

3 



6 



THE 



GARDENERS' CHRONIC 



has done, not what he thinks might be done 

 very small expense, the building to which he gives 

 the name of an Orchard House. 



" I have," he says, " a house 30 feet long, built 

 as I have described, with a brick Arnott's stove m 



* the centre of the back border, which is excavated 

 for it to a level with the sunken path : everything 

 thrives admirably. The borders are 1 2 inches deep, 

 with lime rubbish mixed with a little manure: my 

 forced Strawberries, placed on the front border near 

 the glass, rooted into it, and gave me abundance of 

 excellent fruit In like manner, Peaches, Grapes, 

 Figs, and Apricots, may be forced with but little 



* trouble,— in fact with much pleasure and gratifi- 

 cation. But in building these forcing orchard houses 

 the constant ventilation through the cracks m the 

 boards must be avoided ; they must be cased with 

 asphalte felt, or, as bricks are cheap, the walls may 

 be of brick, with the ventilating shutters in back 

 and front. The forcing orchard house I have alluded 

 to above is built with studs of Larch cut once down, 

 and covered with half-inch boards ; these being 

 nailed on, were well tarred with Stockholm tar, and 

 the felt (M'Nejls) then nailed on, and done over 

 twice or thrice with boiling coal tar, in which lime 

 that had been slaked a fortnight was mixed to the 

 consistency of thick paint : this forms a shining, 

 imperishable, mineral coat, — I know of nothing 

 equal to it for felt, clay, or lime walls or fences ; 

 my clay walls on some old buildings have, by re- 

 peatedly using it, become coated with stone. I 

 have mentioned that bricks may be used ; but 

 although I have many plant houses built with bricks, 

 I have not employed them for building orchard 

 houses, or even houses for forcing Roses, &c. My 

 preference for boards and felt for forcing houses 

 may be owing to imagination ; but I may as well 

 state why I have and do prefer them ; — it is because 

 I have found them fiercely hot during the day, even 

 in moderate sunshine, the evil effects of which are 



at a nicety ; the annual root-pruning can be done with 



much facility, and there is no occasion to dig and 



disturb the borders, which must be done to a great 

 extent to root-prune properly, trees planted in them. 

 In fine, as far as my experience has gone, I can 

 imagine nothing so eligible as pots, or vases, for 

 fruit-trees in orchard houses, or fruit conservatories." 

 But although this is true in small places, it would 

 by no means apply to "Victoria Houses," under 

 which, ventilation being provided, cultivation would 

 go on exactly as it does~in the open ground ; and all 

 the trouble and expense of pots be saved. We see 

 no reason whatever why many of the walled-in 

 squares of the kitchen gardens attached to country 

 residences should not be covered with glass ; the 

 walls remaining as they are. In that way the great 

 expense of side enclosures would be saved ; and it 

 would become possible to rely upon the certainty of 

 many crops which are now almost the result of 

 chance. Winter Lettuces ought to grow there, as 

 they now grow in summer ; early Peas and Beans 

 would beat those now poured into our markets from 

 the south; Manchester would have the climate of 

 Penzance, and Islewcrth of Jersey ; and for anything 

 we see to the contrary, the differences of climate 

 between Provence and Middlesex would cease to 

 exist. The whole difficulty consists in ventilation ; 

 that is to say, in maintaining beneath the glass roofs 

 such a motion of the air as would resemble that to 

 which plants are naturally exposed. Such a move- 

 ment of the atmosphere is indispensable ; and we 

 shall be greatly surprised if the engineers of this 

 country do not provide lit in a manner to leave 

 nothing to be desired. 



lily modified by abundant ventilation, and agree- 

 ably cool during the night, without that stifling 

 atmosphere peculiar to houses with brick walls, 

 only because bricks give out heat for many hours 

 after sunset. Now in thus rapidly cooling down, I 

 have found that they approximated to the descrip- 

 tions given of the climate of the East, the birthplace 

 of all our choice fruits ; accordingly, my Peaches, 

 Nectarines, Grapes, and Figs, have grown and do 

 row with as little trouble as I can wish them, in 

 ouses with their walls of half-inch boards and felt. 

 But I ou G dit not to omit mentioning here an addi- 

 tional reason for my opinion that fierce sunlight) 

 through large pieces of glass and abundant venti- 

 lation, will give us the climate of continental Europe. 

 I have an orchard house, 90 feet long, 12 feet wide, 

 rafters 4 inches by 2 and 14 feet long, the back wall 

 of which is a fine Beech hedge, 20 years old, 8 feet 

 high, 1£ thick, the front half-inch boards ; the board 

 next the 



gi 



15 inches wide, is on hinges, and is 



always open in warm weather : this house is glazed 

 with 16-oz. sheet glass, 20 inches by 12, placed 

 crosswise, so that the rafters are 20 inches apart ; 

 the glass is foreign, of the cheapest description, and 

 cost 2^?. per foot. Under ordinary circumstances 

 I should have much trouble from scorching, as it is 

 very irregular, and many foci are formed ; but the 

 gentle percolation of the air through the hedge is so 

 constant and so regular, that not a scorched leaf is 

 to be found in this orchard house, in which are 

 about 700 Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots, and Figs 

 in pots, a few Pears fall of fruit, a few Plums, the 

 same— everything is in perfect health, the shoots of 

 the Peaches and Nectarines in particular are beauti- 

 fully ripened. Now what can tell more forcibly 

 that scorching is the result of imperfect ventilation ] " 

 The cost of such houses may be judged of from 

 the whole expense of one 21 feet long, 12 feet 6 

 inches wide, 2 feet 9 inches high in front, and 7 feet 

 6 inches at the back, being 17/. 8$. 9d., or less than 

 Is. 6of. per foot superficial of the area covered. The 

 pamphlet contains a plan of such a house, and a 

 detailed statement of the manner in which the cost 

 is made out. 



Within houses of this kind Mr. Rivers grows, 

 with great success, Apricots, Peaches and Necta- 

 rines, Plums, Cherries, Figs, Pears, Grapes, Apples, 

 Strawberries, &c, all in pots, by a system of 

 management fully and carefully described in his 

 pages. We say in pots, because it is important to 

 bear in mind that in places of such small dimensions 

 fruit trees must necessarily outgrow the space allot- 



table to them, unless their roots are confined in 

 pots. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



The Peab-tree Lyda. 



The genus Lyda is one of the most interesting of all 

 the groups of saw-flies (Tenthredinidse), a family of 

 Hymenopterous insects, so named from the sawdike 

 apparatus at the extremity of the body of the females, 

 which is employed in forming small channels in the 

 stems or leaves of plants, within which the insect subse- 

 quently deposits her eggs. Not only do the perfect 

 insects of this genus (Lyda) differ from all the other 

 species of the family in their very large wings and their 

 long multiarticulate antennae, gradually attenuated to 

 the tip, but the larvse are quite unlike those of all the 

 other genera, since, instead of having numerous pairs of 

 fleshy legs attached to the middle and posterior seg- 

 ments of the body, as is the case with the larvae of the 

 ordinary Tenthredinidse (which thus bear the closest 

 possible resemblance to the caterpillars of butterflies 

 and moths), the larvae of the Lydse are only furnished 

 with the three pairs of short, ordinary, jointed feet 

 attached to the first three segments succeeding the head, 

 and the body is terminated by two short points, be- 

 neath which are two longer articulated appendages, 

 resembling the thoracic legs, but directed backwards, 

 whence the motions of these larvae are curious, and 

 quite unlike those of the other species, which are fur- 

 nished with abdominal prolegs, having more of a sliding 

 motion, and employing their powers of spinning silk, far 

 assisting their progress. When they descend from a leaf, 

 they let themselves down by a silken thread, after the 

 manner of caterpillars. 



There is considerable diversity of habit in the different 

 species of the crenus ; and some of the species are very 

 destructive to different kinds of Fir-trees. Hartig and 

 Ratzeburg have figured the history of various of these 

 Fir-feeding species in their excellent works. Most of 

 the species live in society, but others are solitary in their 

 habits, as is the case with the larvce of the Lyda inanita, 

 whose history I have given in our volume for 1847, 

 p. 684, which feed upon the leaves of standard Roses, 

 which they separately roll up into spiral tubes, in which 

 they reside. 



His experience has told him that if planted Amongst the social species' are several which feed 

 in the ground "tbey cannot be kept under control u P onthe Pear*, one of which I have had the good for- 



even with annual root-pruning. I have some Peach- 

 trees which have been planted in the raised borders 

 of one of my orchard houses four years ; they bear 

 admirably ; but, in spite of root-pruning, they will 

 grow too rapidly. Now, in pots, the size and growth 

 f the tree may be regulated with the greatest 



tune to trace to its final state, and thereby to discover 

 that one of the rarest British species of the genus may be 

 obtained in our suburban gardens, if entomologists will 

 only take the trouble of endeavouring to rear the cater- 



^ -• — — ^— ^^— — — — — — — — — ^— — — - r ■ | ,, , | _ , , ,, , , M , 



* la my Introduction to the Modern Classification of In?ectf, 

 vol. ii. p. 107, the larva of L bvpothropica of Hartig is by a mis- 

 J print stated to feed upon the Pear instead of the Pine, 





>«4 



eari 



pillar, or of carefully examining the trees at th 

 when the perfect insects appear. ' e P 6 ^ 



At the beginning of the month of July j 8 - 

 again in the two following years, I observed that se 

 young espalier Pear trees in my garden at Ham ^ 

 smith were attacked by a number of oran»e-c 1 * 

 larvae residing in society beneath a silken web °v^ 

 they spin around the young branches and leaves' tfj? 

 trees, which they quickly defoliate, leaving only th • 

 rib of the leaves, and then making their way to an ^* 

 cent twig. The largest individuals were about an 

 long, nearly cylindrical, bright orange- coloured jJl* 

 blackhead. There were also others of a smaller 

 but they were similarly formed and coloured, and ^ 

 doubtless younger specimens of the same species. /^ 

 is mentioned, because in some of the species then!* 

 considerable diversity in the colours of the l a rv» I 

 different ages.) When alarmed, these larvse Trithda 

 about a quarter of an inch within the web, remain* * 

 quite stationary, each ejecting a drop of dark-brown fn 

 out of the mouth as a means of defence. This was ft! 

 more necessary, as I observed some of the para^! 

 Muscidse hovering over them, evidently with the vie 

 of depositing their eggs in their bodies. ' 



As represented in our little annexed figure, it will fo 

 seen that having commenced at the top of a twig ther 

 descend, conjointly attacking a fresh leaf. The litfc 

 dark particles observed lodged in the web, are the ex. 

 crement of the larvse. When disturbed the lar 

 sized individuals let themselves down to the 

 within which they immediately buried themselves, whil 

 at once let me into the secret of the place in which thei 

 undergo their transformations, and enabled me to (ore, 

 see that if I knew the precise period in the follow™ 

 year when they arrive at the perfect state, I had onh 

 to watch the trees, and I should then find the perfect 

 insects. I also endeavoured to obtain the same result 

 by placing some of the larv£e in a large garden pot filled 

 with earth, but I had scarcely better success thaa 

 Reaumur, who seems also to have been acquainted witl 

 the larvse of this species (Memoires. vol. iv., Mem. I 

 pi. 15, figs. 7, 9, 10), and who says that by keeping fa 

 earth dry, the larvse dried up, and by keeping it dampj 

 they became mouldy. One of my specimens, however! 

 did not die until it had nearly arrived at the perfer, 

 state, the form and colour of the perfect insect bein; 

 attained, although the limbs were still encased in the 

 thin membranous covering of the pupa, and the win:?, 

 consequently, not being extended, but lying in a small 

 crumpled mass at each side of the body. I had % 

 however, obtained sufficient knowledge of the perfect 

 state to be able to assert that the perfect insects whii 

 I detected upon my Pear trees in the last week of May, 

 1 850 (one of which I also saw crawling out of the earth, 

 were the descendants of the insects I had first obsenrf 

 in the larva state in July, 1848, and which had them- 

 selves arrived at the perfect state in May, 1849, witkr, 

 my having noticed them, although I paid many via* 

 to the trees at that period, knowing that it was the 

 precise time that the Lyda inanita arrives at the perfect 

 state. I have not, it is true, found the pupa of thea 

 insects, but this, under the circumstances, is an un- 

 important link in the history of the species, as it wonU 

 resemble the perfect insect in size and shape, onij 

 differing in fact by having the legs and antennae lying 

 encased in delicate membranes along the breast d 

 belly, and the wings enveloped in the membranous wir; 

 cases resting at the sides of the body. 



The perfect insect proves to be the very rare Ij4 

 fasciata (Curtis Brit. Entomology, pi. 381), a specie 

 which appears unknown on the Continent, and i 

 which the female alone has hitherto been known. TS 

 sex, which is figured by Mr. Curtis (who did not posse* 

 the species), measures about half an inch in length, d 

 an inch in the expansion of the wings. It is of a bk» 

 colour, with a yellow patch between the antenna ; the 

 base of the latter, the mandibles, the scales in front i 

 the wings, and the legs yellow, and the terminal half <* 

 the abdomen orange-red ; the fore wings have a bfl* 

 dusky band crossing them rather beyond the miw 

 and the apical half of the hind wings is also dusky, 

 The male, hitherto undescribed, and which is here W 

 the first time figured, is coloured in the same matff 

 as the female, differing, however, in having the entite 

 front of the head pale yellow, and in having the wh* 

 of the abdomen of an orange yellow. It is also som* 

 what smaller than the female. The males seem ^ 

 than the females, and those which I captured were # 

 observed until several days after the females had beg* 

 to appear. «/. O. W. 



No. XIV. 



k 



noavW 

 tnaenft 





BRITISH SONG BIRDS. 



-As no workman, how clever soever 

 may be, can move one step in the right direct" 

 without being provided with proper tools, — so, 

 can be reckoned * complete," in its several appointing 

 without all the necessary paraphernalia are in re ^ -, 

 to be used as occasion may require them. I shall trie 

 fore proceed, at once, to particularise what these ess^ 

 tials are. u 



In the first place,— as you will daily have to o % 

 your bullocks' liver, buns, &c. ; and as it reqt v& 

 « fine " apparatus for this purpose ; you must get * 

 penter to furnish you with two well-seasoned deal W £ 

 made as follows :— The length of each box ^ us i 

 8 inches ; width, 6 inches ; depth, 3£ inches. ^f$l 

 the tops of each, should be ledges ; shelving upwards ^ 

 outwards, so as to prevent waste. In the upper &j& 

 each box, let a square sheet of tin be inserted I 



