November 23, 1876. ] 



JODBNAL OF HOBTICDLTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



443 



have reaBon to thank Mr. Wilson for giving his experience, 

 and will probably withhold their orders nntil they hear a better 

 account from other quarters. As the plant, according to the 

 " Cottage Gardener's Dictionary," was introduced into this 

 country as far back as 1789, and is mentioned by Loudon as 

 a greenhouse fruit tree, it might be assumed that if the fruit 

 were worth having it would long before this have been generally 

 cultivated ; and had Mr. Wilson simply pronounced the fruit 

 inferior to our ordinary English fruits I should not have 

 troubled you with this letter, but his report is so very unfavour- 

 able that I must express a doubt whether this " Pear tree of 

 Jove " in some of its varieties may not behave better. 



A letter from Japan informed me that the Kaki was the best 

 fruit there. Margary in his Journal mentions the abundance 

 of the tree in China, though it is possible that the trees were 

 wild. Perhaps Mr. Wilson has overlooked the statement made 

 by Don, that the fruit of every variety of Diospyros, and 

 notably of the Virginian tree, must be allowed to blet like the 

 Medlar, and I have understood it is all the better for frost. If 

 Mr. Wilson has any fruit left, perhaps he will kindly try 

 whether keeping it diminishes its austerity. — G. S. 



OUR OLD ROSES. 



What changes have come over the queen of our gardens ! 

 Interesting and instructive as •' Election of Roses" may be to 

 many of your readers, how few of us can keep pace with the 

 times. I would be glad to enter the arena, but cannot for 

 ever be discarding and adding Alfred Colombs and Marie 

 Baumanns to the limited stock. In days long past with what 

 delight we used to tend such Roses as Bivers's George IV., 

 Russelliana, Madame Campan, Las Cassas, Great Western, 

 Madame Desprez, and we thought when we procured Giant of 

 Battles we had arrived at the end of the chapter. The last- 

 named Rose was expected to have a very prominent place as -a 

 Rose for bedding purposes, but having such a tendency to 

 mildew had to be discarded. Coupe d'Hebe was thought to 

 be the model of a Rose, and Lamarque used to be very highly 

 esteemed, and with some still holds its own. Such Boses as 

 Baronne Prevost and Colonel Bougemont we cannot do away 

 with; and we used to think that Paul Perras, Charles Lawson, 

 Princess Matilda, and the like, would never grow old. We 

 retain them still, and shall not give them up. Our affections 

 still cling to that grand old Eose the Provence Cabbage and its 

 •compeer the old, old Moss, a staunch old friend. I wish the 

 Bath White and Timewell's Moss would grow as well. Charles 

 Duval still retains his merit in my estimation ; and the Crested 

 Provence Bose is one of the most lovely Bobos in cultivation. 



It is grievous to Bee how low in the scale that much-lauded 

 Bose has sunk — I mean Gloire de Dijon. I shall never forget 

 the praises lavished upon it when it first made its appearance 

 among us. I used to think we should never nted another Bose 

 introducing; but the light of other days has faded, but still 

 " old Glory" holds a place in our affections, and is generally 

 esteemed. In our youthful days we used to have a Bose called 

 Smith's Yellow Noisette ; it was a grand achievement to cut 

 a few blooms in February and March of this variety from the 

 forcing house, but we see nothing of this Bose now. My ideas 

 may be vague, but I have a great liking for the double Persian 

 yellow Madame Angelina, she is so charming in bud ; alBO for 

 Bourbon Queen, Josephine Matton, Devoniensia, Niphetos, 

 Elize Sauvage, and Goubault. 



Jean Desprez and Ophirie are fine for borders. We were to 

 iiive something very superior in Cloth of Gold and Isabella 

 Gray, but they are too unmanageable. Of course the Marshal 

 has his proper place. I still cling to the old Damask known as 

 the York and Lancaster — beautiful in bud and that is all. — Bosa. 



CHAPTERS ON INSECTS FOR GARDENERS. 



No. 13. 



The genus Phylloxera, represented by such species as P. coc- 

 e'raea, vastatrix, and quercus, presents such strange anomalies 

 that our entomological leaders are puzzled as to its place 

 iu this order. Like the scale insects, the females are ovi- 

 parous, but the parents do not die off to furnish a protective 

 coating for the young. In several instances broods in various 

 stages of growth reside within galls formed on the roots or 

 branches of the plants they attack, the Phylloxera resembling 

 the Aphides, in their succession of summer broods consisting 

 only of females. Excellent, therefore, as are some of tbe 

 remedies proposed, they have this awkward circumstance 



against them, that owing to the secluded habits of the majority 

 of the Phylloxeras, the killing agent cannot be placed near enough 

 to them. As to their rapid multiplication, on the Oak leaves 

 during July or August there maybe observed, where the insects 

 occur, a dozen or more of females upon a single leaf, each 

 surrounded by her batch of more than a hundred eggs, regu- 

 larly arranged in circles. Some very startling statements have 

 been published about these Phylloxeras by the French natu- 

 ralists, and not all of these have been verified as yet by suffi- 

 cient observations. But it seems pretty well ascertained that 

 the Vine-eaters, under certain conditions of their life, migrate 

 to the Oak, and the reverse operation also occurs. Then the 

 root-infesting Phylloxeras, which are, for many generations, 

 entirely subterranean in habit, are continued through a limited 

 number of years by wingless females, until they die out, new 

 colonies of the Phylloxeras being propagated by the winged 

 specimens bred from the leaves. And if we could credit 

 M. Balbiani, that some females only deposit a single egg at 

 the period when the winged development occurs (though 

 another naturalist deems this a pupa), we should deem the 



wM^ 



Fig. 66. — Phylloxera vastatrix. 



Female specimens and their eggs, a, antennie; b, horns or suckers; c, egg 

 plainly visible in the body of the insect; /, winged form of the insect. All 

 magnified. 



Phylloxeras pre-eminent amongst their brethren on account of 

 their peculiarities. 



We come next to the Coccidas or Scale Insects, which have 

 been so named from the singular structure of the females, which 

 are invariably devoid of wings. It is bo ordered that by their 

 habit they furnish a remarkable illustration of "life in death." 

 The scale, attached to some truok or branch, and which differs 

 much in size in different species, a large example being that 

 discoverable on the Vine, is the caroase of the parent insect, 

 from which, by an odd transformation, disappear all trace 

 of segments, legs, antennas, and head, leaving only the shield- 

 like convex ridge of the upper Burface of the body, on raising 

 which we see a white or yellowish substance. In this are 

 enclosed the eggs, which sometimes hatch out speedily, some- 

 times continue unchanged from autumn until spring. Whether 

 the young larvas are partly nourished as well as protected by 

 the relics of their diseased parent is not certain. The newly- 

 hatched Cocci, however, soon begin to suck the juices of the 

 plant by the aid of the rostrum or " beak," but though they 

 are occasionally written of as active, their activity is of a very 

 moderate kind. From the extremity of the body spring two 

 longish tails or bristles, which perhaps serve as balancers, or 

 they may be conneoted with the breathing apparatus ; but they 

 do not abide through the whole of the larval life. 



In the case of the Cocci that are about to pass the colder 

 months of the year as larvas, towards the end of the summer 

 it will be found that they have distributed themselves on the 

 younger shoots, finally quitting the vicinity of their parent, and 

 rousing to renewed activity in April. Should these be left un- 

 disturbed, ere long we notice that Eome of them continue to 

 increase in Eize, while the others cease to grow. The females, 

 indeed, pass, without any marked gradation, from the state of 

 larva to that of imago, and, until they are impregnated, still 

 draw up the sap ; the males, ceasing to feed, become pupas, and 

 emerge as winged insects. They again exhibit the bristly 

 adornments perceivable in the larvas, and the pair of delicate 

 wings, Eometimes of very gaudy tints, cross each other. 

 Though well able to fly, locomotion is more frequently per- 

 formed by them in a series of hops or tkips. This description 

 may be taken as applicable to the yearly round of life in most 

 of the outdoor Cocci, such as that haunting the Sjcamore, 

 or that feeding upon our Hawthorn hedges. The latter species 

 has, I think, become more numerous of late, though scarcely 

 oapable of effecting any important injury to this shrub, which 

 has so many more dangerous foes. Under glass, where vari- 



