JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 12, 1864. 



3. Boisselot Seedling No. 1 (called, I believe, La Vin- 

 euse), a latish Strawberry, is excellent, as a plant a heavy 

 cropper, with round fruit of good flavour, with a slight brisk- 

 ness. It is very hardy and quickly established — a point of 

 great moment in this precarious climate. I speak of these 

 three Strawberries after their- second year's trial. 



4. Bijou (De Jonghe), is a pretty dwarf-habited plant, 

 slow in growth, but healthy and tolerably hardy. The fruit 

 is of regular and perfect shape, round-coned ; but alas ! 

 from my only three plants the innumerable birds have 

 pulled off the net, and saved me the trouble of tasting. 



5. John Powell (Ingram), is Queen-leaved and Queen- 

 flavoured. The plants came late last autumn, I could not 

 therefore expect a crop. I have tasted sufficient berries 

 to say it is first-rate. The fruit is irregular, round-coned, 

 and handsome. The flesh is solid to the centre and firm. 

 It is juicy and pine-flavoured. I fancy it will be one of the 

 very best new sorts, and remain in the catalogue. I have 

 taken off all the remaining fruit in order to " make plant," 

 as the plants had a severe winter in their unestablished 

 state. The Frogmore Pines (in huge crop and size here), 

 and John Powell do Mr. Ingram the greatest credit. The 

 former is one of the greatest leaps in the Strawberry line. 



6. Loud Clyde (Dean), is strong as a plant and quickly 

 established. I received it late this spring in the midst of 

 hoar frosts. It is a first-class Strawberry. I saved sufficient 

 fruit from my two plants to speak of it highly. It is of 

 fine flavour, and also the most honey-sweet Strawberry that 

 I ever ate. I think it will be a cropper. The berries are 

 not uniform. They are round, cockscombed, or double- 

 breasted. They are not so firm as John Powell, but I fancy 

 they are equal to it in flavour. These three are in their 

 first year of trial. The last two have well pleased me. 



Here, then, are five novelties, a pentateueh of excellence, 

 that stand out in bold relief from an annual inundation of 

 trash. — W. F. Radclyffe, Rushton. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETING-. 



The June meeting of this Society was presided over by 

 A. T. Stainton, Esq., F.L.S., in the absence of the President. 

 Amongst the donations to the library received since the 

 last meeting were the publications of the Zoological and 

 Botanical Society of Vienna, the Royal Agricultural Society, 

 the Entomological Society of New South Wales, &c. ; also 

 a new work by M. Simon on the Spiders, and an elaborate 

 monograph on the Bos Flies ((EstridEe), by Herr Brauer of 

 Vienna. 



Mr. Morris exhibited some leaves of the Sugar Cane re- 

 ceived from the island of Mauritius, where the canes are 

 infested to an alarming degree by a species of Coccus closely 

 resembling the common Vine Coccus, and which was sup- 

 posed to have been introduced from Belgium or France. 

 The young leaves of the canes both in Mauritius and the 

 island of Reunion are especially infested to a great degree 

 by the insect. Sulphur had been applied to a certain ex- 

 tent, but it was very difficult of application. Carbolic acid 

 had also been strongly recommended to be used as a wash in 

 a diluted form. It was in dry weather especially, when the 

 leaves are succulent, that the pest is the most troublesome. 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited, on behalf of Mr. At kin son of Cal- 

 cutta, a number of drawings of the Lepidopterous insects 

 of India, executed by native artists with a delicacy of touch 

 and precision of colouring quite marvellous. Many very 

 rare and interesting species were thus represented, especially 

 some singular varieties of the extraordinary Epicopeia poly- 

 dora and Calinaga Buddha. He also exhibited a Humble 

 Bee (Bombus sp.), captured by his son on Deal sands, 

 which was evidently distinct from any previously-described 

 British species ; also, on behalf of Mr. S. Stone, a series of 

 six nests built by a colony of Vespa germanica in cubical 

 boxes glazed in front, and exhibiting a variety of most fan- 

 tastic forms, one resembling a large cup on a pedestal, 

 another the columns of a stalactite cavern, and one was 

 a fair miniature representation of Stonehenge. Professor 

 Westwood suggested that Mr. Stone had induced the Wasps 

 to build their nests in these curious shapes by introducing 

 small pieces of wire in different positions, of which the wasps 

 took advantage as affording support to their combs. 



Some notes were also read on the destruction of queen 

 "Wasps in the spring of various years, proving how greatly 

 the development of these insects is affected by the varieties 

 of climate. In cold springs scarcely any wasps could be 

 seen, but in dry and warm ones vast numbers were found j 

 thus, in 1S41 as many as 586 dozen of queen wasps were 

 caught and destroyed. 



Mr. F. Smith objected to this wholesale destruction of 

 Wasps (each queen, of course, representing an entire future 

 colony), considering that Wasps were rather beneficial in 

 the economy of nature than otherwise. 



Mr. McLachlan exhibited a Case-bearing caterpillar found 

 on Thyme at Box Hill, differing from any hitherto observed 

 Lepidopterous Case-bearer. The specimen in question was, 

 however, stated by Professor Westwood to be the larva of 

 the Coleopterous genus Clythra. 



Professor Westwood also exhibited a number of minute 

 four-footed Acari, which had been communicated to him by 

 Mr. Chapman of Glasgow, and which had proved very de- 

 structive during the present spring to the buds of the com- 

 mon Black Currant, within which they were found in vast 

 numbers, and of which they destroyed the embryo bloom. 

 He also exhibited and read the description of a new and 

 remarkable Butterfly from Assam and Singapore, forming 

 the type of a new genus, to which he gave the name of 

 Liphyra Brassolis ; the Butterfly, although belonging to 

 the family LycEenidee, exhibiting a great resemblance to the 

 robust body Brassolis of South America. 



Mr. Bates read a communication from Mr. Trimen of 

 Cape Town, giving an account of an interesting instance of 

 mimetic resemblance traced to its object in the instance of 

 a species of Spider which resides on the Senecio pubigerus, 

 Linn., and which so exactly resembles the flowers of that 

 species of Ragwort in its colours and markings as to de- 

 ceive the small species of Butterflies, which it captures and 

 devours when they fly down to settle upon the supposed 

 blossom. 



Major Parry exhibited a curious case of monstrosity occur- 

 ring on an exotic species of Stag Beetle, Odontolabis Ste- 

 vensii, the antenna? of which were divided into three branches. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited the curious pupa of a small Moth, 

 Anchinia verrucella, which closely resembles that of the 

 Butterflies of the genus Pieris, being at tached by threads 

 at the tail and girt round the body. 



Mr. Tegetmeier made some observations on the economy 

 of Hive Bees, especially with reference to their habit of 

 clearing out and taking possession of old combs, which they 

 have the instinct to fasten with fresh wax at the top, and 

 also on their feeding upon pollen. 



Dr. A. Wallace gave an aecount of the successful rearing 

 and winding-off of the silk of the Bombyx Cynthia, which 

 feeds on the Ailanthus, at Colchester. Specimens of the 

 silk as carded from the cocoons, spun silk, and woven silk 

 were all shown, together with a skein of ailanthine spun from 

 the cocoon in a continuous thread, which had until quite 

 recently been considered impracticable. 



Mr. F. Walker communicated a memoir containing de- 

 scriptions of new species of Chalcidites, of the genus Smiera, 

 brought from the Amazons by Mr. Bates, and now in the 

 British Museum. 



WOKE FOE THE WEEE. 



E3TCHEN GAKDEN". 



Pebsevebe in the all-important operation of stirring the 

 surface of the soil at every favourable opportunity. There 

 is no kind of soil which will not be benefited by this ope- 

 ration, but more particularly for those having a tendency to 

 1 run together or bind it is indispensably necessary. No one 

 I who has not followed out the system perseveringly can truly 

 estimate the great advantages resulting therefrom. It is 

 very proper to apply stimulants in the shape of manure 

 | trenched in and incorporated with the staple soil, or in a 

 | liquid state during the growing season ; but the benefit of 

 such applications is greatly increased by continued, and, as 

 far as possible, deep surface-stirring ; for it is the atmo- 

 spheric agents acting upon and combining with the sub- 

 stances composing the food of plants, which reduce them 

 to a fit state to be taken up through the roots and assimi- 



