June 21, 1883. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
any of your correspondents say whether this betokens any particular 
season to be expected ?—L. A. K., Maidstone. 
THE STRAWBERRY-EATING BEETLE. 
.This beetle, which did so much mischief last year, may return 
with the berries again, so it is well to know how to circumvent 
him. Last year I laid down slates and boards as traps, under 
which they hid in numbers during the daytime. But when the 
boards were lifted it was found impossible to “lay salt on their 
tails,” so another plan had to be tried. The most effectual was 
that of filling drain pipes loosely with hay. In these they took 
lodgings. Lodging houses and all were then carried away, and 
the hay shaken into hot water, or where the beetles could be 
caught and killed. In this way a countless devastating host was 
Bpcedily reduced to a harmless few. It, however, will be well, 
where last year they were troublesome, to begin to trap before the 
Fig. 115.—HirrEASTRUM EQUESTRE VAR. SEMirLEXUM. 
crop is half ruined—in fact at once, for the sooner the better. 
—A. H. 
HIPPEASTRUM EQUESTRE var. SEMIPLENUM. 
A short time since we received from Messrs. Curtis, Sanford 
and Co., Torquay, flowers of a very distinct double Amaryllis, or, 
more correctly, Hippeastrum, which is such an uncommon cha¬ 
racter that we have had an engraving (fig. 115) prepared to show 
the character of the variety. It is evidently a double form of 
H. equestre, the type of which was well figured in the “Botanical 
Magazine” in 17115, and a considerably larger variety, named 
major, was represented in the “Botanical Register” for 1817. 
The species was described by the younger Linnaeus, and it is 
stated in Aiton’s “ llortus Kewensis ” that it was introduced by 
Dr. W. Pitcairn from the West Indies in 1778. 
The double or semi-double variety was, we believe, first de¬ 
scribed by Herbert in his work on the Amaryllis family as H. 
equestre var. 3 semiplenum, the pulcberrima of gardens, and is 
said to have been found by Fraser in Cuba near Havannah, and 
it has also been imported from Bahama. Messrs. Curtis & Sanford 
state that they received their bulbs from India, but from what 
part is unknown, but it is probable that bulbs have been intro¬ 
duced there from the West Indies, as we have been informed that 
in some of the islands it is very abundant. 
In a horticultural point of view the plant is interesting as a 
