JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 15, 1882. ] 
497 
beautiful work. He is also the President of the Syndicate of Horti¬ 
culturists of Belgium, and is ever ready to promote the interests of 
the craft of which he is such an able and active representative. To 
him and to Madame Van Geert my acknowledgments are due for 
their courtesy and hospitality during my first visit to this large, well- 
furnished, and admirably managed establishment.—J. Wright. 
TROP^OLUM LOBBIANUM TOWNSONII. 
This is the finest variety of its species grown. The flowers are 
of the most brilliant scarlet, with a dark throat shaded purple, and 
very compact in form ; the leaves small and a dark glaucous 
green. As a winter-flowering plant it has no equal, covering the 
roof of conservatory or greenhouse with a mass of glowing scarlet. 
Thousands of flowers can be cut daily from a single plant now in 
a 9-inch pot, which has supplied me with flowers of this invaluable 
colour all winter. If planted in the open ground it ought to have 
a light, sandy, rather poor soil, and fully exposed to the sun. It 
makes a very showy bed pegged down. I had a large raised oval 
last summer, which was the admiration of everyone ; scarcely a 
leaf was visible. For market purposes, bouquet-making, and table 
decoration I do not know a scarlet flower to equal it. It was 
raised by Mrs. Townson of The Cottage, Bowdon, whose pretty 
residence in summer is almost covered with it.—T. D., Sale, 
Cheshire. 
[The flowers sent are If inch in diameter, and almost circular in 
form, with stout smooth petals, slightly recurved, and extremely 
rich in colour. Beyond doubt the variety is an excellent one. 
It resembles a form that has been exhibited under the name 
Brilliant, but without flowers for comparison we are not prepared 
to say the two varieties are identical.] 
COMBINED FRAME AND WALL-PROTECTOR. 
if good British eggs could be produced in sufficient quantity they 
would no doubt find purchasers. If the breeder is tolerably suc¬ 
cessful it is reckoned that one ounce of eggs will yield nearly a 
hundred ounces—a considerable return upon the capital expended, 
though the cost of food and attendance must be considered. By 
a rough calculation about 40,000 worms are hatched from that 
weight of eggs ; and if all these lived and spun, then there would 
result upwards of 120 lbs. of cocoons; but in practice half that 
quantity is seldom obtained. And as is evident silkworms that, 
from some cause or another produce poor silk, may yet, when 
they become moths, yield eggs to the average number, still 
in ordinary seasons very fair cocoons have often been spun here. 
In favourable years, and with the exercise of the skdl to be 
acquired by experience, we may expect to have British cocoons 
equal to those of any country ; but should eggs continue to realise 
a good price, the returns from these will be more certain than 
from the preservation of cocoons, which must be sacrificed if the 
moths are to breed. 
A description has been already given of the principal appliances 
that are requisite for silkworm-rearing; to this it may now be 
added that Mr. Dickins has tried with some success the plan of 
placing the food in flat frames of wire, double, the size of the 
meshes varying so as to suit the dimensions of the worms at 
different ages. These frames are suspended by cords above the 
trays in which the worms are placed ; and by this plan all the 
refuse drops from the leaves on which the worms are feeding into 
the trays beneath, and as air circulates freely amongst the leaves 
they retain their freshness better. The silkworms being able to 
pass without any difficulty out of the frames when the food 
requires renewal, other frames with new leaves are placed beside 
those that are nearly exhausted for the worms to transfer them¬ 
selves. But I question whether such contrivances are generally 
applicable, and they seem better suited for the worms of medium 
size than for the very small or large. 
One of what may be termed useful novelties that were ex¬ 
hibited at the Summer Show of the Royal Horticultural Society 
was this protective appli¬ 
ance of Messrs. Foster and 
Pearson, in whose silver- 
medal collection it was in¬ 
cluded. Both the top and 
upright lights are readily 
moveable, the latter being 
made to fit the frame in 
front when not required 
over the trees. The frame 
can be utilised for protect¬ 
ing Cauliflower and Let¬ 
tuce plants through the 
winter ; also such flowers 
as Calceolarias, Pansies, 
Fig. 97.—Wall-protector. 
Pentstemon®, and various others, from which the lights may be 
safely removed when the blossoms of the fruit trees expand. Then 
after the fruit is set and safely swelling, the lights can be used 
on the frame in which Melons, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, or various 
decorative plants can be grown during the summer months. Ven¬ 
tilation is provided at the top and bottom of the protector, and is 
simple and efficient. 
SILKWORMS AND SILKWORM REARING.—10. 
{Continued from page 40D.) 
British experimenters in silkworm-rearing at this time of day 
have some special advantages ; amongst these is the present demand 
for eggs produced in a temperate climate such as is ours. Eggs 
have been brought from lands far distant to supply healthy races, 
where on the Continent the silk industry is largely pursued ; and 
In Europe it has long been customary, as already stated, to 
supply silkworms that have attained to the “ ascending season ” 
with some bundles of the stalks of Heather or Broom, or even the 
tops of species of Cabbage, which are placed round the edges of 
the trays. These, let it be observed, should not be set too closely, 
and it is needful to watch them carefully lest any worms fall from 
them by accident, or, in their restlessness, use them only as a 
means of wandering off to unsuitable spots for spinning. The 
Japanese have been trying a method rather different. They form 
loose packets of rice-straw or some similar substance, and distribute 
these over the whole surface of the trays, spreading leaves thinly 
under them. A considerable objection to these is, that as all the 
worms in any tray may not chance to spin just at the same period, 
they must be shifted about to cover the trays with some fresh 
leaves. Hence an improvement has been made on this—viz., 
arching flexible rods over the trays, upon which the rice-straw 
is laid for the w r orms to enter. In some of the Japanese mag- 
naneries it is the custom to move the worms to and 
fro with chopsticks, often in a rough manner, a practice 
more unsuitable than shifting them with the fingers. 
That, however, should only be done when the worms are 
of some size. The young worms are occasionally moved 
by camel’s-hair brushes, but in feeding them by the 
thousand they must of necessity be allowed to transfer 
themselves from leaf to leaf. 
Reference has been made in these pages to the harm 
that may easily be done to the eggs of poultry by inju¬ 
dicious exposure to a chill. The eggs of silkworms may, 
in like manner, be injured by cold applied to them in 
order to prevent their hatching out too soon, or perhaps 
during transit from their native climate to a different 
one, under the mistaken idea of keeping them fresh. 
But the cases are not exactly parallel, since a moderate amount 
of cold, with all eggs of moths that remain unhatched during the 
winter, is found conducive to a change in them which is positively 
salutary, yet mischief is caused by sudden variations, and by chill¬ 
ing them in spring when their temperature should be gradually 
rising. Whether eggs are English or foreign, some advise to wash 
them on a sunny day in April with a little wine and water—hardly 
necessary perhaps, though there is no danger of infecting the 
unhatched juveniles with wine-bibbing propensities. Having 
washed the eggs they dry them and keep them in a room airy and 
dry, the temperature not above 55°. That at least it is judicious 
to do, and then so arrange that as the season advances the warmth 
shall increase in their apartment, but it ought not to rise above 
70°. About the end of May in most years the worm3 begin to 
appear. 
In preparation for emergence the eggs, having been distri¬ 
buted upon trays and sufficient space given them to prevent 
