70 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ January 25, 1883. 
in December, with the thennometer only a few degrees above 
freezing point.” The species is mi ch better known upon the 
continent than in England, but it has n >w been in cultivation 
here about ten years, the first plants having flowered at Kew in 
1872. All three are cool-house Orchids, and succeed satisfactorily 
with Odontoglossums and similar plants. 
Dozens of other beautiful species could be named, but sufficient 
have been mentioned to show the principal characters and quali¬ 
ties of the genus, and the following list contains the best, arranged 
under the heads Cool and Warm-house Species. 
Cool-house Oncids. — Barkeri, bifolium majus, cheirophorum, 
concolor, cucullatum, dasystyle, excavatum, incurvum, leuco- 
chilum, macranthum, ornithorhynchum, varicosum, Rogersi, stel- 
ligerum, and tigrinum. 
Warm-house Oncids .— Ampliatum majus, Cavendishianum, 
crispum grandifiorum, flexuosum, Forbesii, haematochilum, Kra- 
meri, Lanceanum, leopardinum, Marshallianum, Papilio, sarcodes, 
and zebrinum.-— L. Castle. 
EASTER BEURRE AND BEURRE RANCE PEARS. 
I CAN quite confirm what A. Young and “ A Notts Gardener ” 
say with regard to Easter Beurre and Beurrd Ranee. They are 
of very little use except as stewing Pears in the north. Easter 
Beurre against a south and a west wall used to do very well in 
my father’s garden in Notts in a good sandy loam, and knowing 
it well there I planted it here. But, like many of the late ripeners, 
it is an early bloomer, and seldom sets its fruit well. I found, too, 
that the older the tree became the more the fruit cracked and 
cankered, and I have cut it down to make more room for a Marie 
Louise which was growing alongside. Beurrd Ranee is also 
condemned with me, as both a shy bearer and seldom ripening 
except in more than usually favourable seasons.—C. P. P., North 
Yorkshire. 
I WAS somewhat surprised to see Beurre Ranee so unfavourably 
spoken of in our Journal last week on page 24, as I had an im¬ 
pression that it was a much more reliable variety. We have two 
trees here growing in an old orchard which were planted in the 
year 1835. On Friday last, after receiving the Journal, I measured 
the tallest tree, and its height was about 41 feet. This tree 
scarcely ever fails to give us a crop, and last season carried nearly 
three bushels of fruit, all of which (with the exception of a few 
split ones) were fit for table. There is an Elm plantation on the 
north and east sides of the trees which shelters them from cold 
winds, otherwise they stand in an open position. 
Easter Beurre we do not grow, so I am unable to give an opinion 
respecting it.—F. H., Oxon. 
THE INSECT ENEMIES OF OUR GARDEN 
CROPS.—No. 1. 
The cultivator of fruit and vegetables, whether it be on a 
large or a limited scale, is sure to make the acquaintance of a 
variety of noxious insects; noxious—that is, as seemingly inter¬ 
fering with his success. But in the case of some of the insects 
that are feeders on plants under our management, it may be con¬ 
cluded they are merely removing what had previously entered 
on the first stage of decay, though other insects do certainly 
devour roots, leaves, and fruit that are perfectly healthy. Several 
writers have propounded a theory, satisfactory to them, that the 
insect enemies of the gardener are sent to make him diligent and 
careful, showing him that he must take precautions not only 
against unfavourable weather and the larger creatures who may 
damage his crops, but against others whose very insignificance is 
apt to lead him to neglect them. It would appear that in most of 
the kitchen gardens of the olden time insects were allowed, to a 
great extent, to multiply unchecked, save only in so far as they 
were destroyed by their parasitic foes, or by those insect-eating 
birds formerly more numerous than at present. Hence the 
modern gardener has a vast advantge over his predecessor ; having 
a knowledge, by no means despicable, of the habits of garden 
insects, he has also an abundant, perhaps too abundant, supply 
of remedies to select from. To read the testimonials put forth 
concerning some of these, almost convinces us that garden insects, 
by their judicious application, might be entirely eradicated from 
our beds and frames. But then where would be the occupation 
of the makers of these compounds ? 
In the kitchen-garden department, however, as in others, it is a 
mistake to suppose that all insects seen about are really injurious. 
Some of those we notice cn the wing are simply passengers on their 
way across to their special resorts. Some, again, have come to our 
ground in order to draw the nectar from flowers, or they clear 
away vegetable refuse. Then there are extensive families, whose 
instinct leads them to prey upon other insects, and they frequently 
attack some of our worst enemies just at a stage in their growth 
when a material check is given to their increase. How import¬ 
ant is it, therefore, for a gardener to know at least as much of 
entomology to enable him to distinguish the common harmless 
species from the harmful ! It is to be noted, though, as a curious 
fact, that there are instances of very close resemblances between 
different groups, by which, doubtless, some predatory insects are 
favoured ; and also we have several rather perplexing cases where 
an insect is at one age useful and at a later age injurious. 
The order Lepidoptera, which embraces the butterflies and 
moths, stands out conspicuously amongst the orders of insects, 
because to it belong the caterpillars of very varied size, which in 
many seasons are unpleasingly numerous in the kitchen garden. 
Their habits were observed even by our unscientific ancestors, who 
named these creatures, from the effects of their ravages, the 
“peeling” or “pilling” of plants by the stripping off of their 
leaves. Hairy or spiny caterpillars, such as that of the tiger moth 
or the tortoiseshell butterfly, seem to have had the name of “ pal- 
merworm ” reserved to them, because they are garbed like the 
palmers of old. All these insects do not feed openly upon the 
leaves or flowers, as is the habit of mauy ; there are others that 
carry on their attacks insidiously by burrowing near the roots or 
working their way into the stems of plants. In their winged 
state these insects are harmless, except as propagators of their 
species. Amongst some of the orders of insects we find instances 
where nearly allied species are hostile to each other, but it is not 
so with the Lepidoptera of our gardens. There are, however, a 
few cannibal caterpillars ; these occur upon trees or shrubs, chiefly 
upon those growing in woods and hedges. 
We pass on to the Coleoptera as the order next in importance, 
and this division, embracing the beetles of very varied size, from 
giant stag beetle and cockchafer down to insects not larger than 
the head of a pin, furnishes a contingent to our garden foes, in 
which numbers make up for the small bulk of the majority of the 
species. Here we have instances of mischief done by the fully 
developed beetles, and also by the grubs and larvae, and occa¬ 
sionally a species is noticed to be both hurtful and helpful in two 
of its stages, though the mischievous qualities are apt to out¬ 
weigh the beneficial ones. To mention the Turnip beetle or flea, 
the “ wireworm,” the Pea weevil, and the black or “ grooved 
weevil,” is sufficient proof that the gardener has need to take 
active precautions against insects of this order, which very often 
cause him serious losses and disappointments. From their 
cautious habits they succeed in destroying or greatly damaging 
some crops before they are observed, and in several species the 
insects seize the moment for attack when the plant has little 
vitality, or is exposed to trying weather. 
The little order or group called Euplexoptera contains an insect 
greatly disliked by all gardeners, and one that is not easy to ex¬ 
tirpate—viz., the common earwig. Although this insect is very 
partial to fruit, and also fond of lurking in flowers, especially in 
those with numerous petals, it condescends to visit some of our 
garden vegetables, and enjoys the warmth of frames. I am not 
certain if it is eaten by birds, but it appears to be avoided by most 
insects, inoffensive as it is. Even a spider may be noticed to eject 
an earwig from her web with an unmistakeable movement of dis¬ 
gust. We are happily exempt in this country from the terrible 
locust, which is so notable an insect in the order Orthoptera. Its 
allies, the crickets and grasshoppers, can scarcely be said to be 
harmful to any garden plants if occasional insinuations have been 
made against the field cricket and the great green grasshopper. 
The mole-cricket, however, a species somewhat distinct, has been 
complained of as a burrower at the roots of vegetables ; and the 
common cockroach, an eastern unwelcome guest, does make ex¬ 
cursions during the summer season from the kitchen domain into 
the garden, desirous of a change of diet, but in nowise particular 
what it gnaws. Very few insects of the Hymenopterous order are 
guilty of injuring our vegetables, perhaps less than half a dozen 
species. One of these is the “ nigger,” or black canker fly, a foe 
to the Turnip. Recent inquiries, indeed, concerning an effective 
means of destroying ants would indicate that some modern gar¬ 
deners are unkindly disposed towards these busy insects. Ento¬ 
mologists have mostly been inclined to regard the ant tribes as 
useful in gardens on the whole, though they may be partial to 
over-ripe fruit. On the other hand, amongst the four-winged flies 
in this order are a great many species that, as parasites upon 
caterpillars and grubs, help to diminish the numbers of some of 
our worst enemies. Various predatory species, large and small, 
also seize other insects and carry them off to suck their juices; 
the much-abused wasp, for instance, kills each season swarms of 
flies and grubs. 
