May 7, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
375 
that your gardens here have sufficient humus, but that your allotments, and 
the fields round here where the soil is inclined to be red, would be benefited 
by more being added to the soil. —( Kent County Standard, April 3rd, 1885.) 
THE INSECT ENEMIES OF OUR GARDEN CROPS. 
THE CAULIFLOWER. 
Insects there are, feeding upon sundry vegetables, whose 
small size renders it no wonder that they escape the eye of the 
gardener, and pass through the hands of the cook also unobserved, 
to find themselves placed upon the table with some vegetable 
that is to be eaten raw, when they may perchance be swallowed 
alive by an unconscious member of the British public, if not 
detected by him with disgust Others of larger proportions, 
however, that may be haunters of vegetables which are cooked 
before they are eaten are, by accident or carelessness, not always 
removed; but as it happens the processes of boiling or baking 
generally bring their bodies into such a condition that they are 
unnoticed, though it is not pleasant to observe the horny head of 
a caterpillar upon one’s plate, a pretty sure sign that the rest of 
his carcase has been combined somehow with one’s food. And I 
have known persons, with an almost Hindoo dislike to swallowing 
insects, who repudiate Cauliflowers and Broccoli because they 
are very apt to contain the bodies of lurkers of the caterpillar 
race, which have fed securely, deep in the heads. Some persons, 
again, tell you philosophically that caterpillars (and other insects) 
taste of the object upon which you discover them, but no on e 
who has bitten a centipede when in the act of eating a Pear or a 
Peach will be much inclined to uphold such a theory. 
With both the above vegetables, which are in greater request 
than ever, the moderns of the most part being quite of the 
opinion of old Gerarde, that “cole-floury,” as he calls it, 
decidedly surpasses its brethren of the group, be they sprouts or 
full grown Cabbages; the grower is presumed to do his best to 
keep them free from insects for his own sake, apart from that of 
the consumer. Yet in various gardens I frequently perceive that 
these and other Brassicas are somewhat neglected, because they 
are common or thought to require little care. This is a pity, 
since it occasions present loss; possibly another season, through 
multiplication of insects, a greater loss. Besides, owing to the 
migratory habits of many species, by leaving them untouched on 
any plant whatever, we are running the risk of after attacks upon 
produce which is of special value and importance. 
To some extent Cauliflowers are liable to the visits of nearly 
all the insects that live or feed upon the cultivated Brassicas ; 
but the mode in which they develope their heads offers an 
opportunity for a concealment which caterpillars of several 
species particularly like (as they also do the close Cabbages), so 
they entering while they themselves are very juvenile, and from 
their size and colour scarcely discernible. Then having travelled 
towards the centre of the head they need fear no disturbance, 
for they are unseen, and the attacks that are made by them upon 
the vegetable are so managed as to give very little indications of 
their px*esence. When adult, should this stage be reached ere 
the Cauliflower is cut, the caterpillar often succeeds in getting 
out unobserved to assume the chrysalis state. There are, how¬ 
ever, one or two species that pursue a different plan, weakening 
a Cauliflower or a Cabbage by gnawing the base of the stem or 
nibbling the roots, they, as they increase in size, quit the earth 
in which they have been hidden during the daylight, and at 
evening ascend the plants, eating their way in from below. 
Afterwards, though not invariably, they return to their retreat 
beneath the soil till hunger and darkness call them forth again. 
The caterpillar of the great yellow underwing (Triphmne pronuba.) 
is a far too common insect in gardens, but its presence in spring 
Broccoli heads and also in early Cauliflowers is seldom suspected. 
Eggs are deposited by the parent moth (very noticeable for its 
propensity of entering rooms or public buildings and dashing 
wildly at the lights) upon a number of low-growing plants ; the 
caterpillars, however, soon make their way beneath the soil to 
feed upon root fibres first, hatching out during August usually. 
The autumn, therefore, is a good time to attack this insect, by 
the distribution of gaslime or soot between the rows, or by 
watering freely with ammoniacal liquor, quassia water, and 
similar liquids destructive to caterpillars. Hying more or less 
dormant until the spring, these caterpillars then have a liking 
for the heads or hearts of any Brassicas that are accessible, and 
feed upon them until the pupal state is entered at the end of 
May. Each caterpillar forms a cocoon some inches deep in the 
earth, the moth emerging in two or three weeks. This insect, 
though apt to vary in its colour, being yellowish, green, or 
brown, is lighter in tint than the excessively abundant caterpillar 
of the Cabbage moth, and down the back there runs a yellow 
stripe, bordered each side by a dark line; and across the body 
are several rows of black marks or dots. The skin generally has 
a velvety look, and if alarmed the caterpillar tucks in its small 
head, rolling up into a tightish ring, so that by this stratagem 
they sometimes escape notice when they are disturbed in the soil 
by the entry of a spade or fork. 
During their season of flight these moths and most others of 
the Noctua tribe that mayi’esort to gardens, may be captured in 
numbers on moonless evenings by a device well known to the 
entomo’ogist—viz., spreading syrup made of coarse sugar with a 
treacly odour upon any walls or palings that are convenient. 
Or pieces of rag may be dipped in this syrup and hung up for 
the same purpose. Same persons scent the compound, but this is 
not necessary. Greedi y sipping the sweet liquor, the insects 
lose all care for themselves as a rule, and ai*e easily netted or 
even caught with the hand. In this way hundreds of a still more 
troublesome species, the Cabbage moth (Mamestra Brassicae), 
have been captured, thereby reducing by thousands the cater¬ 
pillars of another season. 
Some have imagined there 
must be more than one 
brood, since the moths 
may be seen about from 
early summer to the end 
of August, but I believe 
that all these have passed 
the winter in the chrysalis, 
only they emerge in suc¬ 
cession. This caterpillar 
is of such varied tastes 
tha t flowers as well as vegetables supply it with food upon which 
it thrives, though Brassicaceous plants get the preference if 
accessible, and it is common upon autumn Cauliflowers, hiding 
in these and the hearted Cabbages to attain its full size, after 
feeding previously in situations that are exposed to more danger 
from man and birds. It is a caterpillar of restless habits, shown 
by its wandering from plant to plant, and in each temporary 
home it cuts galleries which are defiled by its excretions. Smaller 
than the preceding insect, it resembles that in its velvety texture 
and small head, but the body is different, usually of two colours 
equally divided, brown above and dull yellow below, sprinkled 
with a few white dots; now and then, however, one may be noticed 
entirely pale green. To prevent Cauliflowers being attacked 
by this pest is certain'y not easy; the French gardeners search 
carefully for the young caterpillars while they are external 
feeders. Salt, if carefully applied to the leaves that may harbour 
them, kills the insects without any injury to the plants, also 
washings with tobacco water, lime water, or soapsuds. The 
application of sulphur by a dredger has been recommended. 
Broccoli and Cauliflower heads have never, to my knowledge, 
been infested by the caterpillars of the large white butterfly. The 
species has no liking for concealment, and feeds exposed on the 
leaves of Cabbages and allied plants. But the small white 
(Picris Rapae), an insect which has had the name of the Turnip 
butterfly given to it from its frequency upon that vegetable, will 
occasionally deposit some of its eggs on the leaves of Cauliflowers 
in May; the caterpillars, almost of the same tint as the leaf, 
except that two rows of yellow spots on the body sometimes 
attract notice, work their way in if they can, but emerge when 
adult to fasten the chrysalis upon a wall or paling. A very 
simple application is destructive to these caterpillars, as also to 
those of its large relative, and that is abundance of water, the 
leaves being made thoroughly wet, as they are eaten they occasion 
diarrhoea, of which the caterpillars generally die. A second 
brood appears in August, but many of the butterflies, attracted 
by the floral display in our gardens, deposit eggs on a variety of 
plants besides culinary species. Fortunately, a company of 
parasitic flies seek out these butterfly caterpillars and kill many 
each year.— Entomologist. 
PRIMULA NOMENCLATURE. 
Even now opinion teems to be divided on this important subject. 
Among a few the idea prevails that the time spent in correcting Primula 
