46 



JOUENAL OF HORTICDLTDEB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 20, 1871. 



my hands, and which was raised here. It is more hardy than 

 the old Lapstone, has stronger haulm, but short, and a pale 

 red skin, not unhke E-d-tkiLned FlourbaU in colour. It is 

 early — much earlier than the Pink-eyed Lapstone, or Eed- 

 snrouting Lapstone, a variety raised at the same time as the 

 Rod- skinned Lapstone. For hardiness and cropping they will 

 come up to "D., Deal's," standard, whilst of their quality I 

 hive great expectations. I hold the Lapstone to be the finest 

 quality of Potato, and only wanting in hardiness, and this I 

 think I have secured both in early and late varieties. — G. Abbey. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETING. 



The last meeting for the present season was lielel on the 3rd inst. at 

 Burlington House, Piccadilly, Mr. A. K. Wallace, the President, being 

 in the chair. An extensive series of entomological publications from 

 Tarions continental and English societies and authors was announced 

 as having been presented since the preceding meeting. 



Mr. S. Stevens exhibited various species of insects captured during a 

 ■recent visit to Ireland, among which was the extremely rare Chl^enius 

 holosericeus, tahen near Killaloe, on Lough Berg. Erastria Bankiana 

 was flying by hundreds in the same locality. He also saw several 

 collectors who confirmed the capture of Notodonta bicolora, having 

 seen the unique specimen whilst still alive in the hands of its captor. 



Mr. Champion exhibited the fine and very rare Emns hirtus (one of 

 the large Staphylinidns), taken recently in the New Forest under cow 

 dung, and various new species of Hemiptera. 



Professor Westwood exhibited the minute-book of the old Entomo- 

 logical Society, founded in 17S0, now in the possession of Mr. Drewitt, 

 of Christ Church, Oxford. 



Mr. Blackmore exhibited a collection of insects recently made in 

 Fez and Taugiers by himself, including the rare Lucanus Barbarossa 

 and various Locusts, of which L. tataricus had only occurred singly, 

 but L. peregrinus had appeared in great swarms exactly as described 

 by the prophet Joel, their dead bodies lying on the seashore in heaps 

 for miles. Mr. Dunning read the description of a machine invented 

 in America, and used near the Salt Lake, for destroying these insects, 

 consisting of two moveable rollers, and costing 75 dollars. 



The Rev. W. H. Wayne sent some specimens of Strawberries de- 

 stroyed by young Juli, and young Carrots gnawed apparently by the 

 larvae of a small two winged (ly, Psila Kosfe. Mr. Herbert Drnce 

 exhibited several boxes of Butterflies of great beauty and rarity from 

 South America ; and Mr. Stainton a singular specimen of the small 

 Moth Botys fuscalis, the face of which was still covered by the anterior 

 portion of the shell of the chrysalis, which, however, had not retained 

 in it the antennae, which were fully developed. 



Mr. Sydney Saunders communicated a monograph of the Strepsi- 

 ptera, a group of parasites within the bodies of bees and other Hyme- 

 noptera, which he considered to belong to the order Coleoptera. Mr. 

 Miiller exhibited leaves of Vines exhibiting great numbers of yellow 

 spots, caused by exceedingly minute gall-making Acaridte of the genus 

 Phytoptus. 



Professor Westwood communicated descriptions of various new exotic 

 !Papilionid£B, in which he drew the distinction between species as ori- 

 ginally created and local varieties or sub-species, which he considered 

 might have been produced by modiflcations in the physical conditions 

 in which certain individuals had been placed ; a view which was op- 

 posed by Mr. Jenner Weir, who expressed his entire disbelief in an 

 original creation, a term which ought to be discarded from science 1 ! 



Mr. Riley, the State Entomologist of Ohio, who was present as a 

 visitor, and whose appearance was warmly greeted, made some obser- 

 vations on the dissimilar form in the clasping organs of certain But- 

 terflies belonging to the Hesperiids, which had lately been described 

 by Mr. Scudder, contending that not only in these insects, but also in 

 the Cicadffi, the form of these instruments varied greatly in individuals 

 of the same species. He also presented copies of his State Reports on 

 the insects destructive to crops in Ohio, and exhibited several boxes of 

 such insects. 



Mr. W. H. Bates read a paper on tlie sections of CicindelidsB, and 

 especially on the genus Oxygonia of Mannerheim. 



LARGE PRODUCE. 



I HATE jast cat a '* monstrous " Lettuce, the length of which 

 is 23 inches, circumference 19 inches, weight 2 lbs. 2 ozs. I 

 have about bIx more tied up, apparently of the same size, more 

 than one hundred of nearly the same size, and three hundred 

 which have yet to prove themselves, but which are so strong 

 that they promise to rival the one I cut to-day, I may say 

 that, with the exception of quite the outside leaves, the Let- 

 tuce IB good to eat all through, crisp, delicate, and tender. 



With regard to the Kentifh Invicta Pea, I bought a quart 

 from Messrs. J. Dickson & Sons, of Chester, in the spring, and 

 sowed in February. I have now gathered seven pecks from 

 the plants it produced. The Peas of Sangster's No. 1 are only 

 just ripe, although sown in the autumn. 



Fruit here is generally bad ; but by good fortune for a fort- 

 night I have never been without Strawberries ; they will not, 



however, thoroughly ripen. The Currants, Raspberries, (fee, 

 are generally wanting. Wall fruit none. — E. F. S., Stafford. 



SPRING FLOWERS. 



At a meeting of the Gardeners' Mutual Improvement Society held 

 at York, Mr. John Russell, gardener and florist of Fulford Road, 

 made the following remarks : — 



I want to draw more attention to this class of flowers, as I am satis- 

 fied if you could be induced to do it a complete change might be 

 effected in some of the most charming productions of Nature which 

 are now comparatively neglected. How strange, and yet how true, 

 that though everyone seems fond of them, they are so little improved ! 

 Improved ! Nay, they positively have moved backwards. Take, for 

 instance, one of the loveliest families of them all, the Stock. There 

 was a time when you could see Bromptons growing in many a cottage 

 garden with magnificent spikes of double flowers, snch as can be now 

 rarely, if ever, met with, and as to the Intermediate, it seems almost an 

 impossibility to find a good strain for love or money. Why is this ? 

 Look at the Polyanthus. Many of the good varieties in the florists' 

 lists now are such as I remember thirty years ago. Go back the same 

 period with Dahlias, since the days of Springfield Rival ; and with 

 Geraniums, Garth's Perfection, or Gaines's Eing ; where are they 

 now *? Long, long ago, gone. Observe also the Wallflower. Is it 

 better now than when we were boys? Dahlias, Fuchsias, and Gera- 

 niums are very beautiful in their way, and it is you who have made 

 them so. But do you not think that if you and others of the same 

 profession had paid as much attention to these old flowers that they 

 would have been long ago improved? It is marvellous to see what a 

 change can be effected in a garden by right management. 



Look at that pretty edging of gold now to be seen almost everywhere- 

 One would imagine an army of men had been gilding all the Box- 

 edging. Its forefather, the old green Feverfew, always had a taste for 

 living in a garden, but somehow its presence was not altogether ap- 

 preciated, and it was ruthlessly pulled-up wherever seen, only to be 

 found again the next hoeing time. What good was it ? Certainly old 

 ladies made a decoction of it to cure some kind of complaint, and that 

 was all. Some of the younger branches of the family, I suppose, 

 thinking they had been green long enough, have done what people 

 sometimes do in political matters, changed colour, and now the Golden 

 Feather, or j/ar excellence^ Pyrethrum partheuifolium aureum is the 

 great gun of the day. 



To my subject of spring flowers. I believe no small portion of their 

 value is in the associations connected with them. A gentleman who 

 has spent most of his life in India, not long ago said to me, " Now, 

 I require some plants, but I do not want any of those longitioras or 

 elegantissimas, or that kind of thing ; I should like some WaDflowera, 

 Daisies, Pansies, &c. I understand them, but I do not know anything 

 about those other confounded things." AVhat we call rare plants were 

 no novelty to him in a warmer clime. He had seen Nature adorned 

 with everything the most fantastic and beautiful, but old English 

 spring flowers were associated with his earliest recollections of child- 

 hood. The Christmas Rose is letting the world see how well a plant 

 can bloom amidst frost and snow ; it is a great curiosity. Then comes 

 the Aconite with its welcome yellow blossoms. But, then, the Snow- 

 drop, when it comes causes almost as great a sensation {and at a 

 much less expense) as the first baby ; everyone talks of the first 

 Snowdrop, yet no prize flower is this for amateurs to put on their 

 spectacles to judge its merits — a little humble plant, but it tells a 

 tale of spring ; though had Nature, under Providence, placed it in au- 

 tumn after the gorgeous flowers of summer, it would in all probability 

 have been passed unheeded. Now follow in quick succession the 

 Crocus, the single Anemone, the Aiahis. the Daisy, the Pansy, and 

 hosts of others, which are old face?. What a fine effect can be pro- 

 duced with the most trifling expense the whole of winter with these 

 few sorts : — The Golden Feather, Red Spinach, and Stachys lanata ; 

 the Gold-edge Daisy, and Cerastium ! With just these either in beds or 

 in cones, or hillocks thrown up, you may make a very gay appearance. 

 But you must have good plants ready to put out when they are wanted. 

 For this purpose the first two should be sown in July, and of the latter 

 cuttings or divisions should be put in a few weeks beforehand. Of 

 flowering plants you should grow in large quantities Aubrietia grmca. 

 I have seen patches of it this spring rivalling the blue Lobelia in its 

 palmiest time. 



A lovely plant which everyone should get is Myosotis rupicola ; in 

 masses it must be grand. Alyasum saxatile compactum, too, is most 

 effective in beds. Of this and the Aubrietia you may grow hundreds 

 from a shilling packet of seed, and with these and the Imperial Gold- 

 finder, Trentham Blue, Yellow, and White Pansiea, the different 

 Daisies, Polyanthuses, Wallflowers, a few dozen Tulips, and other well- 

 Imown things you make a very gay show, but this only as a beginning. 

 I do not expect all gardens to be made like Trentham at once, m 

 our own neighbourhood, I am told at Escrick Park the beds of Tulips 

 and Pansies this spring were worth going a long way to see. You 

 should walk round these places where new spring flowers can be ob- 

 tained, and, perhaps, nowhere can you have such an opportunity as 

 Messrs. Backhouse's. Pick up any little gem that yon think may be 

 made effective in masses, and do your best with it to get up a stock. 

 There are many others which are very beautiful — the Hepaticaa, the 

 Gentian, Alpine Auriculas, Phlox frondosa, Nelsoni, and others, but 



