192- 



JOTJBXAL OF HOETICrrLTURE XKD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Much 7, 18 Si. 



ing that such a Vine ironld yield 50 lbs. of Grapes this 

 autumn." 



VCe cannot too strongly recommend Mr. Thomson's treatise 

 OS a thoroughly practical and sure guide to the cultivation 

 of the Vine. 



HINTS OX WLN'DOW GAEDE^'ING. 



With this title, Mr. Walter H. Bosanquet has published 

 at the price of one penny, a sheet of directions and -wani- 

 ings for these of "the working classes," who, living in 

 towns, yet delight in growing potted plants either ibr the 

 decoration of their windows, or for exhibition. The direc- 

 tions and warnings are all good, and we recommend those 

 who wish to encourage such praiseworthy domestic garden- 

 ing, to distribute copies among their labouring neighbours ; 

 for such purpose it may be had at our office for Ss. per 100. 



Mr. Bosanquet is an enthusiastic encourager of town 

 window-gardening, and there is no better aid to success 

 than enthusiasm. He has corresponded with the Council of 

 the Eoyal Horticultural Society on the subject, and the 

 Council have appointed a Committee for arranging an ex- 

 hibition of plants so grown. Mr. Bosanquet is a member of 

 the Committee. 



tralia. Hitherto the genus had only been found in Portugal, 

 Spain, Sicily, the Morea, Algeria, Calcutta, and India as fer 

 as Rangoon, but not in the eastern islands. Its discovery, 

 therefore, in Australia, was a remarkable fact in entomo- 

 geography. Professor Westwood stated also that he had 

 recently received it from Zambesi. 



Mr. Baly read a memoir containing some further descrip- 

 tions of new exotic species of Phytophagous Beetles. 



The President announced that the Council had resolved 

 to offer two prizes of five guineas each to the authors of the 

 two most satisfactory papers on questions of economic ento- 

 mology, to be decided at the close of the present year. 



EKTOilOLOGICAIi SOCIETY'S 3IEETIN-G. 



The Anniversary Meeting of this Society was held on the 

 23rd of January, when the usual routine business was trans- 

 acted, the whole of the officers of the preceding year being 

 re.€lected without opposition, and the Council elected, con- 

 sisting of Messrs. Hamlet Clark, Dunning, McLachlan, 

 Pascoe, Shepherd, Smith, Stainton, Stevens, Weir, iloore, 

 Edward Sheppard, A. Sheppard, and W. W. Saunders. The 

 four last-named members replaced Messrs. Bates, Grut, 

 May, and Wallace. 



The President delivered an address, in which he reviewed 

 the Society's proceedings during the past year, as well as 

 the general progress of the science, for which a cordial vote 

 of thanks was passed, as well as for his conduct in the chair. 

 Votes of thanks were also passed to the various officers of 

 the Society. 



The General Meeting for February was held on the 6th 

 ult., the chair being occupied by the President, P. P. j 

 Pascoe, Esq., F.L.S., who returned thanks to the Society for 

 his re-election as President, and who nominated as his Vice- 

 Presidents for the ensuing yeai-, Messrs. Saunders, Smith, 

 and Stainton. Various publications of the Royal Society of i 

 London, Belgium, and Moscow, the Linnean Society of Lon- | 

 don, as well as the continuation of M. de Saussure's work | 

 on the Natural History of Mexico and the Antilles, were an- ; 

 nounced as having been presented to the Society since the i 

 last Meeting. | 



Mr. Brewer exhibited a minute species of Beetle, Corti- ' 

 caria truncatella, of Mannerheim, new to this country (allied j 

 to C. tuscula), which he had taken in some numbers at the | 

 roots of marine plants, at Worthing ; also, specimens of the 

 rare Ceutorhynchns biguttatus, from the same locality. He 

 had also taken the rare Latriduis nodifer, at the roots of 

 plants at Hampstead. 



Captain Cox sent some portions of the wood of a dog 

 kennel, the crevices in the decayed parts of which were 

 swarming to an extraordinary extent with the Dog Tick, 

 Ixodes RicinuB, in different states, accompanied by some 

 observations on these insects, which he had succeeded in 

 destroying by rubbing common grease over the parts of the 

 bodies of dogs infested by them. The curious fact recorded 

 by De Geer of the p<:>3ition of the male nestled on the breast 

 of the female was observed in many of the specimens for- 

 warded, and the young when hatched were observed to have 

 three instead of four pairs of legs. 



Mr. F. Bond exhibited, on behalf of 3Ir. Rich, a further 

 series of the parti-coloured males of the common Ghost Moth 

 (Ilepifllna Humuli), from Lerwick, one of the Shetland 

 Islands ; from whence also Bombug Smithianns (White, 

 Proceeds. Linn. Soc.), had been received, that being the 

 only known locality for the epecies. 



"The President stated that he had recently received speci- 

 mens of the curious genus of Beetles, Cossypbns, from Ans- 



AGAffH^A CCELESTIS— EDEIVTEISS. 



In your Number of February 14th you say that Agathaa 

 ccelestis is tender " even in the mild climate of Ireland." I 

 beg to say that I have a plant of it which has stood out of 

 doors for two winters without any protection. It is the 

 variegated sort. 



Tour correspondent " M. A. E." will not succeed, I fear, 

 in growing Edelweiss. The inhabitants of the Tyrol cannot 

 keep it alive long when transplanted from its native crags 

 on the highest summits of the mountains. I do not think 

 it can be the Leontopodium Mr. Fish mentions, because the 

 flowers are white, not yellow. I enclose a specimen gathered 

 on the mountains near Salzburg. — R. F. M., Co. Clare. 



rin the south-west of Ireland your climate is far more 

 genial than in other districts of the island. Leontopodium 

 helveticum is the same as L. vulgare of some botanists. 

 Although the corolla is not yellow, yet the dense crowd of 

 anthers in its centre are, and would be, impressed on Mr. 

 Fish's memory.] 



EPIPHTLLr.M (HjLTUEE. 



In answer to a correspondent, I will commence by ob- 

 serving that sometimes Epiphyllums are found as epiphytes 

 on the borders of rivers in the warmer parts of America, asso- 

 ciated with epiphytal Orchids, Tillandsias, and other plants 

 of half-epiphytal habit. This is particularly the case in 

 Demerara ; on the borders of the river of that name Epi- 

 phyUum speciosum is occasionally found as an epiphyte; 

 but we are told on the authority of Mr. Colley, who was 

 sent out in 183i by J. Bateman, Esq., to explore that country 

 in search of Orchids, that it seldom presents a vigorous ap- 

 pearance. Our experience of them in cultivation verifies 

 this statement, that Epiphyllums are not strictly epiphytes. 

 If not ejnphytes they certainly require a similar mode of 

 treatment, and grow well with the culture given to cool 

 Orchids, but having no pseudo-bulbs they cannot withstand 

 so much dryness, and yet they will resist drought for a 

 lengthened period. A period of moisture and corresponding 

 warmth is essential to free growth, and this should continue 

 when once it commences until the growths have attained 

 their full size, and a fullness ol parts that approaches plump- 

 ness ; and a period of rest through exposure to more light 

 and a drier atmosphere is likewise necessary. 



Epiphyllum tmncatum, and its allied species, or those 

 that flower from the points of the fleshy stems, and in which 

 the branches have a tendency to droop, are cultivated in 

 two ways — first, on their own roots; second, grafted as 

 standards. They are handsome in either way, but I think 

 them much more so on stems about 1 foot or 1 foot 6 inches 

 in height. Very fine objects are obtained by grafting two 

 scions on the Pereskia stock, on opposite sides, at 1 foot from 

 the soil, two more 9 inches higher on the stock, and one 

 6 inches above the last on the top of the stock. The result 

 is a pyramid 2 feet 3 inches in height. The most suitable 

 stock is the Pereskia aculeata, and the most approved mode 

 of grafting, side ortongue giafting, the scion being of such a 

 thickness as to correspond ^vith the stock. To secure the 

 scion in its place the strong spines of the Pereskia may be 

 run through the scicoi into the stock, ^d the graft bound 

 rather tightly with bast, some moss being put on to secure 

 a little moisture and exclude air. Grafting is best per- 

 formed in spring when the plants aro growing. 



Cuttings of all the kinds sti-ike freely if inserted in any 

 poor, light, sandy soil. Cuttings put in in spring in a mo- 



