December 7, 1871. ] 



JOtrSNAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



iil 



iot dinner-table decoration and liouaework. Epiphyllums of 

 every shape, size, and variety can be had in perfection in De- 

 cember, and answer every purpose. Euphorbia jaoquinifeSora 

 is the prince of pot stove-plants for winter : we grow it in bat- 

 talions of difiorent sizes ; it does for any sort of work. Speci- 

 mens are elegant for the centres of vases, edged round with 

 something, say Panicum variegatum, to contrast. It answers 

 for edging small baskets by cutting the curved spikes and peg- 

 ging them down. Its brilliant colour enlivens any place where 

 it may be put ; we also plant it out largely, which makes it 

 show itself to advantage. It is by no means a shy plant, and 

 will grow against the back wall of a conservatory or intermediate 

 house it the roots be in well-drained soil. The Puinsettia is 

 for December what scarlet Geraniums are for the fljwer garden 

 in summer, and zonals for the conservatory. It can be started 

 and grown in a cold pit in summer, and from the Ist of October 

 and onwards in the stove. It is best propagated from the 

 young wood in July and August. In September four or five 

 cuttings may be put in 4-inch pots for dwarf plants. We have 

 grown it from 6 inches to 16 feet high. For the decoration of 

 staircases, halls, &e , large plants are invaluable ; indeed, it 

 can be used for any decorative purpose. It soon loses its 

 leaves, however, in a cool conservatory. Heat is essential in 

 winter. 



Turning to greenhouse plants, we know of a large plant of 

 Tacsonia Van-Volxemi, trained over a roof, which will be covered 

 with blooms all December. We have it planted out-doors like 

 a Vine, its head being trained to the rafter inside. We have it 

 also inarched on the T. manicata for a stock, and also on its 

 own roots inside. Hyamalis, Wilmoreana, and gracilis Heaths 

 are easy of culture, and can be had in quantity for the conserva- 

 tory, or single specimens for rooms : the first mentioned is really 

 superb. For December there are other Heaths, but these are 

 the best. They should not be crowded amongst other plants, 

 nor do we care about them for cutting. Epacrises must be 

 placed on a par with the Heaths just mentioned : they are all 

 exceedingly bright and showy, but not well suited for cutting 

 from : at least, we like to out them as little as possible. The 

 Camellia is in full force in December, even out of doors, in the 

 south : any gardener with a lot of Cimellia blooms in Decem- 

 ber will know well what to do with them. The Chinese Primula 

 is perhaps the next plant we should mention as being of a 

 staple character. Large plants, well bloomed, are exceedingly 

 neat for small vases. SmaU plants in 4-inch pots are excellent 

 for edging: these should be grown in battalions for various 

 purposes. 



Tree Carnations of different colours are a leading feature for 

 Daeember, and of easy culture, tirge plants which have been 

 well attended to out of doors on a sunny border, pinched and 

 watered, lifted in October full of buds, make a fine display in 

 winter ; the blooms last a long time after being cut. Spring- 

 Struck plants grown in small pots are useful for mixing in 

 stands in the conservatory. Cyclamens of sorts come-in in 

 quantities for all purposes, like Primulas. Small seedling 

 plants make neat edging-plants for small stands ; and the 

 pretty little Oxalis tricolor is, if possible, more showy for win- 

 ter, but does not last so long. This is a plant which should 

 also be grown in quantity, and managed along with the Cycla- 

 mens. Cinerarias early sown will be in bloom in quantity, in 

 light airy houses, and are of great use as conservatory plants. 

 The plant does not stand the heat of rooms, and the flowers 

 soon fade when cut. Sehizostylis coccinea will be at its best 

 in December. This is an exceedingly easily-managed plant, 

 and very showy, planted out in spring and lifted in October 

 when the flower-spikes are up. Ours were not lilted until the 

 month of November, and are now in a cool orchard house, wait- 

 ing their turn of the conservatory in Daoember. This plant 

 can Boon be got up in quantity from seed. Angelonia angusti- 

 folia, another perpetual-blooming plant, with strong purple 

 spikes of flowers, should be grown from cuttings in spring, 

 planted out and lifted ; it wants a dry airy housa ; it can also 

 be had early from seed. 



Mignonette, of which we cannot discover more than one sort, 

 although we have sown several, only just wants to be men- 

 tioned, because it must never be forgotten for the winter. 

 Trees trained umbrella-shaped in the usual way can be used in 

 Stands, with the surface dressed with smaller flowering plants, 

 otherwise they are rather gawky. We have a plan for tree 

 Mignonette, where the shoots are not tied down, but tied to 

 wires which are made to radiate from the top of the centre 

 stick, like a chimney-sweep's brush. The trees do not look so 

 stiff, and the blooms are bristling outwards in a round head, 



like little standard trees. Eosss of the Tea section will have 

 a sprinkling of bloom, and even the Hybrid Perpetuals housed 

 in Ootober with the buds formed. Souvenir de la Malmaison, 

 old though it is, is most useful in this way ; also Madame 

 Bosanquet and Gloire de Dijon. Heliotrope, with a little forc- 

 ing, will, like Mignonette, be in in quantity, and never fails to 

 be useful and admired. Neapolitan Violets are, like the Tree 

 Carnations and the two last-named flowers, always in demand, 

 and most appreciated in December. The bulk of them will be 

 in cold pits and frames, but a few dozens are useful in pots for 

 the conservatory, if the foliage be green and crisp, and the 

 plants bristling with flowers. They are best potted-up in Ooto- 

 ber. Tliie is a moisture-loving plant, and we never had it in 

 such fine condition as on the south coast, approaching the cli- 

 mate of Nice and Mantone — big fat blooms on stalks as long as 

 a black-lead pencil. 



Forced flowers still remain, which come in easily in Decem- 

 ber ; and first of all is the White Indian Azalea, which contrasts 

 so well with the scarlet Poinsettia. Hybrid Rhododendrons, 

 especially Nobleanum, Persian Lilacs, Deutzias, Jasminum 

 nudiflorum, Forsythia viridissima, Spiifea prunitolia, &e., all 

 come in flower early in December with little forcing, if the 

 plants be well prepared. Eoman Hyacinths with almost no 

 forcing, Dutch Hyacinths, Van Thol Tulips, and Narcissus also 

 come in easily if potted in time, and plunged deep in sawdust 

 in the open air in the full sun, care being taken not to over- 

 force when taken under glass, as that will retard them more 

 effectually than cold. A few Hoteia japonica and Lily of the 

 Valley will come in about the end of the month. 



We might still return and enumerate more plants of the 

 various sections noticed which now oscur to us, but enough are 

 mentioned for the floral illustration of the month. Wa men- 

 tion only one more, Luculia gratissima, a grand winter plant ; 

 we have it against a back wall, also as a tree planted out with 

 Hydrangea-like leaves and blooms, and we mean to try it out 

 of doors against a wall.— {The Gardener.) 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETING. 



The second meeting of this Society for the season was held on. 

 November 20th at Burlington House, the President, A. K. Wallace, 

 Esq., being in the chair. 



With reference to Professor Westwood's exhibition at the previous 

 meeting of a number of specimens of Formica herculeana found in a 

 perfectly uninjured condition in the proventriculus of a great black 

 woodpecker, Picus martius, said to have been hilled near Oxford, and 

 brought to the physiological department of the new museum for dis- 

 sectiou, Mr. Dunning remarked that (from informati<in which he had 

 received) several examples, presumably of foreign origin, of this bird 

 were exposed for sale in the London markets at the precise time one 

 was said to have occurred near Oxford. Professor Westwood said that 

 he had received information from Mr. C. Kobertson, the anatomical 

 demonstrator at the Oxford Museum, that he had repeatedly seen the 

 bird in the woods at Ciovelly ; and W.Jackson, Esq., F.L.S., who 

 assisted in the dissection of the specimen, also stated positively that 

 he had seen the bird creeping up the stump of a tree in another wood 

 in Devonshire. As many as thirty instances of the occurrence of the 

 bird in this counti-y have been recorded, as stated in Mr. Gould's fine 

 work on British birds now in course of publication. One of these is 

 recorded to have been shot by the grandfather of the present Lord 

 Derby, but doubt existed as to this fact, and no speidmen indisputably 

 shot in this country is known to occur in any English museum. Mr. 

 Edwai'd Sheppard could not reconcile the occurrence of a gigantic 

 species of Ant, not hitherto actually known, although reputed, to be a 

 British species, iu the digestive canal of a bird, the origin of which, 

 was also open to doubt as a British species or specimen, with an idea 

 of the former being a native insect. Professor Westwood stated that 

 he was making further inquiries on the subject. 



Mr. Frederick Bond exhibited some specimens of Lasioeampa Tri- 

 folii, a number of which of uniform small size aud dark colours, had 

 for several years past been taken in the caterpillar state in Komney 

 Marsh, where no papilionaceous wild plant occurs, the larva feeding 

 on grass growing in the shingle, the perfect insects from which thus 

 seemed to constitute a distinct race ; also specimens of Lithosia caniola, 

 and some remarkable specimens of Clisiocampa castrensis, having the 

 hind wings on one side marked like the fore wings. Mr. Stainton 

 exhibited a specimen of Triphsena orboua (Agrotis comes) from the 

 neighbourhood of Exeter. 



Mr. McLachlan exhibited specimens of two American species of 

 Dragon Flies, Libellula pulchella, Dfurr/, and Platbemis trimaculata, 

 De Geer, which, although belonging to different genera, were so much, 

 alike as to be easily mistaken for the same species. A long discussion 

 took place as to the cause of this mimicry, as it is now the fashion to 

 term such resemblances, some of the members considering that the 

 smaller species put on the appearance of the larger in order to deceive 

 birds, which would scarcely dare to attack the larger ones. 



