70 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUEK AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ July 27, 1871. 



and a ready sale, but also from the fact that much of the work, 

 in the plantation, especially the gathering of the juice, can 

 be done by the children of the family. The scratehings or 

 incidons being made in the capsules in the morning, the juice 

 which has oozed out in the eonreeof the day is collected in the 

 evening, and after simply exposing it to the sun for a few days 

 it is ready for packing. The seed not required for sowing is 

 used for food. — {Xature.) 



Metkopolitak Flokal Society. — " D., Deal,'' states, 



in answer to many applications, that the schedules will be sent 

 from the Crystal Palace to all previous exhibitors, that he will 

 send ofi those for other applicants as soon as he receives them, 

 and that the Show is fixed for the 30th and Slsfc of August, 

 instead of the 2ith and 25th as previously announced. 



Feetilisation of the Bee Oechis. — Mr. Darwin, in bis 



"Fertilisation of Orchids," states his belief that the Bee 

 Orchis presents a physiological difference from all other British 

 Orchids, and is habitually self-fertilised. I had, yesterday, an 

 opportunity of observing a number of these plants in one of 

 its abundant localities in Surrey, and at a time when fertilisa- 

 tion must have been completed. In every plant almost all the 

 capsules were considerably swollen, and were loaded with 

 apparently fertilised ovules. In most of the withered flowers 

 the remains of the pollinia were still visible in the position 

 described by Mr. Darwin, hanging down before the entrance to 

 the nectary, in immediate proximity to the stigma, and render- 

 ing it almost impossible to believe that the flower had ever 

 been entered by any insect of considerable size, which must 

 inevitably have carried away the pollinia with it. The fact that 

 the Bee Orchis, the most " imitative " of all our native plants, 

 is never visited by insects, is a very suggestive one. If, as might 

 ■well have been assumed, the object of the "mimicry" is the 

 attraction of bees, the device appears to have signally failed. — 

 Alfeed W. Bensett. — (Xatitre.) 



SOME PEEDATOEY INSECTS OF OUR 

 GAEDENS.— No. 13. 



Beallt one cannot feel at all surprised that agriculturists and 

 horticulturists should utter some complaints at the weather we 

 have had throughout a great part of the spring and summer of 

 1871. We look usually — shall we say it? — for a display of a 

 certain measure of dissatisfaction when we question individuals 

 belonging to either class with regard to atmospheric influences. 

 The weather is an Englishman's topic, often an unpleasant 

 one, and doubly so to a man whose pocket, or whose reputation 

 and his feelings are affected thereby. Conversing lately with 

 a friend who is a gardener, I attempted to check the jeremiad 

 he was indulging in by remarking that he had at least one 

 reason to be thankful — the cold easterly winds and the generally 

 unseasonable weather had, as I perceived by my own observa- 

 tions in the country, done much to retard or diminish the 

 development of insect life. Bat he was up in arms directly. 

 " That 's all you know about it. Certainly there are not many 

 caterpillars, and some other sorts of insects I haven't seen 

 which I mostly see, but there's hosts of flies; and as for the 

 blight, why, there 'a quantities of it on everything, and what 'a 

 more, it came with those very easterly winds you 're praising 

 up." This was an argument I could not gainsay, and I scon 

 found the truth of his assertion as to the abundance of aphides, 

 for they swarmed both on plant and tree, and are at this mo- 

 ment dispersed, in all stages and of varying ages, over our 

 suburban gardens west and south of the metropolis, the number 

 being beyond the average. Even the Limes and Planes about 

 our parks and squares are thick with them. But aa to their 

 being brought by the wind, and an east wind in particular, 

 here I have my doubts, though quite aware that they do per- 

 form aerial migrations, as I have myself observed, and as others 

 have recorded instances. My friend seemed half inclined to 

 suppose that blight travelled across the city, and had reached 

 us westerns from the districts in Kent and Essex which are 

 adjacent to London. This, however, is evident from inquiry — 

 that whatever the folks there may have parted with in the 

 aphis line, they have a sufficiency still left. 



However, fortunately for us, where aphides most do congre- 

 gate, thither resort, not only their friends the ants, but also 

 their very numerous enemies. Lidybirds are about just now 

 in force, and also the larvaa of Syrphi. Unfortunately, as it 

 appears, the aphides are more hardy than some of their de- 

 vourers ; and I have seen the Syrphi moving about on a c Id 

 day as if they were decidedly uncomfortable and "out of soris," 



perhaps suffering from rheumatism, while the aphis tribe about 

 them were digging away most contentedly into the juices of 

 the plants they were attacking. Just now, too. I see many 

 individuals of the Lace-winged Fly (Chrjsopa perla), emerging 

 from the pupa condition, and these will soon produce a large 

 family of their descendants, great lovers of aphis flesh. A very 

 elegant yet unpleasant insect is the fly in question, for it can. 

 develope under some circumstances an odour which is rather 

 worse, as I think, than sulphureted hydrogen. Not always is 

 it thus odoriferous, and one observer has suggested that it is a 

 sexual peculiarity. Not nnfrequently a specimen of it wiU be 

 brought to an entomologist by some friend with the exclama- 

 tion, "See, here's a beautiful fly!" To this the response 

 naturally is, " Oh, very much so ! but I would rather not take 

 it in my hand, if you will excuse me." 



It is so frequent an occurrence to find the Hawthorn hedges 

 defoliated in May and June that even naturalists do not always 

 have their attention drawn to the fact, and observe who has 

 been the depredator or depredators, for there are sometimes 

 several at work together. A common offender is the Little 

 Ermine Moth {Yponomeuta joadella). And not only is this 



species abundant on Haw- 

 thorn and allied plants, but 

 the caterpillars also disfi- 

 gure and damage various 

 fruit trees with their webs, 

 and contrive thus, by the 

 protection they afford, to- 

 escape many of the insecti- 

 vorous birds while diligent- 

 ly pursuing the employment- 

 of stripping the boughs. 

 Tponomenta padella. TVhen this page meets the 



reader's eye the moth is in the imago state, and quantities cf 

 these small, and certainly pretty Ermines may be seen flutter- 

 ing about around the spots where they had lived as caterpillars, 

 intent on providing for the oonlinuance of the species, a sub- 

 ject in which the horticulturist may be expected to feel little 

 sympathy. A few weeks since the caterpillars were approach- 

 ing maturity, and I saw thousands of them on Apple and Pear 

 trees in different parts of Surrey. Professor Westwood has in- 

 formed us that in the north of France, some years since, the Apple 

 trees for miles were defoliated by these troublesome creatures, 

 which are fortunately rendered sulfieiently visible by their 

 webs after they are a week old. Upon a web being pulled down 

 some of the iLmates are sure to escape, and, getting off, estab- 

 lish fresh colonies, for the caterpillar of the Little Ermine 

 drops by a thread when alarmed, and reaches the ground if it 

 can. However, a diminution of their numbers may be thus 

 made, and more especially should the trees be examined when 

 the insects have entered the pupa condition, for precautionary 

 measures then taken may save the trees from much injury the 

 following season. It is usually the habit of these caterpUiars- 

 when ready to change, to spin up in the common web, each 

 making for himself an inner encasement of silk. Some few 

 straggle off to walls, palings, and odd nooks. The web, or 

 social tent, spun by the caterpillars of the Little Ermine ia 

 more annoying than that produced by other gregarious species, 

 because it is generally extended indefinitely. The Lackey, for 

 instance, spins its web, and when food near it gets scarce the 

 brood migrate and form another. In the species before us a 

 sort of offshoot is made from some angle of the web, by means 

 of which more leaves are enclosed ; and thus they'proceed every 

 day until quite a mass of silk is produced, intermingled with 

 the cast-off skins and the excretions of the caterpillars. One 

 writer on entomology has stated, that " the mass of silken 

 threads and webs is of such a size and toughness that even the 

 very sparrows can scarcely make their way through them when 

 they aligtit on the tree." In this, however, there is some ex- 

 aggeration. 



The eggs of the species, though laid in the summer on the 

 twigs, are not hatched until the succeeding spring. So far as 

 I have observed, the broods which appear from the different 

 patches of eggs fraternise freely with each other ; and a cater- 

 pillar, which has by some mishap been turned out of house and' 

 home, is received without question into the first colony whither 

 he can make his way. 



Amongst the annoying insects which certainly seem to have 

 become more abundant here of late years is the common Crane 

 Fly or Daddy Longlegs (Tipula oleracea), the ravages of which. 

 formed a subject of comment with that most worthy of the 

 older naturalists, Ecanmur. He noticed that in Poitou the- 



