POTATOS. 
387 
the growth of the shell does not seem to be retarded or in any 
way changed by this operation, as is generally the case with 
other fruits when penetrated by insects. 
The leaves of the Cob Filberts are frequently found mined 
on the upper and under side respectively by the larvae of moths. 
Of these the larv?e of Chimatobia hrumata and of Hibernia 
de/oliaria (the winter moth) are the most destructive. They 
also suffer from caterpillars of the Gcometrince family, known 
by the name of Loopers." Aphides and frog-fly, or frog- 
hopper, also attack them. 
Parasitic on the roots of the nut-tree is found the curious 
leafless Lathrcea squamosa, or Toothwort, of the natural order 
OrobanchacecE. 
Darwin states that the tomtit has been observed to pass over 
the Filbert whilst destroying other nuts. The nut-hatch may 
be heard with its rap, rap, rap wherever Filberts are grown in 
any quantity in the south of England ; it very adroitly fixes the 
nut in a fork of the tree or a hole in the bark and hammers 
away until the shell is broken, when it eats the kernel, and 
handfuls of shells thus broken by the nut-hatch may be picked 
up from under the trees. Squirrels also are very fond of nuts, 
and will travel some distance to a nut plantation. In Calcot 
Gardens, in a small plantation of about 10 acres, as many as 
fifteen squirrels have been shot in a single season. The field 
mouse, too, not only eats the nut during the season of its ripen- 
ing, but will lay up a stock for the winter. The writer has 
found many a nest stored with about two dozen of the largest, 
finest, and heaviest nuts buried in the earth by this thrifty little 
creature. 
POTATOS. 
By Mr. Arthuk W. Sutton, F.L.S., F.R.H.S. 
[Kead October 29, 1895.] 
When I was asked to read a paper on Potatos before the Royal 
Horticultural Society, our esteemed Secretary was kind enough 
to intimate that the Council had purposely chosen a general 
title in order to leave me at liberty to take up any branch of the 
subject I might prefer. 
