



^ 





THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



85 



which are 2 feet deep, are again nueu wiui nut uuug, 

 and mould to the depth of 8 inches is put on the dung. 

 The Seakale roots are dug up, all the small buds round 

 the main eye are pared off, leaving that by itself, which 

 Induces it to push stronger and finer ; and now planting 

 is commenced, a furrow is cut out by the spade across 

 the bed and they are put in as thickly as possible. 

 Five feet across will hold from 25 to 30 roots ; the next 

 furrow is cut out 4 inches from the last, and so on till 

 the whole is finished ; from 4 to 6 inches of straw is 

 placed immediately on the crowns. The beds are hooped 

 over and straw is put over the hoops ; and in this way 

 1 have seen 50,000 plants forced during the winter and 

 spring, and by one man. All roots are removed from 

 where they grow in summer, as they can be put in a 

 much smaller compass elsewhere. Such is the way in 

 which this delicious vegetable is grown by market gar- 

 deners, who* thus bring it on slowly, excluding all air, 

 and producing excellent food. Mr. Martin's plan of in- 

 creasing Seakale is this : At taking up time all the 

 thongs are cut off before the plants are put in to force. 

 In November the small prongs or end roots are at once 

 cut into 4-inch pieces and laid altogether in a heap for 

 the winter. In February they are deposited thickly in 

 beds,* and covered with mould an inch deep ; when 

 -sprouted it is seen by the buds which is the top, and by 

 the roots which is the bottom. The ground being pre- 

 pared, they are planted out as above. This last plan 

 makes finer plants, as the whole of the strength is in the 

 roots when cut off in winter, which is not the case after 

 they have produced a crop. After forcing, the pores 

 of the thongs must be empty, and they take a long time 

 in recruiting, James Cuthill, Camberwell. 



BRITISH SONG BIRDS. 



[Cage Birds, No. I.J 



No. XVII.— It will have been observed that, through- 

 out our remarks connected with an aviary, I have only 

 given an occasional hint, en passant ', touching the 

 habits, peculiarities, and dispositions of some particular 

 birds ; reserving for a future opportunity, which at 

 present offers, a more minute discussion on the subject 

 *t large. What now lies before us is still more gene- 

 rally interesting, though not one whit more important, 

 than what has preceded ; nor can the two subjects be 

 •disunited. 



It would be quite unnecessary to travel out of our 

 road, to select any particular songster to commence 

 with ; as all will receive due notice in turn. However, 

 as the Canary is associated with my earliest and happiest 

 reminiscences, and as certain of his tribe have been my 

 constant companions from boyhood upwards, I feel 

 inclined to give him precedence over all others. Our 

 first consideration will therefore be of— the Canary. 



Of all birds, this appears to be the general favourite. 

 There are very few families, comparatively speaking, in 

 ♦which he is not to be found domesticated. Nor is it to 

 be wondered at; for his natural disposition is to be 

 friendly and affectionate, and he will sing any where. 



Although originally a native of the Canary Islands, 

 the canary has been so long « naturalised " in this 

 <!ountry, that he may truly be pronounced an English 

 bird. When first introduced here, he was very tender, 

 delicate, and difficult to rear ; but the race are now 

 robust, and among the heartiest of the feathered tribe, 

 U properly tended. 



. The great marts which supply London and the pro- 

 vinces with canaries, are- Norfolk, and some parts of 

 \orkshire. The Norwich birds are celebrated for their 

 nigh colour, and freeness of song ; also for their liveli- 

 ness, and trim plumage. The Yorkshire birds are 

 splendid songsters ; but they are not handsome, either 

 in torm or plumage, and their colours are bad ; neither 

 are they so lively as the Norwich birds. However, 

 their voices are infinitely finer, they sing more steadily, 

 and with more harmony ; while their constitution is 

 wonderfully strong. 



These birds arrive in considerable numbers— very 

 many thousands of them in one week— immediately 

 before the season of Christmas. They are sent to the 

 written order of the various dealers in London, who 

 await their arrival at the railway stations, and attend to 

 their little wants immediately they are delivered into 

 the safe custody of their new masters. The principal 

 dealers reside in Great St. Andrew-street, Holborn, and 

 its immediate vicinity. All persons who are anxious to 

 secure good birds, should pay an early visit here. 



Ihe best time to select your birds is by gas-light. 



Aney will be found all ranged in cages round a large 



square -room. To keep them in a state of excitement, a 



S V 3 Peas are P laced in a wooden box > ^ich is 

 rSL ? ■ V10lent,v backwards and forwards. This 

 hkrT' !° r lt , 1S nothin g better, puts the birds on their 



beinT n J! tfle ; and eYeT y one of them > resolved on not 

 is rt£ ?• T' sin g« bravely against his fellow. This 



* J >JT1 t0 Jf y our Ju^nt. " you have a fine 

 Miter ,1 *T? eye ' y° U wiU ""MY detect the best 



i^ J^ U SS • ep ° Se J neither let *» deder know 

 before J^T ? **• Take at lea st balf an hour 

 £2! son, r ft deCide - S^times a very extraor- 

 Sfiv?! bird has a da maged tail, and an otherwise 

 Set, iSTT -p Th l 8 is ***** if he b « * other 



53E?r££S *A ***** his feathers > y° u can 



SSTto Z^l h f K b . eaut y- Three short ™*s will 



Sf JSi L g ^ e him emirel y- B y p™p* r ™™s* 



XLCJ B 2L pick . out a **»*«*• bird, at a cost not 



»?28£ T' w If 1 mi S ht ad ^> I sbould 

 **, sacrifice colour to accompUshments-you will never 



repent it. Nature seldom gives us rare beauty and great 

 accomplishments united. 



When you have selected your birds, one or more, and 

 looked to their legs and feet, to see that they are healthy 

 and perfect, on no account allow the dealer to touch them, 

 or remove them from their cages. Pay him a " de- 

 posit " on the cages, and take the birds away in your 

 hand. You should previously have prepared a " local 

 habitation " for them at home, well furnished with seed 

 and water ; and have nothing to wait for on your 

 arrival. When introducing them into their new resi- 

 dences, do not touch them with your hand ; but open the 

 door of the new cage, placing the old one dos-a-dos 

 against it. Place a lighted candle in front, and your 

 little prisoners will hop in cheerfully, well-pleased at the 1 

 change — for their late cramped and ill-savoured abode 

 will have had little charms for them. I shall speak of 

 the proper-sized cages, &c, anon. 



It will be desirable to hang them up at once, in the 

 place you intend them to occupy. If purchased at the 

 season I have spoken of, the chances are — they will sing 

 within 10 minutes after they have been caged off. The 

 best trait in the character of a canary is, he will sing, 

 place him where you may. These birds very seldom 

 show a sulkiness of disposition ; and even if they should 

 occasionally do so, a single Hempseed, or a morsel of 

 Chickweed, would set all to rights in a moment. An 

 amiability of disposition is herein shown, which should 

 put some of us to the blush. Intellect does not always 



confer wisdom. William Kidd, New Road, Hammer- 

 smith* 



flowers, is an ingenious suggestion which certainly 

 merits examination. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



BOSTI.ICHUS CAPUCINUS, (THE ScARLET-BACK CoWLED BEETLE.) 



Before giving an account of another species of beetle, 

 which is occasionally destructive to Oak timber in our 

 dock-yards, it will be serviceable to refer back to 

 our article on the Lymexylon navale (October 26, 1850), 

 for the purpose of making a few additional observations 

 on that species, as well as of correcting one or two 

 typographical errors which crept into it, and to which 

 our attention has been kindly called by Sir Thomas 

 Sabine Pasley, the head of the dock-yard at Pembroke, 

 who furnished us with the materials for our article 

 upon that species, as well as those which are contained 

 in the present article. Amongst the larvae of the 

 Lymexylon sent us by Sir T. S. Pasley, were two of a 

 much longer and far more slender form than those of 

 the Lymexylon. These, when put into a box with the 

 the latter, immediately commenced destroying them, 

 seizing hold of them by the back of the neck, and eating 

 a hole in them, in which way they killed seven in a 

 few minutes. These larvse belong to the order 

 Coleoptera, but are quite unlike those of any Coleop- 

 terous insect with which I am acquainted, nor 

 can any^ of my friends, either here or in Paris 

 (whither I took the specimens for the purpose) 

 form any idea as to the genus of beetles to which they 

 belong. The best idea,, that I can suggest to indicate 

 their form is that of a rather long thick pin. It is 

 curious that these larvse should seize the larvae of the 

 Lymexylon behind the head, where they are provided 

 with a swollen dilatation which indeed offers a point 

 d'appui for their attack. 



In the course of last August we also received, 



Sir T. S. Pasley, several specimens of another Coleop- 

 terous insect which burrows into the Oak in our dock- 

 yards. The beetle is the well known reputed indigenous 

 Bostrichus capucinus, and some of the specimens were 

 found dead in Istrian Oak timber, which had been a few 

 years in Pembroke dock-yard, and others alive in 

 Italian Oak timber, then just landed out of a vessel 

 Leghorn. These beetles were found in the timber, and 

 not in the thick stuff, and they do not penetrate deeper 

 than the sap wood. We subsequently (at the beginning 

 of October) received from Sir T. S. P. specimens of the 

 larvae, and a portion of the wood, showing the burrows 

 of the insect, together with two of the beetles alive. 

 The burrows are circular, varying from one-eighth to 

 one-sixth of an inch in diameter. The great portion of 

 the mischief is, of course, caused by the larvae, 

 which are thick fleshy grubs, with the body curved 

 and the hind extremity obtuse, having very much the 

 appearance of small specimens of the grubs of the com- 

 mon cockchaffer, except that the legs are much shorter^ 

 the body much swollen behind the head and the ter- 

 minal segment of the body small ; the head is also very 

 small, and the antennae and palpi are short, and not at 

 all prominent ; the jaws, although small, are strong. 

 In its general form this larva approaches very closely 

 to that of the larva of the death-watches, Anobium and 

 other Ptinidae, which also reside in wood, and to which 

 the perfect insect is also allied, although it only pos- 

 sesses four joints in all the tarsi, for which reason La- 

 treille united it with his other Xylophaga, at the end of 

 the family, of the Weevils (Curculionidae.) In respect, 

 therefore, to its position in the distribution of the order 

 Coleoptera, this genus is almost as interesting as Ly- 

 mexylon, and therefore the knowledge of its larva state is 

 of much consequence. It would be curious to ascertain 

 whether the singular statement of M. Schmidberger, 

 concerning the habits of the larvse of the nearly allied 

 Bostrichus dispar, given by Kollar, in "Treatise on 

 Insects injurious to Farmers/' &c. (Miss Loudon's 

 translation), p. 258, is confirmed by those of the larvse 

 of B. capucinus. The annexed figure of the larva is 



about twice its natural length. 



The perfect beetle belongs to the family Bostrichidae, 

 most of the members of which possess wood-boring 

 habits ; and as some of the species are upwards of an 

 inch in length, they must commit much havoc in the 

 timber of tropical climates, of which they are mostly 

 natives. Our figure represents the Bostrichus Capucinus, 



; it is of a black colour, except 

 the wing-cases and abdomen, which are red, the former 

 being thickly marked with impressed punctures ; the front 

 of the thorax is rugose and sloping off, forming a kind of 

 hood to the head, which is attached below, and deeply 

 immersed into the thorax, so that when its wings are 

 closed, the insect exhibits a nearly eylindric form, the 

 fittest for inhabiting the burrows made by the larvae. 

 The perfect insect measures rather less than half an inch 

 in length ; and I believe that up to the present time 

 only three specimens have been taken alive in this 

 country ; one in London, another near Cromer, in Nor- 

 folk (both places where the insect might probably have 

 been imported), and the third from Matlock, in Derby- 

 shire. As the insect is common in France and Ger- 

 many, there is scarcely any reason to doubt that it is an 

 indigenous, although rare British insect. /. O. W» 



with its wings extended 





are 





the thick stuff is plank above 4 inches thick (not about), 

 and the plank is steamed to bend round the bows and 

 sterns (not stems) of the ships. A correspondent who 

 has adopted the signature of "Alpha * ( Gardener's Chro- 

 nicle,, 1850, p. 726) seems to suggest some doubt as to 

 the identity of the larva observed by Mr. 6. R. Water- 

 house in a living Oak in Windsor Forest, referred to in 

 our article on the Lymexylon (p. 677). That gentleman 

 has, however, since seen the specimens of the larvse of 

 that insect, sent by Sir T. S. Pasley, and is quite con- 

 vinced of their identity ; and as his knowledge of Coleop- 

 terous larvae is very considerable, there is no reason to 

 doubt his statement, especially as there is no other 

 known Coleopterous larvae at all like that of the 

 Lymexylon. Hence "Alpha's" distinction between the 

 habits of Lymexylon and Hylsecetus is ill-founded, 

 as he may further see by referring to Ratzeburg's 

 excellent * Forst Insekten," vol. i. If * Alpha " 

 will also take the trouble of referring to our " Intro- 

 duction to the Modern Classification of Insects," vol I 

 p. 274, and fig. 30, 16-19, he will see the curious pair* 

 of the males which he mentions represented, as wcJi as 

 those of the allied genera Hylsecetus and Atr*etocerus. 

 The suggestion that the males (which alone possess 

 these remarkable branching palpi), u&y be attached to 



GRAFTING. 



No. VI. — Section II. General Observations on 

 Cleft Grafting. — This mode of grafting is understood to 

 consist in cutting the trunk, branches, shoots, and even 

 the roots of plants, and making in the section a cleft 

 which generally divides it into two equal parts,* for 

 the introduction of kindred grafts, in order that these 

 may draw their nutrition from the stock during the 

 period of its existence ; sometimes the grafts survive 

 the stock in consequence of striking root. 



Without following the order of arrangement of those 

 grafts by our great masters, I have united the small 

 number of them which I propose to describe under ona 

 point of view ; and shall treat of these in two paragraphs. 



The first comprehends all those of which the 

 stocks are thicker than the grafts, and for which liga- 

 tures may be generally dispensed with. As regards 

 those constituting the second, the parts intended to be 

 joined ought to be of an equal size ; some of them the 

 operator will be under the necessity of maintaining in 

 their position by an envelope, or casing of paper ; all 

 ought to be secured with cotton thread, india rubber, or 

 other elastic substance. By means of the m»*ies of 

 grafting comprised in these two paragraph, all the 

 kinds of plants to which these modes are applicable, will 

 unite perfectly by taking the precaution of joining, as 

 exactly as possible, all the parts of tb* graft operated upon 

 with those of the cleft made in t^e stock ; but above all, 

 especial care should be take* to make their libers coin- 

 cide ; t then cover the o^er wounded or exposed parts 

 with some plaster, di^rent kinds of which will bespoken 



* In some pHnts, of which the fibres are not atrongly 

 united, their trunks, or their roots are sometimes unequally 

 parted, hr splitting the sides ; this is the case with the Fine, 

 the roots of Dahlias, dec. 



r Liber, the line of demarcation which is found between tfca 

 bark and alburnum of all woody and herbaceous plants; *na 

 when the cambium is carried abundantly toward* this p*rt, 

 we can separate this line by raising up or deflecting the harfc 

 by a slight effort. When this is the ease, we then say **JF*E 

 are in sap. This condition indicate* the time when fflwt Juno* 

 of grafting should be performed. 



