164 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 29, 1S72. 



inches long, they should be shaken out and repotted, keeping 

 them close, moist, and shaded for a few days until established. 

 Shift them into their blooming-pots at the end of July. A well- 

 grown large plant is very handsome at midwinter, and invalu- 

 able where cut flowers are in demand, as it will in no way be 

 impaired by the removal of the bloom, for all the blooming 

 shoots need to be cut back. 



DALECHAHPIA ROEZLIANA BOSEA. 



This may not inaptly be termed a perpetual bloomer, for it 

 produces its flowers nearly throughout the year, and that on 

 plants only a few inches high. The leaves are long, oak- 

 like, deep green when full-sized, but pale rose-coloured in a 

 young state, very durable, and so abundant as to completely 

 cover the stern. Above this mass of deep green foliage are 

 produced the flowers, which owe their beauty to the large 

 rosy-pink bracts, which are very persistent, continuing several 

 days in beauty. Its flowers are sweet-scented, but its chief 

 attractions are its dwarf leafy habit, free-flowering character, 

 and continuous flowering. It springs up freely from seed ; 

 indeed is such a weed with me in the stove that I have not 

 had to resort to any other mode of propagation, and owing to 

 its continuous blooming the seedlings are plentiful at most 

 times of the year. I usually take up the plants in spring 

 when they have two or three leaves besides the seed leaves, 

 pot them singly in 3-inch pots, using a compost of equal parts 

 turfy loam, sandy peat, and leaf soil, with a free admixture of 

 silver sand, and place them on shelves in the stove. I sprinkle 

 them overhead twice daily, and shade from bright sun for a 

 few days if the sun is powerful. In these pots the plants re- 

 main until the end of July, when they are shifted into 4J-inch 

 pots, and encouraged with heat and an abundance of moisture. 

 Syringing twice a-day may be practised up to October, when 

 they should be kept rather dry — not so much so as to" affect 

 the foliage, though the plant will endure the extremes of dry- 

 ness and wet, heat and cold, better than any other I know. 

 By keeping the plants moderately dry we secure, however, a 

 cessation of growth, and they will flower as soon as the days 

 have turned, and continue doing so from January to May. 



If we wish the plants to flower in less than 4J-ineh pots we 

 have only to turn them out of the 3-inch pots, remove all the 

 soil we can, and place them again in the same size of pot. 

 They will flower well in this size of pot, and whether we pot 

 them or not they invariably flower when 3 to 4 inches high. 

 In fact I have some plants now in 3-inch pots that have not 

 been without their bracts for months, and are not likely to be, 

 as they still throw out more. 



It is well to note, that though this plant is almost con- 

 tinuous-blooming there are times when the flowers are pro- 

 duced more abundantly than at others. These periods are 

 with me early in spring and late in summer — February, March, 

 and April ; and September, October, November, and Decem- 

 ber. Whenever it begins to grow it begins to bloom, for the 

 flowers are produced from the axils of the leaves, and by 

 remembering this we can have the plants in flower at any time 

 required. We have only to keep the plants rather dry and 

 cool for, say, two or three months, and then introduce them 

 into a house with a temperature of from 70° to 75°, fresh pot, 

 encourage with free watering and atmospheric moisture, and 

 it begins to grow and flower. Half its beauty consists in the 

 manner in which it clothes the stem with its persistent long 

 leaves which hide that completely, and hang down over the 

 pot. 



As a plant for table it is unique, and very handsome speci- 

 mens may be formed. The way to do this is to stop a seed- 

 ling plant when 3 inches high, which will cause it to break 

 and produce two or three shoots. These should be stopped 

 again at the third leaf, and repeatedly until we have half to a 

 dozen shoots, no flowers being permitted to more than show 

 until we secure the number of shoots required ; then it is weU 

 to keep the plant rather dry and cool for a few weeks, and 

 introduce it into heat and moisture when we want it to bloom, 

 a month to six weeks being required. The plants need not be 

 potted of tener than twice a-year, and I consider March and July 

 the best months. The compost for both old and young plants 

 may be the same. It seems to delight in vegetable soil, and 

 the bracts are improved in size by the addition to the compost 

 of one-fourth of old cow dung or well-rotted manure. 



A 6-inch pot is large enough for a plant with half a dozen 

 shoots, whilst an S or 9-inch pot will well grow one with a 

 dozen. The plants for decorative purposes are best in small 

 pots ; in their case, instead of shifting into a larger one, at pot- 



ting, reduce the baU and return it to the same sized pot. The 

 fresh soil seems to do wonders — plants do not grow any better 

 because we leave the old soil, but seem to benefit only by the 

 fresh. A plant in a 6-inch pot with half a dozen shoots, each 

 carrying as many flowers, or twice the number of bracts (they 

 just appearing so high above the foliage as to show to good 

 advantage) not more than 9 inches to a foot high, and with 

 foliage drooping over and partly hiding the pot, is a subject 

 well worth our attention, and a plant twice the size is very 

 handsome. Whether grown in the shade or in the full sun — 

 at a few inches or several feet from the glass, it is always dwarf, 

 always free-growing and free-flowering. — G. Abbey. 



SOME PREDATORY INSECTS OF OUR 

 GARDENS.— No. 34. 

 He who looks upon insect life with the eyes of one who is 

 half a poet and half a naturalist, sees things very differently 

 to a farmer or a gardener, who is practically acquainted with 

 the injuries done to the produce of cultivated ground by these 

 pertinacious foes. Thus, we may imagine such a stroller con- 

 templating with satisfaction the amusing evolutions of a host 

 of Turnip "fleas" just about this season of the year. He 

 might exclaim about the liveliness and rapidity of their move- 

 ments, the harmony which prevailed amongst them, the 

 strength of their muscles, and the admirable adaptation of the 

 structure of their tiny, yet well-cased bodies, to the life they 

 lead. But the Turnip-grower, like one of Milton's imperson- 

 ations, will most likely " grin horribly a ghastly smile •" their 

 numbers, instead of exciting his astonishment, only create 

 disgust, and every skip they take means mischief, while their 

 form and habits are just such as he would not have endowed 

 them with if he had had the ordering of them, because they 

 render the destruction of the insect more difficult ; in fact, 

 Haltica nemorum stands forth prominently amongst those 

 insects which the farmer would like to place in his Index Ex- 

 purgatorius, could it be thus got rid of. But indignation 

 avails little ; the insect prevails against the cultivator of the 

 ground, feeble as it appears, by force of number and rapid 

 multiplication ; nor could any process of exorcism be brought 

 to bear upon the Turnip flea which would force it to flee from 

 those localities where its presence is so undesirable. 



Let it be noted here, ere we proceed, that though the species 

 before us is indifferently called by observers the " fly " or 

 " flea," it has certainly no right to the former name, as the 

 Turnip is infested by more than one true " fly," while this is 

 obviously a beetle. Therefore, indeed, the name " flea " is in 



a manner as inappropriate, if 

 the structure be considered, 

 and it is only the habits of the 

 insect which can at all render 

 the cognomen allowable. 



But why is the specific name 

 nemorum applied to it, some 

 might ask, since the beetle 

 frequents gardens and fields, 

 not shady spots ! I cannot 

 justify this ; and yet, singular 

 to say, I believe that some of 

 the species of Haltica (and 

 H. nemorum possibly amongst 

 them) do occasionally resort 

 to woods. Once, passing along 

 the edge of a wood, just with i n 

 the cover, I noticed hosts of small beetles leaping about the 

 bushes, seemingly for amusement merely, as they were not 

 devouring the leaves, nor engaged in oviposition, so far as I 

 saw. At the time I took little heed of the occurrence, but as 

 there were Rape fields not far off, it afterwards struck me that 

 these might have been Turnip fleas or their congeners, which, 

 for some reason best known to themselves, had temporarily 

 sought the shade of the woodlands. Yet, on the other hand, 

 it must be granted that this species is, on the whole, of more 

 frequent occurrence in open fields than in the enclosed, and 

 usually more sheltered, kitchen gardens, which would not 

 tend to prove that it was partial to retired localities. How- 

 ever, it is probable the giver of the name knew little about the 

 habits of the insect at the first: I might add that in the 

 vernacular some folks call H. nemorum " Blackjack." and this 

 may be, because, as Dr. Johnson says, " Jack is a diminutive 

 and general term of contempt;" or, is this name connected 



Haltica nemorum. 



