My 21, 1855.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



= hto 7 vr " puddling, aud the thickness of the puddle residing 

 pu k • upon the proportion of clay used for it. " A — « 



M.&B 



rfcnt Institution. 



Royal Benevolent Institution.— Like your 

 jit of last week, I have always felt that those 

 . we firgt laim on the voters of this charity 

 mnoo8 who have assisted others ; for such I have 

 !rL l Tvated until this election, and I think that every 

 !T must feel that the 11th applicant, being totally 

 SL, had certainly a prior claim : for, with him, hope 

 ^deferred must have been sadly felt. This was the 

 Zve that induced me to vote for one who had not 

 isbseribed to the charity. The number of votes he got 

 the previous election (viz., 348) showed that hia 

 claim was acknowledged. I think also that the 9th 

 applicant was a very fair election, as he had subscribed 

 four vears,and had been trying nine (times ?) years to 

 ret the innoitv— a long time to wait when in want. So 

 \r I moat say, little fault is to be found ; for place 

 mr^al res jn the situations of the applicants in question, 

 and we would soon find what a wearisome thing disap- 

 pointment is at their time of life— year alter year having 

 tbetr hopes raised and then depressed. 1 am really 

 flid that they are elected. We now come from the 

 11th and 9th to the 5th application, and here I fear that 

 the complaint of your correspondent has some grounds ; 

 (or on looking to my polling-paper for the prior election, 

 I find that the 5th application only numbers 51 and 46 

 votes, and that a second application of one who had 

 never subscribed to the charity numbers 158 votes. 

 Kow, this does not look well ; for if we go back to the 

 4th ipplication we find George Kidd, who has subscribed 

 nine years, cn'y five votes ahead. From this it would 

 appear that what your correspondent complains of is but 

 too true. Had Ann Arnold, whose husband had sub- 

 scribed eight years, numbered these votes, instead of 

 Ikomas Blair, it would have looked better and done 

 more credit to the justice of voters. I do not think 

 that the claim of having subscribed to the charity is 

 sufficiently acknowledged, neither do I consider it fair 

 that there should be any soliciting votes except from 

 the parties themselves. Some lady very kindly inte- 

 rested herself for John Kent, but with what success I 

 am uninformed ; with me the prior claim of others 

 made it imperative to refuse even a lady. I often 

 find it difficult to please myself in voting. This 

 time and for the first time I voted, as I have already 

 Stated, for one who had not subscribed to the charity, 

 because I really looked upon J. Appleby, being 

 totally blind, and first on the list after 11 applica- 

 tions, to be a very proper object of charity. My next 

 vote was for J. Blacke, whose years (80) induced me to 

 P™ nim support, which however he cannot, in the 

 coarse of nature, long enjoy. My other vote was for 

 ueo. Kidd, a subscriber of nine years, and I am cer- 

 ■^V at a loss to know upon what ground he could 

 «ve failed, except upon the one of which your corre- 

 spondent complains, and which I fear is exercising an 

 ■jorious influence on voters. Now these things are 

 Wnght, and I am surprised that a class of men (who 

 we mostly considered thinking men) should allow them 

 » ^ist I think it ought to be a rule with all sub- 

 raoers to the charity, first to help those who have 

 TOacavoured to assist others, and when all their claims 

 «* satisfied others should take priority according to 

 y, mictions, or number of applications. Let us hope 

 ^nenceforth all matters connected with so excellent a 



fcrn*L\ S ,! Under notice mav be carried out with 

 ^J«s to all concerned. G. Bond Walcot, Gardener, 



i n Frai 



4 





must confess Portsmouth ; and Mr. Stainton a < •tion of draw- 



mgs of the transfor ations of minute Lej loptera fi 

 the collection of & Prussian amateui iaetuding several 

 very remarkable sprciea. Mr. Hunter exhibited a 

 specimen of Mrauropus Fa^i recently captured, and 

 number of young larvse hatched fn»m its eggs: and 

 Mr. Jansen presented the rare llvpnlus quercinus. 

 captured near o.lney Hatch, to the dety's collection. 

 Mr. Curtis mentioned the circumstancea connected with 

 the capture of the blind beetles Anomraatus and Lan- 



Jutyith, 1855. 



the result of my crop of Sir Harry. I _ 



that I have never eaten anything so delicious, and 



I assure you that you did not speak too highly of the 



qualities of this beautiful fruit, which in reality is far 



superior to any other known, and consequently cannot 



fail to find its way into the garden of every true amateur. 



The plants which I kept under glass proved that Sir Harry 



is equally well adapted for forcing ; it even seemed to 



me that its fruit had a better flavour than those grown 



afterwards in the open air. Several of my friends ^^ w MIC umm W(l _ Ano iama mna . ftn 



havmgseen the Sir Harry and the lithograph of the gelandTa at Paris, an Z sUted ZTT i^FUch 

 same, desire to possess it. Frederick Gloede."— Richard 



Vnderhill, Sir Harry's Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham. 



[Remember that this is said of a Strawberry grown in 

 a southern and better climate.] 



Hailstones.— .The following are tracings of hailstones 

 made a few minutes after they had fallen, but not until 

 the storm had passed, and therefore not until they had 

 begun to dissolve. They represent the true sizes of the 

 stones at the moment of tracing them, and something of 

 their extraordinary shapes, to which, however, no repre- 

 sentation can do justice. The majority of the large 

 stones were most grotesque in form ; all were very hard 

 and very cold, a few sufficing to make the hand ache 

 immediately they were collected therein. Some of the 



had recently informed him that the ileaaianfly was at 

 the present time committing fearful damage to the 

 Wheat crops in North America, which he attributed 

 chiefly to the failure of their natural enemie* 

 and parasites, and inquiring into the practicability 

 of importing some of these useful species of in- 

 sects. Mr. Westwood suggested that a far more 

 practical plan would be the adoption of Professor llen- 

 slow's Wheat-midge sieves. A letter was read fj 



Wed by Gartner f« Beitr&cr* ™ 



Btfruch 



In the account 

 . „ ^ (" Beitrage zur Kenntniss der 



phsts fr n ^' i^' ^' 1844) of the various organs in 

 Seoftk W nectar is secreted, no mention is 



**i BeLT 6 n ,p ° f the leaves of the common Vetch 

 ty tbst^ Un two occasions I have observed hive bees 



(^tseZ S j^triously visiting the little dark 

 toe stiX lm f e fu CO l? Urless > * lands on the uuder side of 

 *n>We d*> r h- 0n a hot da >'> ou each # ,and a 



Uktd eve °i neCtar m *y be seeu alm °st with the 

 N perc™u!i Wh,ch is sometim es so large as to be 

 s^^.^et I have seen the hive and 



*•*, sucLT 8 .i° ee > a moth ' ants > and two kinds of 



"* Wsked S . !f e dFOpS - T1,e hive bee never once 

 Wjm!*. wJl he flowe «> hut attended solely to the 



^Me bee l****' at the ver ^ same time > two kinds of 

 ft* stipule T re su . ckin g the flowers, and never visited 



*• b* dav fi , notlced the hi ^e bees on three succes- 

 "ngofthVol em P lo y ed ; but on the overcast 

 ** ^e w J ! I ' after the Previous very rainy day, 

 ^ b 'e beeT J° 6 f en at mid -«ay, but numbers of 

 ***** after SUckin S the flowers: at 4 o'clock r.M., 

 ? 1> ettar JL 8 ? 6 0t SUDshin e, a little glittering drop 

 ^ZS i deVer ^ 8 land > and the hive bees, by 



■^•Wgall^ m i ean8 ' had found lt ou ^ and were 



^^ed bv T V the field ' The fa ^ of nectar being 

 (Iko^: y an organ miit - •• - - ■ - b 



Mr. Bates relative to the bird-feeding habits of a speciea 

 of Mvgale which he had observed in Brazil in crevices 



on the trunks of tn-es, thus onflrmiog Madam* 



Meriau's statement, whit h had been disputed by Mr. 

 MacLeay. Mr. Heads stat« d that from the obtX r vat ions 



of Mr. Black wall the s] ler was t provided with a 



poisonous secretion. Mr. Edwin Sbeplu b owtx r, 

 afKruicd that toads had repeatedly been killed I Urge 

 red spiders when shut uj» togttlu r. Mr. Newman read 

 a de s cr iption of the transformations of that common 



Eest to hortHnWurisis, the Ot hus sulcatus, which 



e had observed to be very <let.tn ive in Ferneries. 

 Captain Cox called the attention of the Society to the 

 injury committed on the Lime trees in Hyde Park by 

 the pretty little moth Tinea Linneella, and also on the 



Oak trees by Troch ilium Cynipiformis, and supgested 



the advisability of the Society applying to the ( mmis- 



sioners of Woods and Forests on the subject. The 



president, however, considered there was little good to 



be apprehended from such a step at a time when Mr. 



Kennedy's dismissal from office had fo recently taken 

 place. 



^ctiresf of £oou$. 



Maxims 

 (Murray '8 





larger stones were round and white in colour, but the 

 greater number were clear as crystal. The storm came on 

 very suddenly, about six a.m. last Saturday, after con- 

 tinued thunder in the early part of the morning, and 

 some rain. It passed here from over the adjoining hills, 

 almost direct south to north, and did not, I think, extend 

 above two miles laterally. The stones represented were 

 picked up in a space about a dozen yards square, in a 

 temporary yard and shelter in the park for cows, where 

 I had taken refuge. With the large stones descended 

 ordinary hail and rain, but pieces like those figured formed 

 the remarkable feature of the storm. Need I add that 

 glass and vegetation within their reach suffered severely ! 

 J. Taylor, Aston Clinton, Bucks, July 16. 





t*-s h known yi ** n u qUlte distincfc from the flower 

 5^ Uteres* • ln other cases) seems to me of some 

 r Clr ^ctwhnk ?• how,n g that those botanists cannot 



£** rurnrl f e that nectar is a 8 P ecial secretion 

 P*tjd J t Z!L * em P tin g ^sects to visit flowers, and 



"o their fertilisation Ttf rt ^ K«a.i ' ,u~ 



Entomological, July 2. — J. Curtis, Esq., F.L.S., 



President, in the chair. Amongst the donations to the 

 library and collection, announced as having been re- 

 ceived since the last meeting, was a collection of 94 British 

 species of spiders (in addition to 60 species previously 

 presented), and 13 speciea of harvest spiders, pre- 

 sented by R. H. Meade, Esq., preserved in a saline 

 solution of sulphate of magnesia ; also a monograph 





1* 



on the Phalangiidae by the same gentleman, and M. de s 



Saussure's supplement to his monograph of the family ! into. 



Vespida?. Mr. Foxcroit sent a number of rare insects things, and not only in Fishing, Shooting, and Chess." 



and Hints on Angling, Civets, Shooting, <£c. 

 Railway Ketding), is a reprint of Mr. 



Richard Pemfs maxims on those subjects. As a 

 veteran sportsman his dicta are never to be neglected ; 

 on this occasion their force is much increased h\ capital 

 woodcuts from the pencil of (hantrey, Lee, and others. 

 The following examples of Mr. Penn's sayings show- 

 that this is the railway book for sportsmen. 



" Although you may be a very agreeable gentleman, 

 generally speaking, yon will have chosen an unlucky 

 moment for making yourself particularly so, if on some 

 fine morning after breakfast you should volunteer to 

 accompany two of your friends v ho are preparing to 

 leave the house for a day's partridge shooting without 

 any expectation of being joined by a third person. 



H When you are obliged to walk on the left-hand side 

 of a man who carries the muzzle of his gun too low, do 

 not be so very polite as to take no notice of this danger- 

 ous habit. He may, perhaps, appear quite offended 



at your venturing to question vour perfect safety. But 

 be "that as it may, to be constantly stared at by the eyes 

 of a double-barrelled gun is so awfully unpleasant, that 

 your friend's looking rather cross is a matter of less 



consequence. 



u When you are making your way through a thick 

 wood with too large a party, it is better that you should 

 be scolded by some of your friends for troubling them 

 with very frequent notice of your individual locality, 

 than that you should be shot by any of them from want 

 of such notice. 



"On the day of a great battue, if one of the party 

 (not you) should shoot much better than the others, and 

 this should by chance be talked of after dinner (as such 

 matters sometimes are), do not say much about the very 

 large number of hares and pheasants killed by you— on 



some other occasion. 



* Isever ask beforehand whether or not you are to 

 shoot hares in the cover into which you are going, but 

 never shoot one after you have been told not to do so. 



« Many persons who are possessed of much informa- 

 tion have a tedious and unconnected way of imparting 

 it. Such men are like dictionaries, very instructive 

 when opened in the right place, but rather fatiguing to 



read throughout. 



" The foundation of good breeding is the absence of 



selfishness. By acting always on this principle — by 

 using forbearance and moderation in argument, even 

 when you feel sure that you are right, and by showing 

 a becoming diffidence when you are in doubt, you will 

 avoid many of the errors which men are apt to fall 



Header, bear in mind that this holds good in all 



hsation. No one probably who • recently captured in Perthshire, with notes of the 



fa 



The Rev. Thos. Milner has produced a volume called 



J^yauny cases d S u^ eCt Wil1 dis P ute that insects in j habits of a caterpillar found in ants' nests, apparently 



ectar as an excretion I bited specimen s^of the young larv« of Meloe which had I mans, small 8vo), which will be acceptable to the many 

 -'*■-- J — * .-.--.' n i r ii . . . « . ._ _i__x- »#- who are unacquainted with the writings of continental 



authors. It gives an account of the ortginal inhabitants 

 of the Crimea, of its subsequent history, and of the 

 events which brought it under Russian rule. The 



2** e *uat I i\ • , t , hu8 aid the ac * of fertilisation ; belonaiug to a species of Tinea. Mr. Westwood exhi- I The C, xea, its ancient and modem history, <tc. (Long- 

 *** * only i, ! ' k at the nectar as an excretion I bited tnMimsM of ib* «*»»» l*™**, r.f Meloe which had mans, small 8vo), which will be acceptable to the many 



*• of fo C p en f tal, y( a8is 8( > often done by nature) 

 £****, Z>oir« V Ur , but most important object. 



G iwZT_ °L f <* * furth 



The following is an extract 



Mr. 



been found hanging in clusters on Potato plants. 

 S. Stevens exhibited a new and very remarkable Longi- 

 corn beetle recently brought from the Feejee islands 

 by Mr. Macgillivray, forming the type of a new genus. 



er which T t luuuwing is an extract ny iur. juacgunvray, forming tne type oi » new geuus. ctu. w *,«.«.« M *vr U6 n* *„ «,.«^* *^*~. — --- 



«» a nave received from a gentleman Mr. F. Smith exhibited specimens of the rare ant Tapi- j author, who appears to have been diligent m consulting 



