372 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND, COTTAGE GARDENER. 
{ November 14, 1878. 
the petals have more substance to enable them to withstand 
he sun, and bees call regularly there, while they pass unheeded 
the half-closed flowers of the night-blooming sorts. 
(Enothera macrocarpa is one of the best decumbent species. 
The flowers are a light yellow, very large, often 4 to 6 inches in 
diameter, and are produced in greater or less profusion from 
June to the end of September. It prefers a light rich loam, 
and if a little peaty so much the better. On heavy clay soils 
the plants are not long-lived, becoming annually weaker and 
often going off during the winter altogether. In such places 
it is best treated as an annual or biennial, sowing a pinch of 
seed on a slight hotbed in March and planting out in May. 
Many of the plants so raised will bloom moderately the same 
season and well the next. In light soil, where there is no need 
for this, we find that layering is the handiest mode of propa- 
vation. This should be done about midsummer, and the plants 
when rooted taken off early in autumn and wintered in a 
nursery bed. It is an admirable plant for rockwork, and when 
planted there should be allowed ample room so that it may 
not overgrow its less robust neighbours. It is anative of North 
America, and is sometimes known as GE. missouriensis.—R. D. 
TAYLOR. 
GROWING GRAPES IN COOL HOUSES. 
WHEN I referred to this matter in your pages some weeks 
ago several of your correspondents, including Mr. D. Thomson, 
Drumlanrig, advanced some remarks on the subject mostly 
against what I said: yet I cannot help again saying that good 
Grapes may be very generally cultivated in unheated houses. 
I could send creditable Grapes if needed for the Editors’ 
inspection cut from Vines that have never had the slightest 
fire heat applied to them since they were propagated. _From 
my success here I should have no hesitation in planting an 
unheated house with Vines in the coldest district in the country, 
and Iam anxious that any with a house of the kind will give 
the plan which I advocate a trial. The Black Hamburgh is the 
pest of all black Grapes for the purpose, and now is a good 
time for the preparation of a border and to have all in readi- 
ness for planting in spring. } 
Where plenty of good loam can be had add little manure ; 
but where the soil is bad add plenty of the best manure ob- 
tainable. Start the Vines into growth from the very first in 
the house in which they are to grow, and as early in the season 
as circumstances permit. Most Vines will start naturally into 
growth by the end of March, and the following six months 
ciye ample time to thoroughly mature the crop, provided the 
‘Vines are treated like Vines under fire heat—that is, in closing 
the house with sun heat, keeping it shut altogether in dull 
days, and taking every advantage of sunshine and mild weather 
to promote development. Those who pay attention to these 
simple details may have Grapes as fine as if they employed 
fire heat, and of course with a very great difference in the cost 
of production—A KITCHEN GARDENER. 
ROSES AND ROSES. 
To a certain extent 1 agree with Mr. Beachey in his pleasant ; 
and suggestive paper of October 31st that our election lists are 
not altogether guides for the general public, but I am hardly 
prepared to admit that for one exhibitor there are ten thousand 
who grow Roses. Our National Rose Society would be glad 
to be able to rely on ten hundred. I incline to think that as 
soon as people begin to grow Roses well these get to be like 
some of our great armies, spoiling for a fight. The owner 
begins to think he will make others own their excellence. A 
more general election we certainly need. As Mr. Beachey 
remarks, it is marvellous that Princess Mary of Cambridge is 
not named in the present one. I blush to find she is not in 
my own forty-eight, but her kinswoman Marguerite de St. 
‘Amand achieved twenty-three. : 
J rejoice to see what Mr. Peach says so truly of old “ Glory,’ 
though I must confess I should couple with them for general 
excellence Cheshunt Hybrid. A really climbing red Rose still 
yemains a desideratum. I only know of one with any sub- 
stance, of course a Tea, which is Gloire de Bordeaux ; next to 
it, perhaps, but at a long interval, comes Glory of Waltham, 
put you can hardly call it rampant, which Cheshunt Hybrid 
can easily be made. I do not understand its being left out 
altogether. No doubt it can hardly hope for a place ina forty- 
eight, but I have certainly seen it looking well in a seyenty- 
two. Andina box of twelve Teas? Why, the help is enormous 
if only it can be persuaded not to develope too matronly. 
What is more maidenly than its beautiful blushing bud? I 
heard two rosarians the other day talking of a close contest 
between two almost equally excellent boxes of twelve Teas. 
What was it decided it? Why, they said, colour. The box 
won, and deservedly, which possessed a Cheshunt Hybrid. It 
is also a good garden Rose from its fulness of bloom, in this 
respect an excellent contrast to some which Mr. Beachey men- 
tions. Really some of our fat Roses seem to act as if they have 
done wonders in vouchsafing two or three blooms in a season. 
They are so slow in opening, and when at last they do it so 
alone in their glory, that I am always reminded of the “One, 
but a lion !”—the dignified reply of a lioness when a rabbit 
dared to chaff her on her very limited progeny. But I would 
plead for Mons. Boncenne in Mr. Beachey’s list as a bad 
opener, that in my experience on a light soil it is always sure 
and fine. Duc de Wellington, also, though not robust, I should 
not speak of as a bad grower. Madame Berard I consider the 
best of all the seedlings of Gloire de Dijon. It is almost time 
the Hybrid Teas, as Mr. Peach says, had a class to themselves, 
and they might well do so under the patronage of that excel- 
lent patriarch old “ Glory.”—A. C. 
CHAPTERS ON INSECTS FOR GARDENERS. 
No. 23. 
A REVEREND naturalist, referring to the difficulty there is in 
distinguishing from each other many of the species amongst 
the smaller moths, remarks that the practised entomolosist is 
in the same position as is the shepherd who, running his eye 
over scores of individuals in his flock, notices something 
peculiar about each, although to a stranger the sheep may look 
exactly alike. That may be, and it is wonderful how the eye 
may be trained to notice minute differences ; the cases, how- 
ever, are not exactly parallel, for in the instance of the sheep 
they get to know their shepherd, but the moths don’t recognise 
the entomologist !~ Then again, there is something “awfully” 
puzzling in finding that certain species (in the group of the 
Tortrices or “Button” moths especially) are so apt to vary 
that there may be as many as twenty or even thirty forms 
belonging to the same species, the yariations being in the 
marking or colouring of the perfect insect. Extensive breed- 
ing of the species in question, carried on in different localities, 
is doing a good deal towards the clearing-up of sundry points 
that perplex the entomologist. Were our horticulturists as a 
body to take careful note of the times of appearance and the 
habits of the numerous species that in this and other orders 
are frequently brought under their observation, they would not 
only facilitate the adoption of measures for the checking of 
noxious insects, but help on the progress of natural science. 
The group of the Pyralidina, which in the Lepidopterous order 
follows the fat-bodied species known as Noctuina that were last 
noticed in this series, ineludes species that are all of small size, 
yet of very different appearance. In this respect they agree, 
that the fore wings are longer than the hind wings and tri. 
angular; the larve are usually sixteen-footed, slightly hairy, 
slender, and very agile. Several of the species feed on plants 
under cultivation, but one or two only can be said to be in- 
jurious. Some species are, indeed, very common, such as the 
Small Magpie (Botys urticalis) : these, however, chiefly feed 
on various wild plants, and the moths enter gardens either 
for shelter or from their partiality to sweets. The Deltoids or 
Smuts (Hypenz) are placed first, the family not containing 
many species ; but in some seasons the insects swarm in grassy 
places. Their appellations have arisen from the fact that when 
the moths are reposing the wings are folded into the form of 
the delta or triangle ; the head is also furnished with remark- 
ably long palpi. In the family of the Pyrales we find some 
handsome species, and some that have a remarkable history. 
Here are classed two species whose destructive habits are un- 
deniable, though not affecting gardeners, at least not in their 
particular calling. The three species called “ Meal Moths,” 
the most abundant of which is Pyralis farinalis, have clossy 
and elegantly marked wings, but this will be admitted by few 
as any extenuation of the injury the larvze cause to meal or 
flour. Mr. Wood asks pertinently, ‘“ What could they have 
fed upon before men took to grinding corn?” Then Aglossa 
pinguinalis, known also by the odd name of “Tabby” and a 
pretty species, is on the watch during its season to deposit its 
eggs on greasy clothing, having a partiality for horse rugs that 
renders it an object of dislike to srooms. The caterpillar is 
almost as wiry as the wireworm, making for itself with ease 
comfortable grooves, in which it revels on the material. 
