Queries and Ans'wers. 379 



scale adhenng to the bark of the branches, a certain state of another 

 species; probably the egg state. That the two objects appertain to two 

 perfectly distinct species is, I think, a point not to be doubted. The scale 

 mentioned abounds in the north part of Cambridgeshire on the branchlets 

 of old apple trees ; and, in unlading the trees in autumn of theii" ruddy riches, 

 here and there an apple occurs to whose rind one or more of these scales 

 firmly adheres, and where it must have become fixed before the apple's 

 growth was finished; as, when the scale is removed, a slight depression in 

 the rind of the apple is perceptible. 



Train oil is very effective in the destruction of insects, as my father in- 

 forms me, he having experimentally applied it to many species occurring 

 in his garden, and with speedy destruction to most of them. — J. D. for 

 Cond. 



Sand on the inner Surface of Glasses used in Propagating. — I have often 

 observed, and am at a loss to account for, the lining of sand which some- 

 times coats the inside of the cap glasses with which the cuttings planted in the 

 sand are covered. From the specific gravity of sand, we can scarcely sup- 

 pose it to have been carried up by the evaporation from the pot. May it 

 not be attributed to the agency of electricity ? We exist in an ocean of 

 electric fluid, ever subject to flux and reflux, from its antagonising pro- 

 perties ; and that it is the great principle of vitality in animals and vege- 

 tables is generally admitted. Glass is an electric, vapour a non-electric or 

 conductor of the electric fluid : may not the accumulation of this fluid 

 near the glass account for the more vigorous growth of plants placed 

 adjoining to it, and may not the growth of cuttings under cap-glasses be 

 also promoted by the same cause ? The enquiry is interesting, perhaps 

 useful : the more perfect knowledge we can acquire of this mighty and 

 mysterious agent of nature, the more applicable it will be found to the 

 most important objects of horticulture. — J. R. Kilkenny, Maroh 15. 1831. 



A very beautifid, and perhaps rare. Variety of Lilac. — Among the lilacs 

 now so splendid in the gardens about town, I do not see a variety or kind 

 which exists in the botanic garden at Bury St. Edmund's ; having been 

 established there from plants bought about six years ago by Mr, N. S. 

 Hodson, the spirited superintendent of that establishment, of a French 

 itinerant vender of shrubs, bulbs, seeds, and also of what he ternied viva- 

 cious plants. The plants of lilac purchased were about six in number ; and 

 had been budded on the common lilac at about eighteen inches from the 

 ground. When the plants flowered, three of the six proved the Siberian 

 lilac; but the remaining three showed themselves of a kind which, 

 though more like the Siberian than like the common or the Persian, is 

 obviously distinct from, and quite superior to, the Siberian. It has larger 

 leaves, larger panicles of blossom, and these blossoms are of a fuller and far 

 more rosy colour. In short, the difference is so striking, and the variety 

 so superior, that visitors used to exclaim, as I do now, " What lilac is 

 this ? " — J". D. Bayswater, April 30. 1831. 



Indigenous Enc«. — Sir, A correspondent in your Magazine (p. 246.) 

 requests to be informed how many Encss are natives of England. It was 

 hardly worth while, I think, to ask such a question in print, since the 

 information desired might have been as effectually, and much more speedily, 

 obtained by applying to any botanist, or consulting almost any systematic 

 work on British plants. The question having been put, however, I shall 

 not hesitate to give the answer to it. 'Our British species of ^ricae, then,- 

 are as follov/s : — £rica (Callima) vulgaris {Eng. Bot. pi. 1013.), E. yetra- 

 lix {Eng. Bot. pi. 1014..), E. cinerea {Eng. Bot. pi. 1013.), and E. vagans' 

 {Eng. Bot. pi, 3.). To these have lately been added, E. ciliaris, discovered 

 by Rev. J. S. Tozer in various places near Truro in Cornwall (see Sup. 

 to Eng. Bot. pi. 2618) ; and, according to a more recent communication. 



