GARDENERS' MAGAZINE 



5 



Ant* 



a Anhis.-A small species of ant, commonly distributed in the 

 * curious habit of keeping in close confinement a rather large mealy 

 cu - - Writing in the Victorian 



Ivy Sport5.— Dr. Maste rs exhibited sprays of a peculiar small-leaved dwarf 

 ivy, remarkable for sending up vertical shoots with distichous leaves, though un- 

 attached to a wall, at a recent meeting of R.H.S. Scientific Committee. The 



Mallee, feeds 0 n the stems of young eucalypts. Writing in the Vuuptan attacnea to a wall, at a recent meeting of R.H.S. Scientific Committee. 1 



iphis, * h,ch . orean of the Field Naturalists' Club, Mr. J. C. Goudie states that habit appears to have become fixed, even in free-growing branches. On so 

 fcrfist, ^ aph . des antg construct a df)med cover ; ng 0 f particles of »— • - ■ 



r,»und & d °\ r wh j c h serves the double purpose of imprisoning the aphides and 



. ^as«i xc " „ r .- u~ „ n h'«l.r rliWI. while 



graS 



^eluding otD ^ "Opening left in the edge ; this "doorway is, however, constantly 

 others h» ve . of ants> w hich continually move about in the open space, and 

 guarded by ^ w j t h the importance of the duty assigned to them. Each 

 sXt0 muC ^ns generally from three to a dozen aphides, and about the same 

 enclosure ma king a breach in some of these structures, for the pur- 



number of * ervat j onj he noticed that many of the " live stock " were immediately 

 pose of 0 ^ e ants and forcibly removed to a place of safety. The ant under 

 fcized by a quarter of an inch in length, and is of a uniform dark reddish- 

 notice is* an(J f orms [ ts or dinary habitation under logs, or in old rotten 



nd sometimes in the ground, 

 stumps an " 



shoots, however, the leaves were spirally arranged, as is usual on such branches. 

 It may be observed that the change from the distichous arrangement of the leaves 

 on the horizontal branches of the common laurel to a spiral one, when the boughs 

 grow erect, is common • but it is not a fixed character. 



" Blight and Blessing" is the title of the lecture to be given by Mr. F. 



Enock, F.L.S., at the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on Tuesday. 

 We find there is some speculation as to the manner in which a happy union will 

 be effected between such an ill-assorted pair, and also that there is an opinion 



abroad to the effect that nondescript titles are undesirable in the programme of the 



society. 



Mr. William 



Lane 



but 

 secure 



ooo 



from 

 arose : 



1U their attendance on the various aphides, Tetigonidae, and coccids 



iSsi(IU0US ab ove is the ° nIy k JnC * not * ced that uses suc k extraordinary means to 



monopoty of the much -prized " honey-dew." 



f a nd Fruit Cultivation in Jamaica.— According to Sir Henry 



late governor of Jamaica, this West Indian colony is not in such a bad way 

 Blake, been sugg este{ *' Before the Chamber of Commerce he observed that in 

 35 ^ 'og the question of Jamaica's condition and possibilities, it must not be 

 consl C n the circumstances of the island differed from all the other islands of 

 R fishiest Indies. The island contains 2,692,000 acres, of which about 

 th ! 000 were cultivated. At present the area under cultivation of the staple 

 2,i *°\ s -10,000 acres in sugar, 19,000 in bananas, 25,000 in coffee, 11,000 in 

 Cr ° PS DUts, and 1,700 in cocoa. The value 



***** jgar,/3 l6,ooofr . om bananas > and ^169,000 from oranges. The question 

 ^ere did Jamaica come in in the general cry of distress ? It was not de- 

 "ndent upon any one industry. The sugar production gave the largest ready 

 money return, and was most far-reaching in its effects upon other industries, 

 looked with appre hension upon the destruction of the sugar industry by the long 

 inued assault of foreign bounties, but he knew that the mere creation of a 

 peasant proprietary would not supply the remedy. In Jamaica there was every 

 anxiety to try and push forward those industries already established, and to estab- 

 lish new ones, but the effect of the West Indian Commission's renort had been to 

 obliterate credit, and for the present to paralyse effort. 



ttcured in the future it would be necessary for the Imperial Government to give 

 distance under safeguarding conditions, enabling local governments to 

 mrantee a certain proportion of capital at low interest where real effort was being 

 made. Sir Henry did not find fault with the recommendations of the West Indian 

 Commission, but he thought Jamaica had a right to ask for the co-operation of the 

 Mother country m establishing a direct line of steamers between that colony and 

 I ngland, as by that means the orange and banana industry of Tamaica would be 

 largely improved, and both these products could be brought to England in proper 

 condition. 



Several other species of ants are very deman ' d f ' ^T~7 ~ ~ , " "? «, meet cne mcr 



™ .^M- rJLn;^. and eocdds. ? and ,.. pa . S '. hly ° f the Valle y» llllums > caladiums, table plants, &c 



We 



understand that he has taken the Merton Lodge Estate, situated near West Ham- 

 mersmith station, and between Ravenscourt Park and Turnham Green stations on 

 the Richmond and Ealing branch of the District and L. and S. W. Railway. 



The Lesser Celandine {Ranunculus Ficaria) is henceforth to be regarded 

 as a dwarf form of a dimorphic plant, whose dimorphism is of a kind known as 



This, says Nature, is Professor F. Delpino's views, the latter 



gynodioe 



rodite 



He 



Cdtltl 



If progress was to be 



Old World Plant* and Seeds for America—Some time ago we 



stated that l'rolessor a, E. Hansen, Professor of Horticulture at Brookings, South 

 Dakota, had commenced a tour through Eastern Europe and Asia for the purpose 

 f securing seeds and plants hkely to be useful in the more arid regions of the 

 United States. The tour was made under the auspices of the U.S. Department 

 of Agriculture, and I rofessor Hansen, now returned, is preparing his report for 

 the department He returned with about three car-loads of seeds, and these will 

 be distributed to the _ various State experiment stations, where the powers of the 

 resulting plants to withstand heat and drought will be carefully observed. The 

 professor made oo l ections m Western China, Siberia, Russian Turkestan, Trans- 

 Caucasia, and Eastern Russia. ' 



potato Culture Without Water is, according to Mr. T. B. Terry, of 



V J±X^ r S t Ie - He C ' aimed ' at a rece * m <*ting °f the 

 M.chigan Ho tic Itural Society, that, under proper conditions, he could grow a 



good aop ^t out d^p of rain from planting until harvest. Vhe first require! 



Beot . a larg amount of ^ humus ,n the soil. This can be secured by turning 



under two o three clover sods, and the soil will then be like a sponge to hold rain 



watei and grve tj tc .the _ crop during the drought. If the soifVoV the pro^ 



* Sal Mr T P m f °° d thCre WiU be no difficulty about 



EStf '-to ^t^^^ 1 11 Ule 



inches deep, in drills thirty-two inches ^ J^SSSSS 



km the sets usmg from six to eight bushels of seed P e acre While this 



•mount of seed w.ll give good results on rich, well-nremrJ! IS , 



*;ti „«,.„ii„ he nece«ir V r> c , wei '-prepared soil, a 1 rger amount 



that may start. When the row, ™ I 6 and W any weeds 



are four inches high, this would f bUt ' l ater ° n - after the to P s 



should be th, extreme. At least once a w'eek ?' S * *?? ° f tW ° inChCS 

 a»di t ion^ereveryr a inashalIoTc u hi v rr t S?*"*™ & * the gr0Und is in 

 vines cover the ground. Much , «fT h ^ \T? I * ^ Up t(> the time the 

 rat, of fifteen aaes per day At first ^ ^ * d0ne wUh WeederS ' at the 

 ^ter taking out some of th- teeth T »U 7 T k T &CWSS the rows « but ' ,ater ' 



This will^ only keep the" weeds' do SL'JS! * W ° rked wkh the 

 ».^^ J JZ: CWeeds down, but it will actas a mulch and prevent 



variance 



nature 



rows. 



the loss of titer by evaporation from the'soil. 

 proper ta^t of plant food, a good 

 cireftt] attentr- J - • 1 



Riviera, known as Ficaria calthsefolia, and that our Ficaria ranunculoides [?] is 

 the smaller female form of the same species. This theory accounts for the facility 

 with which the Celandine is propagated agamically, and the sterility of its pollen. 



Vine Browning. — At the recent meeting of R.H.S. Scientific Com- 

 mittee Mr. Hudson presented a young shoot, the leaves of which were blistered 

 and brown. This is due to the presence of the well-known myxomycetous 

 fungus, Plasmodiophora vitis, which is allied to P. brassiere, the "slime fungus," 

 , which gives rise to club disease, or finger and toe, in cultivated cruciferous plants. 

 The only known remedy is to cut away and burn all affected leaves or shoots. It 

 is described and figured in Yiala's " Maladies de la Vigne " (p. 400). 



A Horticultural Society for Edmonton was initiated a few days ago 



at a large meeting presided over by Mr. Councillor Rowe in the absence of Mr. 

 H. B. May. A small membership fee, fortnightly meetings, and lectures upon 

 botany and horticulture were suggested, and the meeting expressed a hope that 

 Mr. H. B. May would act as chairman, and give the society the aid of his long and 

 practical experience. 



Evolution of Flowers.— In reference to this interesting question a 

 correspondent writes : The theory of the origin of flowers by the selection of 

 insects is one which has attracted much attention both in scientific circles and from 

 the general public. Set forth by Darwin in the " Origin of Species," it has been 

 largely developed in a series of interesting publications by Sir John Lubbock and 

 Mr. Grant Allen. Some fresh and interesting light has now been thrown on it by 

 a series of experiments recently carried out by Professor Plateau, of the University 

 of Ghent. Professor Plateau has arrived at the conclusion that insects are in- 

 different to the colours of the flowers they visit, and that they are guided to them 

 in a very subordinate way by sight. The experiments on which the Belgian pro- 

 fessor bases his far-reaching conclusions are briefly these. Having covered the 

 brightly-covered flowers of single dahlias in his garden with bits of green leaf, he 

 found that they were still visited by insects. 



with the generally received view that insects are attracted to flowers chiefly by 

 their colour that Professor Plateau instituted a prolonged series of experiments 

 and observations to put the matter still further to the proof. The result has been 

 to confirm and strengthen the conclusions drawn from the first experiments. 

 Cutting off" the brightly-coloured corollas of such flowers as lobelia, evening 

 primrose, foxglove, &c, he found the remaining green parts were still visited. 

 Again there are some brightly-coloured flowers which are seldom, or never, visited 

 by insects, owing to their lack of honey. Notable among these is the scarlet 

 geranium of our garden. But when a little honey was placed on geranium 

 flowers bees came to them at once, those blossoms which had not received honey 

 being passed over. Other conspicuous flowers were tried in a similar way with 

 like results. The experiment of removing the honey-bearing parts of a flower, 

 and leaving the brightly-coloured part which was supposed to be attractive was 

 also tried with the single dahlia. Its inner florets were removed, leaving the con- 

 spicuous outer ones, a piece of yellow leaf being placed in the centre. No insects 

 went to there honeyless flowers, but as soon as a drop of nectar was placed on 

 them they visited them freely as before. Again, Tr )fessor Plateau made artificial 

 flowers with pieces of green leaf, each furnished with a little honey. These were 

 freely visited by insects ; but artificial flowers made of coloured material were 

 neglected even when supplied with honey. In further support of his views Pro- 

 fessor Plateau is able to bring forward the following facts as to the habits of 

 insects in visiting flowers : They will pass freely and with apparent indifference 

 from one colour to another of varieties of the same species growing together in 

 our gardens ; they visit a great number of green and greenish-coloured flowers ; 

 there are many small and inconspicuous flowers which are also freely visited. Such 

 is a brief outline of Professor Plateau's observations and experiments, from which 

 he believes himself justified in drawing the conclusion that sight plays a very sub- 

 ordinate part in attracting insects to flowers. Their bearing on the theory of the 

 insect origin of flowers is obvious. 



The Horticultural Club holds its next monthly dinner and conversa 



■ r — iuuu a eood lJ^"^ a SOil rich in humus ' and a zione on Tuesday, April 12, at six p.m. The subject for discussion is H Seedling 



is paid to the *tt ■ Cr ?P can 7 S rown > even in a dry season, if Narcissi," and it will b 2 open~d by the Rev. G. Engleheart, one of the most 



stirring of the surface soil. ' successful raisers of daffodils. 



