470 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ November 24, 1881. 
fresh shoots are developed. It is npon these old leaves that the 
red spider fixes, and a vapouriser that would dislodge or kill the 
red spider before fresh growth has begun would, without exagger¬ 
ation, be worth thousands a year to the planters. Can none of 
our clever men invent such an instrument, cheap and simple 
in action ? or is there one already in existence ?—A Lover of 
Horticulture. 
SENECIO PULCHER. 
Senecio pulcher, the Beautiful Groundsel, deserves its name, 
being beautiful either as a conservatory plant or in the open 
border if well grown. It is, however, rather difficult to manage. 
In better climates than mine it may be what it is called a hardy 
herbaceous perennial; but though the roots are not killed by frost, 
no plant has yet flowered with me which has been left in the 
open ground all winter. I find it best, therefore, to give it bien¬ 
nial treatment, the particulars of which I will describe. It pro¬ 
duces fertile seed very sparingly in this country. A large quan¬ 
tity of seed which I saved last year gave me only two or three 
plants, and Mr. W. Thompson of Ipswich tells me that he has tried 
in vain to obtain good seed. In default of seed, plants must be 
raised from root-cuttings. In autumn after the plant has 
flowered it must be lifted and the soil shaken from the roots, 
a number of which will be found about the thickness of Wheat 
straw. The larger of these may be cut into lengths of l^inch, and 
inserted upright in a pan of sandy loam, so that their tops are 
even with the surface of the soil. If these are kept through the 
winter in a greenhouse or frame having an average temperature 
of about 50°, a large proportion of them will be found to be 
growing. When the leaves are as large as a sixpence the plants 
may be potted singly, giving them large pots to encourage the 
development of roots, which in this plant are large and many in 
proportion to the leaves. If by liberal treatment any of them 
have made leaves 6 inches long by the end of May they may be 
planted out or potted on for the conservatory, and induced to 
flower the first autumn, but in most instances the growth is 
provokingly slow. 
I keep them in the open air in pots through summer, and, after 
a second winter in a cold frame, plant them out in May. The 
soil should be rich, moist, well-drained loam, and the situation 
sheltered from hot sun. Some of the best of these two-year-old 
plants have this year made leaves 15 inches long, and five or six 
flowerstalks, each producing a dozen flowers. If left out in the 
winter in cold damp soil, the cold or the wet, or both together, 
cause the crown to rot, and the roots are found detached from it. 
These will form shoots late in spring, but will not be nearly such 
strong plants as when treated as I have advised. After the larger 
roots have been cut from the plants which have flowered the 
crown may be potted, either whole or divided ; but as far as my 
experience goes it seldom makes a flowering plant again for two 
years.— C. Wolley Hod. 
THE CHAMPION POTATO. 
This excellent variety has been largely cultivated during the 
last few years. Nearly all new vegetables and flowers have 
the best of situations, the best of soil, and the very best of care 
bestowed upon them at the first time of sowing or planting, yet 
when they prove good less care is taken with them, and they are 
planted in inferior soils and positions. Last year in this district 
the Champion Potato was grown extensively, the season was very 
dry, and the yield was enormous and of very good quality. Last 
season they were planted as widely as the year before, but in 
many instances in worse soil, the result being a complete failure. 
The variety does not like wet land. For instance, in this district 
some were, planted in wet mossy land, while others from the same 
seed bags were planted in drier sandy soil. Those planted in the 
wet mossy land were scarcely worth forking up, while those in 
the sandy land were a very good and sound crop. Magnum 
Bonum thrives fairly in wet land, and is a better keeper than the 
Champion. There is an old variety called the Skerry Blue very 
largely grown in some of the midland counties. It is not a very 
handsome Potato nor yet large, but it is quite as good in quality 
as the Champion if well cultivated. All intending planters of 
the Champion would do well to exercise a little forethought as to 
the nature of the soils, if they desire in return a good crop and 
good quality.—A Northerner. 
Curious Pear. — By accident at the picking of the dozen or 
eighteen Pears that followed some late blooms, this fruit in ques¬ 
tion was hidden and unnoticed till the foliage began falling. High 
up on the tree it had a somewhat quaint appearance, but on close 
inspection it seemed to me an effort to make a Pear out of another 
Pear, like the Ilose occasionally blooms from the growth in the 
centre of another bloom. There was a division in the Pear, as if 
a string had been tied round it. The larger portion of the Pear was 
farthest from the stem. At this constriction four or five small leaves, 
one of them an inch long, were found, the stems of these leaves 
appearing to be lost in the pulp of the fruit. On section there was 
no trace of a seed vessel in the smaller portion, and very slight in 
the larger.—Y. B. A. Z. 
SILKWORMS AND SILKWORM-REARING.—2. 
All the caterpillars that yield silk belong to the family of the 
Bombycina — moths easily distinguishable by their broad fore 
wings, under which the hind wings are hidden when the insect is 
at rest: also by their stout bodies, and the absence of a tongue 
for taking food. Though the antennas are variable they are 
usually short, frequently comb-like or beautifully feathered in 
the males. Many other caterpillars placed in different groups of 
the order, which includes the butterflies and moths, are producers 
of a silk which forms a part or the whole of the cocoons they make, 
by some attached to substances above ground, by others placed 
beneath the earth, yet th?se are not available for manufacture. 
Even amongst the Bombycina the valuable silk-spinners are but 
few, and these do not occur naturally in a temperate climate such 
as ours. Bombyx Mori, pre-eminently the silkworm, may be con¬ 
sidered to have its home in China, and the majority of those 
species that have been experimented with in these recent years 
have their habitats either in Asia or America, and in a variety of 
situations, but seldom in very warm regions. 
At an early period in history there evidently was some silk 
manufactured by a carding process. The ancients, as we call 
them, were, however, awake to the special excellence of the 
cocoon spun by B. Mori, because it was formed by a continuous 
Fig. 76.—Bombyx neustria. 
thread ; hence it could be reeled or wound off, and a few species 
beside this one present the same peculiarity. We have in Britain 
a goodly number of Bombycina that spin cocoons, but none whose 
habit is to work the body of their cocoons with one thread. In 
the attempts that have been made, therefore, to get some sort of 
silk from our native insects it was found necessary to card the 
substance. 
There does not appear to be much probability that the cocoons 
of any of the British moths will be turned to account in this way, 
and, were it possible, the rearing and management of the cater¬ 
pillars present nearly as many difficulties as does the nurture of 
exotic species, supposing it were conducted on a large scale. 
Many of the Bombycina—the tiger moths, ermines, and eggers, 
for example—mix their hairs in the cocoons, which is sufficient to 
render them useless for their silk. The lackey moth (fig. 76;, 
which we have represented with the silkworm moth for compari¬ 
son, is produced from a yellow cocoon which has a superficial re¬ 
semblance to the cocoon of the latter. This moth, Bombyx neustria, 
is darker in colour and generally less than B. Mori (fig. 77), but, 
like that species, it is inclined to be sluggish. The caterpillar is 
very different from the silkworm, slightly hairy, and of various 
colours. The cocoon is not very dense in its silk, and with that 
the caterpillar mingles a sulphur-coloured powder, the use of which 
is not known. Our handsome moth called the Emperor (Saturnia 
carpini) spins a curious double-mouthed cocoon of tough brown 
silk. A near relative of this species has attained to a place on 
the list of silkworm moths—the S. pavonia major, an insect larger 
and still handsomer. The cocoon, however, is not likely to become 
