*d 



-Montscrrat 



4 



10 



Sucker. 



J and plunged in tan 

 J and leaves in a state 

 ^ ot iermentaiion. 



Sept. 21st Ditto 



5 



12 Dit'o 





„ 22rt Jamaica 



5 



2 



Ditto 



A Twin Fruit. 



,, 2Gth Montscrrat 



5 



14 Ditto 





October 2d Ditto 



5 



10 



Ditto 





„ 2<i Jamaica 



5 



12 



Ditto 





, f 2d .Montscrrat 



4 



15 Plant. 



Sucker left on this 









Plant. 



„ 4th 'Ditto 



5 



Sucker. 





„ 5th Ditto 



5 



Ditto 





„ 6th Ditto 



5 



3 



Ditto 





„ 7th 



Ditto 



4 



13 



Ditto 





„ l6th Jamaica 



4 



12 [Ditto 



A Twin of Sept. 22 



„ 19th Montscrrat 



4 



12 Plant. 



Sucker left on this 

 Plant. 



„ 20th Ditto 



4 



13 Sucker. 





„ 22d Ditto 



5 



8 Ditto 



This Sucker very 













high above the pot. 



„ 24th Ditto 



5 



Ditto 





„ 84th Ditto 



5 



11 



Ditto 





„ 24th | Ditto 



5 



11 



Plant. 



No Sucker allowed 

 to grow on this 



Nor. 2d ' Ditto 



4 



15 



Sucker. 



[Plant. 



6th 



Ditto 



5 







Ditto 





„ 13 th 



Ditto 



4 



11 



Ditto 





„ loth Ditto 



4 



11 



Ditto 





„ 16th Ditto 



4 



9 



Ditto 





„ 2;th Ditto 



5 



4 



Ditto 



A Twin Fruit. 



Total! No. of lbs. . 



123 











— John Jennings. 











A PVT 



TIM 



ni 



nr.v 





Diseases of the Larch. — This handsome tree, as 

 well as the other Coniferoe, is subject to the attacks of 

 various insects; and, amongst others, to a species of 

 Coccus, I believe; but its economy requires to be more 

 rigidly investigated before the genus can be accurately 

 determined. From the number of communications I re- 

 ceived in the early part of the year regarding these in- 

 sects, I am induced to enter upon their history, imper- 

 fect as my materials may be ; and I trust that it will lead 

 to the study of these curious animals, and to a more 

 perfect knowledge of their economy the ensuing spring, 

 when I doubt not they will make their appearance, as I 

 never searched for them unsuccessfully. 



6 



strt ngthened by the fact, that as their numbers increased, 

 the clusters of eggs became emptied of their contents. 

 They moved about freely at first, but when they had 

 fixed upon a leaf, their fine rostrum was at once in- 

 serted into it, and from that time they appeared to rest 

 in a dormant state ; some were not unfrequently lying 

 on their backs — others, small as they were, had cast 

 their skins, which were either adhering to their tails, or 

 stuck to the leaf at a short distance off. Under a 

 microscope, these black atoms exhibit a very different ap- 

 pearance to their female parent, if such the Coccus be ; 

 they are elliptical, ami have large black heads, with two 

 s'lort stout antennae ; the two basal jo'nts are large, the 

 remainder tapering ; the thoracic segments are distinctly 

 visible, and furnished with six short legs ; there are four 

 ■ ws of minute tubercles down the back, and the lateral 

 margins are likewise tuberculated (fig. 6). 



In the beginning of June I observed these young ani- 

 mals had spread themselves over the leaves of the Larch- 

 trees, and were beginning to be clothed with a cottony 

 substance. Here my observations were interrupted, for 

 I returned to London, Bnd the twigs I took with me did 

 not remain fresh long enough to throw any more light 

 upon their economy. 



The^e animals seem to form a connecting link between 

 the Scale insects (Coccus and Aspidiotus), and the 

 genus Eriosoma, which unites them to the Aphides or 

 Plant-lice. What I take to be the female agrees very 

 well in structure with the Cocci ; but it is destitute of a 

 scile, and the eggs are deposited, not beneath the mother, 

 being too large to occupy such a position, but on one side 

 of her, and most curiously attached by a pedicel to each; 

 and here another question arises : Are these fleshy fe- 

 males the authors or the produce of the adjacent eggs ? 

 for it is possible the female eggs might have been laid the 

 previous autumn, and that the inmates had hatched and 

 assumed their present form before the minute black ones 

 made their appearance ; but this is merely a conjecture. 

 The young, if I be correct, are not like the generality of 

 Cocci, having no setiform tails, still they are not very 

 different in form from the Coccus (Trechocorys) Ado- 

 nidum, and it is possible they may be the Adelges laricis 

 of Vallot, but I think not. Most of these doubts would 

 be set at rest by detecting the adult males, which are 

 probably winged. 



With regard to the best means of freeing the Larch- 

 trees from these and similar insects, I fear it will be im- 

 possible to suggest any that could be applied until the 

 foliage has fallen ; for whilst the leaves remain, the same 

 difficulties would present themselves as in the bristly 

 Pines, where scrubbing and painting the branches can- 

 not be resorted to, as in fruit-trees, &c. Such, however, 

 is not the case with the Larch after it is deprived of its 

 foliage, when any application may be tried, should it be 

 found expedient; and perhaps none is more simple or 

 better than brushing on a good coating of lime or clay, 

 or both mixed, which would render the trees less un- 

 sightly. Such a process, if persevered in, would certainly 

 destroy the delicate eggs we have described, wherever the 

 brush reached them, and the coating, when it dried, 

 would prevent any of the young broods from piercing the 

 buds ; it would, however, be a tiresome mode if well per- 

 formed, and not feasible in an extensive plantation. 

 — Ruricola. 



[Nov. 30, 



To this group belong a P^rTio^MhT^ 

 under the name of moulds. That which occur so 7' 

 quently on bread affords a familiar examnle tV £ ' 

 produced with extreme rapidity, and when thev estlr? 

 hemselves on a tender juicy matrix, are Xr]t^ 

 tive. The most common, perhaps, is Mum 1 ?' 

 which abounds on fruit and substance 0^0^? 

 or sugar. The spores are at first interna? bSe^ 

 vesicle soon bursts, leaving a little frill a the base an! 

 after the spores are washed off, a clavate columdl L 

 seen, on which they were at first generated. * 



Towards the end of last April, the Larch-trees, as 

 they burst into leaf, were infested with a disease some- 

 what resembling the American blight, occasioned by a 

 little black soft animal (fig. 7*, the underside highly 

 magnified), the apex being more or less covered with a 

 short white cottony substance. These creatures, which 

 are exceedingly like the various species of Coccus, or 

 rather of Aspidiotus, when the scale is removed from 

 them, aTe somewhat orbicular or oval, and not larger 

 than a pin's head ; they have six very small legs, and a 

 short stout proboscis, from whi-h proceeds a long flexible 

 setiform tube of exceeding fineness, which was inserted 

 into the scales of the bud ; the apex of the abdomen was 

 slightly conical, and exhibited several segments, and 

 others were less visible in the region of the trunk ; they 

 were either seated upon the buds, where the leaves are 

 produced, or behind them; and close to this animal were 

 clusters of minute eggs (fig. 2), amounting to 30 or 40 in 

 each (fig. 3, several magnified); they are attached by along- 

 ish, excessively fine thread, proceeding from one end (fig. 4) 

 and are of a yellowish colour, but often completely pow- 

 dered over with a fine lilac bloom. At the same time 

 scattered over the leaves were minute black specks, 

 scarcely visible to the naked eye (fig. 5), but which, under 

 a lens, proved to be black insects, which I suspected at 

 the time were bred from the eggs ; and this opinion was 







DISEASES OF PLANTS.— No. VII. . 



It was remarked in a former Number, that there are 

 two great divisions of Fungi, distinguished by the mode 

 in which the reproductive organs are developed. In the 

 one they are external ; in the other contained in little 

 sac?. There is, however, a snail group, which though 

 at first sight related to the second class, inasmuch as the 

 fructification is, according to the letter, internal, are really 

 more nearly related to the former. The fact is, that the 

 reproductive bodies are truly spores, though produced 

 within a sac, the vesicle which surrounds them being of 

 the nature of a veil, and indeed a mere continuation of 

 the outer membrane of the matrix. The structure is 

 beautifully illustrated by a very pretty species of mould 

 figured by Corda, in which it will be at once seen that so 

 1 3 6 soon as thevesi- 



h ^ /fX c * e * 3 removea \ 



"J &?\ V 1 1 ', ) (( \ there is nothing 



to distinguish it 



from'^ the spori- 



ferous moulds ; 



and a strong 



proof of this '.is 



afforded by the 



fact that in more 



than one instance 

 the early and 



mature plant 

 have been as- 

 signed to differ- 

 } 5 ent genera, and 



Acrostalagmas cinnabarinus. 1. A patch, the where this has 

 naturalsize. 2. Plants very highly maeni- « rt * u 7, 



fied. 3. A portion of the fructincationftill DOt been the 

 more magnified. 4, 5. Spores plunged in ge- ca se,much doubt 

 latinous heads. 6. A point of a branch with has existed as to 

 two spores remaining: upon it. tK« -„„i „*_.. _... 



Mucor Mucedo, L. 



Considered as the causes of disease, the Mucors and 

 allied genera are destructive to fruits, or very succulent 

 parts only, as they require abundant nutriment. They 

 may, indeed, sometimes be seen forming juicy masses 

 upon the wood of shrubs which have been cut off after a 

 hard winter; and though in such cases new shoots are 

 not sent up so vigorously as usual, this may arise not 

 from any evil influence of tlu mould, but from the loss 

 of the sap which should have nourished the shoots. It is, 

 however, to fruits principally that they are injurious, 

 and any slight wound from insects or cracks arising 

 from a too copious supply of water after a few dry days, 

 affords a matrix of which they soon avail themselves. Mr. 

 Hassall has made some interesting observations on the 

 decay of fruit, in consequence of the growth of moulds, 

 but attention will be pointed to these when we come 

 to that group to which more especially they belong. The 

 species now under consideration seldom appears except 

 where there has been some previous injury exposing the 

 soft cellular substance, though they spread like wildfire 

 as soon as they are once established, as may often be 

 seen in autumn in large Gourds and Cucumbers, which 

 are subject to the attack of a species so minute, that the 

 heads are scarcely visible except under a lens. They 

 afford very pretty objects for a microscope of small mag- 

 nifying power; indeed, few are more beautiful than the 

 branched mould, which so often destroys woodland 

 Mushrooms; and the purple- fruited species, which some- 

 times grows on Pears, is scarcely less splendid than a plume 

 studded with amethysts. — M. J. B. 



inis 



lee- 



the 

 of 



2 



-,,-.,, . therealstructure 



of the fruit, because the outer vesicle is extremely fuga- 

 cious, and the spores remain for a long time attached to 

 the internal vesicle. 



Another curious point is, that as in the Mushrooms 

 the same spicule has been observed to produce a succes- 

 sion of spores, so in the plant now figured, one spore as 

 soon as it is ripe falls off, and makes room for another 

 the whole being retained within the globular sac till its 

 rupture. 



Home Correspondence. 



Botanical Lecture at Shoreditch Church- 

 ture, of which inquiry is made by your correspondent 

 "T.G.H.," was established in consequence of a fund 

 being left for the purpose by Thomas Fairchild, a dis- 

 tinguished market-gardener of the last century. He was 

 one of the few cultivators of the soil, living during his 

 period, that combined science with practice. He mane 

 experiments on the circulation of the sap, which appeared 

 in the « Philosophical Transactions" for 1/24, and was the 

 author of the " City Gardener," published in J '/^ s 

 well as of various communications to he found in e 

 works of Dr. Bradley. He died in 1729, at I oiton, 

 where he cultivated a vineyard, almost the latest on 

 record, and bequeathed money to trustees for insuring 

 the delivery of a lecture on Whit-Tuesday annually, « 

 the church of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch. The suDject 

 must be either " The wonderful Works of God in 

 Creation ;" or •' The Certainty of the Resurrectionoi 

 the Dead proved by the certain changes of the animal an 

 vegetable parts of the Creation." It is well known as 11 n 

 Fairchild Lecture, but whether it continues to ocae 

 vered, as it undoubtedly ought, I cannot say.— i" 



Johnson. f r fi * 



The Strawberry.— The following is the result or si 

 observations on this plant, in the different stages 

 growth, from which I hope to be able to prove ws 

 easily-understood method of cultivation may be sue ^ 

 fully adopted. If you examine a Strawberry-pian , 

 runner, in October, it will be found to have prou^ ^ 

 several straight and succulent roots springing 

 bulb-like hard but succulent stem, and several k ^ 

 more or less in number in proportion to the v g .^ 

 the plant. In the axil of each of these leaves a ^ 

 formed, and it is the general opinion of 8*\ dene !n h[i j S| 

 the fruit is produced directly from these buds. fcbe 



I think, an error; for I have always found l tof 

 blossoms are produced from the crown of the ^^y 

 runner, and 1 have seldom found any strong, ^^g, 

 blooms on these crowns after the first year ^ 



The runner is generally considered to be a per e ^ 

 that will, if placed under favourable circumstance , 



