218 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ September 21, 1871. 



in driftp, and commencei to exercise tbeir predatory propen- 

 sities irrespective of variety. — William Gabdineb, The Gar- 

 dens, Lower Eatington Park, Stratford-on-Avon. 



CATERPILLARS ON SCOTCH FIRS. 



I SEND you a small branch cut oS a Scotch Fir tree in a 

 young plantation, which you will perceive is entirely covered 

 with a peculiar kind of caterpillar. Numbers of Scotch Fira 

 are affected in the same way, but though there are Larch and 

 Spruce Firs on all sides of them, the caterpillars have not 

 touched one, but have confined their depredations to the Scotch 

 Firs. We have never had an instance of the kind before, and I 

 shall feel much obliged if you or any of your correspondents 

 can tell me how to get rid of the caterpillars. I have had them 

 picked off the young trees by hundreds, but it is almost im- 

 possible to take them all ofi in a large plantation. — John 

 Massy, Lareen House, Kinlough, Bundoran, Ireland. 



[The Fir spray was truly enveloped by the caterpillars. They 

 are the larvje of the Pine Saw-fly, Tenthredo Pini. They are 

 great scourges of the Pines in Germany. The woodpecker eats 

 the caterpillar, and the field mouse the pupas, into which form 

 the caterpillar usually passes in the soil beneath the trees. 

 Dusting with quicklime might destroy them. We shall be 

 glad to hear from correspondents on this subject.— Eds.] 



NEW BOOK. 



Hardy Flowers : Descriptions of Thirteen Hundred of the most 



Ornamental Species, dx. By W. Eoeinson, F.L.S., &c. 



London : F. Warne & Co. 



This is a very useful volume, and the nature of its contents 

 will be best made known by two extracts : — 



" The only phase of the cultnre of the subjects embraced by this 

 book that requires any elucidation from me, is the culture in pots, a 

 way in which but few persons will grow them. But, for the reputation 

 of these plants, it is very desirable that they should not be shown in 

 the wretched condition in which they are usually seen at our shows. 

 Anything that really requires to be stated as to the general culture of 

 hardy perennials in the open air, in borders, &c., will be found under 

 the head of the Mixed Border ; while the culture of the fastidious 

 alpine plants is fully described in ' Alpine Flowers.' 



" We are pre-eminently great at exhibiting; our pot plants are far 

 before those of other countries ; specimens are to be seen at every 

 ehow which are models not only as regards beauty, hut as showing a 

 remarkable development of plant from a very email portion of con- 

 fined earth exposed to many vicissitudes ; yet in one respect we have 

 made no progress whatever, and that is in the pot-culture of alpine 

 and herbaceous plauts for exhibition purposes. 



" Prizes are frequently offered at our flower shows for these plants, 

 and usually awarded, but the exhibitors rarely deserve a prize at all, 

 for their plants are usually badly selected, badly grown, and such as 

 never ought to appear on a stage at all. In almost every other class 

 the first thing the exhibitor does is to select appropriate kinds — distinct 

 and beautiful, and then he makes some preparation beforehand for ex- 

 hibiting them ; but in the case of our hardy subjects, anybody who 

 happens to have a rough lot of hardy miscellaneous rubbish exhibits 

 it, and thus it is that I have seen such beauties as the following more 

 than once exhibited : a common Thrift with the nnremoved dead 

 flower-stems drooping over the green leaves ; a plant of Arabis albida 

 out of flower ; the Pelhtory-of-the-wall, which has as Uttle beauty in 

 flower as out of it ; not to speak of a host of worthless things not in 

 themselves ugly, but far inferior to others in the same families. What 

 would become of our shows if the same tactics were carried out in 

 other classes ? Even the most successful exhibitors are apt to look 

 about, a day or so before a show, for the best flowering cuttiugs of 

 such things as Iberis corresefolia, and, sticking four or five of these 

 into a pot, present that as a " specimen." Now, what is so easily 

 grown into the neatest of specimens as an Iberis ? By merely plung- 

 ing in the ground a few G-inch pots filled with rich soil, and putting 

 in them a few young cutting plants, they would, 'left to Nature,' be 

 good specimens in a short time, while with a little pinching, and feed- 

 ing, and pegging-down they would soon be fit to grace any exhibition. 

 So it ia with many other things of like habit and size — the dwarf 

 shrubby Lithospermum prostratum, for example ; a little time and 

 the simplest sMll will do all that is required. Such subjects as the 

 foregoing, with tiny shrubs like Andromeda tetragona and A. fastigiata, 

 the Menziesias and Gaultheria procumhens, the choicer Helianthemums 

 and dwarf Phloxes, and many others enumerated in the selections of 

 exhibition plants at the end of this volume, might be found pretty 

 enough to satisfy even the most fastidious growers of New Holland 

 plants. 



" The very grass is not more easily grown than plants like Iberises 

 and Aubrietias, yet, to insure their being worthy of a place, they 

 ought to be at least a year in pots, so as to secure well-furnished 

 plants. Such vigorous subjects, to merit the character of being well 

 grown, should fall luxuriantly over the edge of the pots, and in all 



cases as much as possible of the crockeryware should be hidden. The 

 dwarf and spreading habit of many of this class of plants would 

 render this a matter of no difBculty. In some cases it would be desir- 

 able to put a number of cuttings or young rooted plants into 6-incli 

 pots, so as to form specimens quickly. Pots of 6 inches diameter suit 

 well for growing many subjects of this intermediate type ; and with 

 good culture and a little hqnid manure it would be quite possible to 

 get a large development of plant in such a comparatively small pot ; 

 but if very large specimens were desired, a size larger might be re- 

 sorted to." 



"Phlox subui-ata {Moss)/ P.). — A pretty dwarf kind, with creep- 

 ing, tufted stems, densely clothed with narrow moss-like leaves. 

 Flovjera, in April and May, in great profusion ; pinkish purple, with a 

 darker centre (sometimes white), in few-flowered corymbs; lobes of 

 corolla wedge-shaped, notched, rarely entire ; tube of corolla arched. 

 Leaves, from :i to A in. long, awl-shaped, or narrow-lance-shaped, 

 fringed on the edges, pubescent, rigid. A variety, P. setacea, has 

 smaller flowers, with a straight tube, and a paler centre ; its leaves 

 also are not ciliated on the margin ; the white-flowered form is grown 

 under the name of P. Nelsoni. North America. — The rock garden, 

 borders, in tufts, on the edges of beds of low shrubs, in the small 

 rings at the base of standard Eoses, and in many like positions, in 

 rather moist, sandy loam. Division, 



" Vn-LARSIA NYirpHiEOLDES [Common ViUarsia). — An attractive 

 British aquatic, with simple leaves (like those of a Water-lily but 

 smaller) floating on the surface of the water. Flowers, in summer ; 

 yellow, home singly on stalks as long as those of the leaf. Leaves, 

 heart-shaped or roundish, on long stalks ; stems creeping and rooting 

 at the base, dichotomous, and ascending to the surface of the water, 

 with a single leaf at each of the upper branches, and a terminal tuft. 



Europe and Asia, and many places in England and Ireland. 



Lakes, ponds, and quiet bays in streams. Division." 



SOME PREDATORY INSECTS OF OUR 

 GARDENS.— No. 18. 



SuKELT the little moth called the Vaponrer (Orgyia antiqna), 

 is one of the liveliest of his family, or at least the male of the 

 species, for while he is gyrating in the summer sunshine his 

 better, or at least his plumper, half sits in comparative obscurity, 

 deprived by nature of the power of flying. What there ia of 

 antiquated aspect about the species to give rise to the Latin 

 name I can hardly determine ; the English name was suggested 

 by the peculiar mode of flight of the male insect. But though 

 called a vapouring, it is really such an irregular capricious 

 movement as to be scarcely definable ; and this moth can, if 

 alarmed, career along at a pretty good speed in a straight line, 

 though a zigzag course suits it best when at ease. Seen about 

 the London parks and squares, it is occasionally designated by 

 the bypasser as a brown butterfly, from the fact of its being on 

 the wing in the day, and it is chased by many a child with 

 varying success. The fact is interesting, that only one British 

 species is known which closely resembles the one before ns, and 

 it is as rare as its relative is common. 



The caterpillar of the Vapourer moth must at some time or 

 another have come under the notice of every gardener who 

 keeps an eye upon the insect life about him, as all gardeners 

 might be expected to do. It appears to feed on all sorts of trees 

 and shrnbs, and even on low plants too, should it fall by acci- 

 dent upon anything to its taste. I fancy the species has rather 

 a partiality for cultivated, or at least for enclosed ground, though 

 it is also found in woods, fields, and other localities in the 

 open country. It can hardly be said to occur in suflieient 

 abundance to do any positive injury, yet I have seen some fruit 

 trees nearly denuded of their leaves by the jaw work of these 

 caterpillars, for they are very voracious feeders. One of the 

 singular circumstances connected with the history of the Va- 

 pourer is the fact that the moths, chrysalids, and caterpillars 

 may all be found together at a certain period of the summer. 

 This is because the eggs are hatched a few at a time, not simul- 

 taneously, as in many species, so that there may be an interval 

 of a couple of months between the emergence of the first young 

 caterpillar each season and the appearance of the last. Mr. 

 Newman first noticed this circumstance in print, and it partly 

 explains why the ravages of the caterpillar are comparatively 

 inconspicuous — namely, that the individuals are not all feeding 

 at the same time, but appear in successive batches. 



In the winter months a glance at the walls or fences of a 

 garden, or the bare twigs, will often reveal the cocoon and eggs 

 of this species, since it passes the winter in the latter condition. 

 If the horticulturist is a sworn foe to all caterpillars, large or 

 smallj troublesome or harmless, he will probably squash or 

 burn these, and nip these germs of life in the bud. But is it 

 not surprising that these eggs stand the severest cold of winter 

 without having their vitality impaired, though the shell is much 



