238 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND C0T1AGE GARDENER. 
[ March 19, 88S. 
require it than to wait for a general repotting. These plants 
will go on now without check, and may probably want shifting 
into 4^-inch pots during summer. 
While on the subject of offsets, I may refer to the system I 
have adopted for the past two or three years in order to increase 
stock of some sorts. I used to behead the plants, striking the 
tops and waiting for side growths to form; but I found that 
unless the plants so treated were strong, that the expected offsets 
did not appear. We now decapitate only the strongest plants, 
and from those that are not so strong we remove the growing 
point after the flowering period. Several seed-bearing plants 
were treated thus last year, and the result has been a very great 
increase of plants. There is no difficulty in inducing strong 
tops to produce roots. A very sandy soil should be used, though 
even that is not necessary, and the cuttings kept in a cool place, 
so that little water is required until they are rooted- Then place 
them into 3-inch pots and the spring following they will produce 
flowers. By this system we transform an old and worn-out 
plant, with probably a strong tendency to decay in the tap root, 
into a healthy young specimen 
Another point worth noting just now is the question of 
watering I find that many who try to grow Auriculas render 
all their care useless through an unaccountable fear in supplying 
the plants with water. Healthy well-rooted plants in freely 
drained pots should have abundance of water from this time 
until after the flowering period. I find that our plants require 
to be watered daily in sunny weather, and it is the same after 
the summer repotting; when once the plants have become estab¬ 
lished abundance of water must be given them. Growers will 
find it a much safer and simpler system to use comparatively 
small pots, and to water often, than to use larger pots and be in 
constant fear of injuring the plants through over watering. 
Until last year I resisted the temptation to save seed, but 
having a good stock of dowering plants I set fifty apart for seed¬ 
bearing. From these I secured a large supply of fine seed, much 
of it of the blood of Geo. Lightbody, Alex. Meiklejohn, Lanca¬ 
shire Hero, Smiling Beauty, True Briton, and others, carefully 
cross-fertilised. 1 have kept the seeds until now in their paper 
envelopes ; but I shall sow it very shortly, using boxes in prefer¬ 
ence to pots, and placing these in a cool Orchid house until the 
seedlings are ready for pricking off. I have found that the above- 
named structure is an excellent one for obtaining a good germi¬ 
nation of seeds of fine hardy flowers, and fully expect the 
Auriculas to do well there. The late Mr. Meiklejohn sowed his 
stock in April under bellglasses in his garden, and I believe 
they did very well there. John Morris was the best of the stage 
Auriculas he raised, but that, though superior to many, I did not 
think it worth the guinea he asked for it a few years ago. 
Curiously enough, a neighbouring farmer, who seems to have 
caught the Auricula fever from Meiklejohn, was much more 
fortunate in raising good seedlings than his master was, his 
A. Meiklejohn when in good form being one of the most massive 
of all Auriculas. 
The Auriculas of the future will doubtless be the Alpine 
varieties. For one thing, these catch the eye of ordinary lovers 
of flower beauty at once, and are usually preferred to the stage 
varieties. Then they multiply much more rapidly, are conse¬ 
quently cheaper, and very good kinds are produced from the 
seed, which sets so freely. Moreover, the varieties which have 
been distributed during the past few years show a wonderful 
improvement on older kinds, and very soon those who persist in 
buying packets of seeds “ saved from the finest named kinds ” 
will have their perseverance rewarded with something different 
from the large though wonderfully coloured forms they have at 
present. It ought to be widely known that the named Alpines 
do well out of doors in soils which suit them. A few years ago 
I saw large clump3 of the best sorts growing vigorously in a 
small garden,—B. 
TWO GOOD BROCCOLI. 
One of the best varieties that can be grown for turning in at this 
season of the year is Veitch’s Spring White, and those that have not 
grown it should do so another year. So far it has proved hardy here, and 
never failed to produce its medium-sized white heads about the middle of 
h ebruary and on to the end of the following month. It is a compact 
grower, well protected, and very much more delicate in flavour than the 
majority of Broccolis. In flavour it is more like the Cauliflower, and its 
heads are beautifully white. 
The other variety is Model, and was sent out by the same firm three or 
four years ago. This is undoubtedly the latest as well as the most dwarf 
broccoli with which I am acquainted. Its stem is very short and sturdy, 
which adds to its good qualities as a late variety, for protection if needed 
during very severe winters can easily be applied. It does not exceed 
lb inches in height, and may be planted 18 inches apart each way, which 
will allow ample room for development. I have grown this variety by the 
side of Leamington, Ledsham’s Latest of All, Hill’s June, and several 
others, and all have commenced heading and been over before Model. 
The heads, which are somewhat cone-shaped, are as white as any Cauli¬ 
flower that can be grown, and very little stronger in flavour. Model 
protects its heads better than any other Broccoli, either early or late ; 
when the heads commence forming and developing they have the appear¬ 
ance of a Cabbage, so close are the leaves round the head. This variety 
has proved a great success in the south on heavy land, and here in the 
north on light soil it is unsurpassed. Last year I cut from this variety 
until June 12th.—A Northerner. 
THE INSECT ENEMIES OF OUR GARDEN CROPS. 
THE TURNIP. 
{Continued from page 173.) 
Thomas Carlyle gave it as his opinion one day to a friend of ours 
that the average Irishman was to all intents and purposes a nigger feeding 
on Potatoes instead of Pumpkin, a remark both uncomplimentary and 
unjust, as were many of his utterances; but others like him have u-ed 
the word “ nigger” as indicative of character, and not merely colour of 
skin. And the familiar insect upon our Turnip crops which we call the 
“ nigger ” is indeed black at one period of its career, yet before and after 
that its colour is different. It has also been oddly styled the “ Black 
Palmer,” an inapplicable name for the grub, as it belongs by right to a 
group of caterpillars that are like those wanderers of the olden time who 
were called palmers from their having garments of hairy exterior. Bat 
the grubs or caterpillars of the Turnip sawfly are smooth-bodied, nor are 
they particularly prone to wander, as they keep in close companies to 
the leaves till these are shredded ; and as they cannot be renewed by 
the plant with the rapidity that they are cleared off when the grubs aie 
abundant, the death of a largo portion of a crop may happen. The dry 
season of 1835 is supposed to have been the season in which it did the 
most mischief throughout England. Next to that is 1782 ; the attack was 
heaviest then in the eastern counties. The insect appears to have been 
first noticed in 1756—that is, as a species damaging Turnip crops. 
The so-called “nigger” is a caterpillar developing finally into a four¬ 
winged fly, belonging to the injurious group of sawflies ; the females bear 
a cutting instrument, by means of which they deposit eggs in the sub¬ 
stance of leaves, buds, cr wood. Of this species, Athalia spinarum, 
there is a varying number of broods during the year. The opening 
attack is made during the spring, when the flies place their eggs on the 
Turnip leaves ; but the species does not appear so early as the “ fly” or 
beetle, Phyllotreta nemorum. It is the habit of the females of A. spinarum 
to lay nearly 300 eggs, which are placed in slits, cut by the saw like 
ovipositor upon the leaves with no particular preference. We find a 
greater number of these insects in a warm and bright spring than in me 
of an opposite character, and their eggs also hatch more rapidly then. 
To the caterpillars, sunshine, even when powerful, seems to be very 
pleasant, though many caterpillars seek shade. There is, in consequence, 
no difficulty in discovering them upon the plants, excepting while they 
are very small, their greenish-white hue at that stage renders them less 
easy to find. And, before their first moult, they have a habit of dropping 
by threads, if disturbed, to reascend similarly after the alaim is over, 
though afterwards they have simply to descend at once to the earth and 
crawl back to their food. These caterpillars are somewhat American in 
their taste for elevating the lower extremity of the body in the air, 
little use being made while eating of the sixteen pair of sucker-feet or 
claspers, but they grip firmly to the leaves with the six horny feet. 
Three weeks after hatching they are adult, being then blackish, with 
a pale stripe on the side, and, quitting the Turnip, they spin a smooth 
cocoon of silk in the surface of the soil, but it is not very perceivable. 
Of the flies there follows another flight in the early part of the summer, 
and their eggs produce a second brood of caterpillars that feed up slowly, 
yet do in their turn a degree of injury to the Turnip crop during the 
warm weather ; and there may be a third brood, which, feeding more 
slowly still, lies nearly all in the chrysalis state until spring. Hence, 
after any apoearance of these insects, it is advantageous late in autumn 
to remove the surface soil, or thoroughly rake over the ground. 
It is not easy to open the campaign against the “ nigger” by destroying 
the parents of the spring brood, for the flies conceal themselves amongst 
the leaves, though when upon the wing their orange and black markings 
attract notice, and in a garden some may be caught with a hand net. 
When the caterpillars have been discovered to be feeding, it is a good 
plan to sweep them off the plants, for it is seldom any that are brought 
down while in the act of changing their skin manage to get back to the 
Turnips. The plants may be brushed with light twigs of Fir or Broom, 
or a suitable bunch can be fixed in the front of a “scuffler.” Hoeing and 
thinning are not serviceable—nay, these operations rather help on the 
proceedings of the sawfly grubs. Lime or soot kill many of them if 
sprinkled upon the leaves ; moisture, too, is very unpleasant to them, but 
this is best applied to the spring plants on a dull, though not a cold 
day. Strengthening the crop is important by means of solid or liquid 
manures, such as the weather and the stage of growth may indicate. 
Another insect that is also four-winged in its state of maturity, though 
belonging to a different order than the preceding, is apt to weaken the 
Turnip considerably, being rarely absent from the plants in fields, and 
occurring some years so abundantly that their vitality is extinguished by 
this species smothering them, so clogging up the breathing pores, or 
