March 31, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



239 



four years ago, at Christmas, to look after some new varieties. 

 At the town of St. Peter's, which is built on a rock a consider- 

 able height above the sea, I found the Chrysanthemum seeded 

 freely, aud that many of our newest and best varieties were 

 raised in an alcove on the top of a rock. . About one hundred 

 pots were crowded together in the dry, and all the late blooms 

 of the season were full of seed half ripe. I saw the petals had 

 been carefully cut off with a sharp pair of scissors close to the 

 florets, avoiding disturbing the pollen. The buds were quite 

 firm with the seed. I have practised the same mode myself with 

 perfect success. Mr. Wvness, of Buckingham Palace, has also 

 raised a great number of very good varieties. He takes the 

 Beed off in February, and puts it into his pocket to dry for a 

 week or two, and then sows it in a sharp heat in silver sand, and 

 it comes up in nine days. I am persuaded that any one can 

 seed them in the greenhouses or dry stoves in this country if 

 kept free from damp. 



INSECT ENEMIES. 

 The Chrysanthemum, like the Rose, Holly, Celery, and some 

 other plants, is injured by having its leaves mined by cater- 

 pillars, which reside within the leaf and feed upon the paren- 

 chyma or pulpy part of the leaf; for if the injured leaves are 

 examined the interior will be found quite destitute of pulp, 

 and to contain one or several small green grubs of different sizes, 

 which have eaten all the interior, leaving only the two surfaces 

 of the leaf entire, and those very thin. The grub when feeding 

 may be observed through the transparent surface of the leaf, 

 using the two bent hooks or mandibles which it has the power 

 to retract, within or protrude from the mouth like a pair of 

 scrapers, aud by the action of which the parenchyma is entirely 

 destroyed, and brought into a state to pass into the mouth of 

 the larva without difficulty. When the grubs are full grown 

 they quit the leaves and descend into the earth, where they 

 shortly afterwards gradually become pupae, aud appear to lose 

 all vitality, their form becoming shorter and oval, with the seg- 

 ments distinct and terminated at each end by two obtuse points. 

 In this state the insect remains buried in the ground until the 

 following spring, when the warmth gives birth to the imago of 

 one of the most beautiful of our species of two-winged flies, 

 which after throwing off its pupa skin aud bursting through the 

 hardened pellicle of the larva, crawls to the surface of the 

 ground and takes flight, generally during the months of July 

 and August ; but more or less throughout the summer. There is 

 no doubt but like the house fly, a succession of generations 

 is produced throughout the season. 



The insect of which the caterpillar mines Chrysanthemum 

 leaves, belongs to the Dipterous or Two-winged genus, Tephritis 

 of Fabricius, and is the Tephritis artemisiae of Curtis, and the 

 Tryptera artemisiae of Walker, in the "Entomological Magazine," 

 No. XI., page 84. The fly itself is about one-sixth of an inch 

 long, and the expansion of the wings when fully extended is 

 about one-third of an inch. It is of a pale yellowish-buff colour 

 with a few black hairs, especially at the sides of the thorax 

 (breast). The wings are limpid and slightly tinged with a yellowish 

 colour, having several black spols of various shapes and sizes, 

 and three uninterrupted bands across the body vary, in different 

 specimens, from a rusty brown to a shining black. The head is 

 buff with black lateral hairs, and the wings are marked with 

 various limpid spots of various forms and sizes. In some speci- 

 mens the dark marking of the wings is varied with a pale copper 

 colour, and these present a still more beautiful appearance, the 

 under side of the body being of a paler yellow, with the abdomen 

 and thorax highly polished. 



To destroy this perfect fly seems impracticable : therefore, the 

 extermination of the insect must be looked to from the earliest 

 time of their appearance in the caterpillar state. Picking off 

 the infested leaves, or the crushing of the larva between the 

 finger and thumb without destroying the leaf, appears the best 

 and only mode likely to prove successful, if adopted in the 

 beginning of summer, as the destruction of one grub at that 

 period will not only prevent the production of a numerous 

 progeny, but will also insure the better growth of the yet 

 tender plant. The motions of the fly are also very peculiar, for 

 when seated upon a leaf in the sunshine the wings are carried 

 partially extended and at the same time partially elevated, and 

 there is a sidling kind of motion which is possessed in com- 

 mon with but few other two-winged insects. It is generally 

 found in the perfect state basking on the broad leaves of the 

 Laurel and similar-leaved plants, as well as on the Chrysanthe- 

 mum. — J. Beoome. 



[The foregoing is a lectare delivered by Mr. Broome, whose 

 culrivotion of the Chrysanthemum in the Temple Gardens is so 

 well known.] 



THE PANSY. 



ITS PAST HISTOEY AND FUTTJBE PBOSPECTS. 

 It may seem strange that I should occupy myself with a plant 



so common and old-fashioned, but like many things in other 

 departments as well as in that of flowers, "it was in high repute 

 once." Its day has not entirely gone yet ; for some elderly gentle- 

 men, occupying gardens in happy rural retreats, may still be 

 found patronising a flower whose name harmonises so well with 

 the abodes which it assists in adorning by its beauties. Neither 

 has the fashionable florist entirely discarded it, and the list of 

 prizes at country horticultural shows often contains one or more 

 for Pansies. The pages of The Journal of Hoeticuitube 

 have from time to time been the means of placing its meritB 

 before the world as a bedding plant, and other modes of dealing 

 with it have also been occasionally set forth ; but as the articles on 

 the subject have probably been lost eight of, a brief review of its 

 merits, together with a slight sketch of its past history and 

 present position, may not be unacceptable at a time when the 

 great diversity of plants we possess renders it no easy matter 

 to select the best. 



It is impossible to say at what precise period the parent of 

 our garden varieties of Heartsease, or Pansy, first attracted the 

 attention of some zealous and far-seeing florist, who either 

 spared it while destroying the other weeds in his garden, or 

 transplanted it thither from the corn field or waste where he 

 found it growing, for the plant (Viola tricolor), is a native one. 

 At whatever date it was first introduced into gardens, the be- 

 ginning of the present century found it an occupant of our 

 mixed flower-borders, and in a state very considerably improved 

 as compared with the parent ; and its convenient mode of repro- 

 ducing itself from seed, served the twofold purpose of originat- 

 ing new varieties and new plants to supply the place of the old 

 ones, which seldom survived the hardships of half a dozen yearB. 

 The Pansy, however, was never honoured with much attention 

 until about the year 1825, when its great adaptability to im- 

 provement, and the almost incalculable manner in which it could 

 be propagated, as compared with the Auricula, Ranunculus, 

 Tulip, &c, by which it had been preceded, led some enthusiastic 

 person to bring it into notice ; and so rapid was the improve- 

 ment in its form and colours, that the botanist seemed almost 

 at a loss whether to set down the fashionable occupants of a pan 

 of HeartBease at a flower show as belonging to the genus Viola 

 or not. 



That all the improvements were effected at one time and by 

 one individual it is scarcely necessary to say was not the case. A 

 long category of names, including most of the celebrities of the 

 day, lent able and skilful hands to the work. Amateurs and 

 professionals alike entered into the spirit of the time, while 

 censors settled the points bv which the merits of each flower were 

 to be judged. This work, of course, occupied some time ; but I 

 believe there was no previous example of a plant so quickly be- 

 coming fashionable, and at the same time so rapidly approaching 

 perfection. The Dahlia was in the field some few jears prior to 

 it, but was several years in making much progress out of the 

 single condition in which it first readied us. The Pansy, how- 

 ever, from being a second-class border flower, was quickly ele- 

 vated into the condition of an occupant of the same beds that 

 the Tu'.ip, Ranunculus, &e., had held years before. Like them, 

 the opening of fresh dowers was watched with interest. I believe 

 the best varieties then in cultivation were first dignified with 

 distinct names about 182y ; and from 1S32 to 18 i2 may be re- 

 garded as the most fashionable period of this flower. 



The claims of other plants, and the changes in the public taste 

 by the introduction of plants available for what we now call 

 bedding purposes, were a heavy blow to florists' flowers ; for 

 although the Pansy continued to be well represented, and in 

 many cases well patronised, its showy antagonists — the Verbena, 

 Petunia, and other flowers, forced it from the position it onee 

 had ; and though various attempts have been made to reinstate it 

 by the introduction of varieties said to possess merits qualifying 

 them for bedding purposes, it is only in some isolated places 

 where these have been successful. It is, therefore, for other pur- 

 poses than the ordinary summer decoration of the parterre that 

 we must look for the Pansy again attracting attention. 



