January 19, 1871. ] 



JOTJKNAL OF HOBTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB, 



51 



flnidity at that time, allowing the tree to absorb it in drying." 

 Also we note, " the composition tightens the bark, which Ehould 

 therefore be slit the nest summer." Of the caterpillars while 

 young the gardener generally takes little heed, and indeed it 

 would be by no means easy to hunt them up when newly hatched, 

 since they appear at the first expansion of the buds, which 

 buds afford them their first supply of food. This is in the 

 month of April, at which time the sparrows and other species 

 of birds may be noticed to be busily engaged in an attack upon 

 the buds, giving rise thereby to some controversy. It is asked, 

 " Do they visit the buds for the sake of the caterpillars, or 

 because they admire the flavour of the early vegetation ?" Now, 

 though birds are extensive destroyers of insect life, I conceive 

 in this case that the buds are the primary object sought, the 

 caterpillars being then very minute ; still, as many are thus 

 killed it lessens our indignation, and the birds' conduct may 

 be deemed partly justified by the result. "There's no place 

 like home," says the song, but if you have no home you cannot 

 enter into the spirit of the utterance. Acting upon this, the 

 caterpillar of the Winter Moth, as soon as it can, provides for 

 itself a home amongst the leaves, and its food being all around, 

 it can feed if it chooses without exposing itself much to view. 

 Many must, in spite of this, be carried ofli by parent birds to 

 their nestlings, and swarms are also killed while very young by 

 the cold winds and spring rains. The colour of this caterpillar 

 varies much from a pale green to a smoky black ; it is one that 

 even the entomological tyro at once recognises as belonging to 

 the family or subdiTision known as the Loopers (or Geometra?), 

 though it usually rests, when getting of some size, in a one- 

 sided posture, with the head curled round. I believe that a 

 period of five or six weeks is generally sufficient to mature the 

 caterpillar and prepare it to become a chrysalis. In some 

 places children have been employed to pick off these caterpillars 

 from bushes and the lower branches of trees. They may be 

 beaten off in quantities also, as they readily drop from their 

 retreats if this expedient can be ventured upon. 



I referred in my previous paper to one conspicuous pest 

 which annually visits our Currant and Gooseberry bushes. A 

 little investigation will enable us, it we wish, to discover the 

 eggs of the Phcenix Moth (Cidaria ribescaria) in those districts 

 where it occurs, for it is not uncommon in various parts of the 

 British islands, though I have not detected it in those places 

 within the London district with which I am acquainted. 'These, 

 which are deposited by the moth during the summer, are to be 

 found in the bark of the bushes named, where they remain 

 through the winter. The shape of these eggs is rather singular, 

 resembling that of a powder-flask in miniature, and marked 

 with ridges. The caterpillar rarely occurs in sufficient abun- 

 dance to do any marked damage, differing therein from the too- 

 weU-known V-Moth (Halia wavaria), which, at the moment 

 our bushes are getting a little reprieve from Abraxas grossu- 

 lariata, begins to attack them unsparingly ; and those who pick 

 Gooseberries and pop them into their mouths without scruti- 

 nising them, are likely enough to eat a wavaria or two, as I 

 have myself done. The V-Moth also deposits its eggs in the 

 summer, and those who make a point of looking after the eggs 

 of insects when there is little to be done in the garden, may 

 succeed in detecting and extinguishing some of these. The 

 caterpillars are unpleasant in appearance, warty, and very 

 variable in colour, falling readily from their food with a slight 

 shake, and remaining doubled up a long time. The chrysalis 

 is placed amongst the leaves in a slight web. Though usually 

 a July moth, in early seasons it may be seen in June — as, for 

 instance, in the very warm summer of 1868, I noted some spe- 

 cimens were flying about at the middle of that month. This 

 species is decidedly cockneyed, and succeeds in attaining its 

 full dimensions in spite of London smoke — indeed some town 

 specimens surpass in size others from a distance off. 



One of the most curious particulars connected with entomo- 

 logical science is that regarding the long gaps which occur 

 in the history of some species — how they are seen and then 

 lost sight of for scores of years, to turn up again ; or how 

 some modern investigator verifies a fact which had been noted 

 by a man who lived in the times of his great-grandfather. 

 During the past year a new item of information turned up 

 relative to a small beetle (a weevil), which Mr. Newman states 

 was first written about in 18.33, and subsequently the " Letters 

 of Eusticus " contained some account of it; then, though often 

 named as one of the enemies of the Turnip crop in field or 

 garden, nothing of importance was recorded about it until Mr. 

 Cordeaux observed its habits last winter. This little black 

 weevil (known as Nedyus contractus), in spite of its size, is 



capable of inflicting considerable damage, and is only one, too, 

 out of four or five insects which are partial to these vegetables. 

 The author of the " Letters " had stated that "the eggs were 

 laid on that part of the bulb which is above the ground, and 

 the grub which comes from it eats into the rind of the Turnip, 

 making it hump up into warts and all manner of rugosities." 

 Mr. Cordeaux exhibits specimens "more or less covered by a 

 mass of knobs and rugosities, in many cases completely alter- 

 ing the shape, and impairing both the quality and growth of 

 the root. Each of these knobs or excrescences contains a 

 small white grub, much sought after both by rooks and wood- 

 pigeons, which come daily to feed upon them." It appears 

 also that though aU kinds of Turnips are attacked by this, the 

 Swedish suiler least, being harder. How to best meet this 

 enemy is a diiScult question ; the encouragement of the birds 

 named, or of others which may play a similar part, ^vould not 

 do much good, for it is stated that their mining operations ex- 

 pose the roots to the influence of rain and frost ; and, more- 

 over, so determined are they to get all they can, that they 

 pierce the bulbs in search of more when they have exhausted 

 the knobs. As prevention is better than cure, some plan might 

 be devised for the assailing of the imago, which, probably does 

 its business in the early part of the autumn.— J. K. S. C. 



NEW DOUBLE WHITE ZINNIA. 

 Why has not the double Zinnia been more grown than it is ? 

 During the hot summers of 1863 and 1870 it ought to have done 

 especially well, and in the former year I saw it in the gardens 

 of M. Souchet, at Fontaineblean, very fine indeed, while some 

 fine stands were exhibited at the Metropolitan Floral Society's 

 Show at the Crystal Palace last September ; still they ought 



to be more grown than they are, and when "well done " there- 

 are few flowers more effective. There have been attempts to 

 prove that there are a dozen or more varieties of colour, but 

 this is not so, some three or four — scarlet, orange, purple, and 

 lilac, being clearly marked. I have now to announce a novelty 

 in the way of a good double white. There is a dirty white in 



