24r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[January, 
GIGANTIC RHINOCEROS BEETLE. 
the mail without being crushed. We would 
ask our friends who send insects for determina¬ 
tion, to enclose them in small wooden or tin 
boxes, or pack them in such a way that they 
will reach us safely. Tliree-fourths of those 
sent us arrive in unrecognizable fragments: A 
quill, plugged with paper, does for small insects. 
The Pine-cone Oak-Gall. 
The accompanying illustration represents a 
very singular growth, found by Mr. C. J. Sidell 
on a white oak twig. It is a gall made 
by a large gall-fly, described by Baron 
Osten Sacken, of New York, from a gall 
found on Quercus Prinus, (White Swamp 
Oak,) as Cynips quercus Strobilana , in the 
Proceedings of the Entomological Society 
ofPhila., Vol. III., p. 690. This is what 
entomologists call a polythalamous gall, 
i. e„ one having many cells; for each of 
the cuneiform bodies composing it con¬ 
tains a hard cell, wherein lies a fat, 
whitish, footless grub. In the course of 
the winter this grub gradually assumes 
the pupa state, the legs, feelers, wings, 
etc., of the future fly appearing by a 
sort of budding process. By spring the 
fly will have matured, when it will eat 
its way out of the gall through a round, 
smooth hole, and commence to found 
new galls. The gall is doubtless pro¬ 
duced by the sting of the insect on the 
leaves of a bud, each leaf growing into 
the shape represented in our illustration. 
The “gall-nut” from which ink is 
made is produced by the punctures of a 
closely allied fly {Cynips gallce-tinctorice ) 
on the leaves of a species of oak^Mer- 
cus infectona), which grows commonly 
throughout Asia Minor. How few per¬ 
sons ever reflect that thejr owe so much 
to a tiny fly, and, to use the words of 
Kirby, “ How infinitely are we indebted 
to this little creature, which at once en¬ 
ables us to converse with our absent 
friends and connections, be their distance 
from us ever so great, and supplies the 
means by which, to use the poet’s lan¬ 
guage, we can --‘ give to airy nothing 
a local habitation and a name,’ enabling 
the poet, the philosopher, the politician, 
the moralist and the divine to embody 
their thoughts, for the amusement, instruc¬ 
tion, direction and reformation of mankind.” 
The subject of galls and their architects is a 
PINE-CONE OAK-GALL. 
most interesting and fascinating one, and we 
never cease to wonder at the great diversity of 
form and structure, and at the apparent blend¬ 
ing of the animal and vegetable organisms 
which our different galls exhibit- • for there is 
not one of them that could be produced either 
by the vegetable *alone or by the insect alone, 
and each particular gall is as invariably found on 
its particular plant, as are the flowers and fruit. 
lilac-flowered fuchsia. 
The Lilac-flowered Fuchsia. 
There are some forty or more species of the 
Fuchsia in cultivation; the varieties produced 
by hybridization and sporting are almost innu¬ 
merable. Not many years ago a Fuchsia was a 
rarity, to be found only in choice collections of 
plants. Now they are multiplied so rapidly 
that they are the commonest things sold by the 
street venders of flowers. Each year brings 
its collection of new varieties, as it does of ge¬ 
raniums and verbenas. Most of those in our 
collections are so mixed and blended that it is 
difficult to trace their origin to the original spe¬ 
cies. The best known varieties are those with 
pendulous flowers, with the calyx and corolla 
having their colors in marked contrast. The 
Fuchsia of which we present an engraving, is 
so unlike the common type that, at first sight, it 
would hardly be taken for a Fuchsia. It is 
called Lilac-flowered; not on account of the 
color, but from the resemblance to a Lilac in 
bearing a cluster of small flowers. The blos¬ 
soms, which are produced abundantly, are of a 
violet-pink color. It is one of the Fuchsias 
which bloom well during the winter. The 
florists usually have it as Fuchsia syringmjlora, 
but it is properly a variety of F. arborescens. 
It is a native of Mexico and Guatemala. 
Rhubarb Forcing. —In October last Mr. 
Henderson described the manner of forcing 
Rhubarb on the large scale, with a hint how it 
could be done in a small way. Those who have 
not prepared for a supply of Rhubarb by taking 
up the roots last fall, cau probably do so during 
some mild spell, such as we frequently have 
this month. Place the roots close together in a 
barrel, fill the spaces between with earth 
and set the barrel near the kitchen stove 
or near the furnace in the cellar, taking 
care it does not become too dry. Last 
winter we partly filled a cask with horse 
manure and placed the roots upon it and 
added earth to fill in between them. This 
was set in the barn and afforded an 
early supply. The cask or barrel may 
be closely covered, as light is not needed. 
The Gigantic Rhinoceros Beetle. 
Mr. J. A. Forney, Brittain, N. C., sent 
us, some time ago, a large insect for a 
name, remarking, “ They show a great 
fondness for the light after night. We 
have found several in the house when 
a window is left open.” The immense 
brown beetle enclosed is a female of the 
Gigantic Rhinoceros Beetle {Dynastes 
tityus Linn.), and that our readers may 
recognize it we present herewith a por- • 
trait of the male. The female differs 
from him in being generally a little small¬ 
er, in lacking the horns on the thorax, 
and in having but. a small tubercle on 
the head. Both sexes are very variable 
in the ground color, some specimens be¬ 
ing glaucous-green, with brown spots, 
some brown, with glaucous spots, and 
others again entirely green, or entirely of 
a deep chestnut-brown, like the one sent. 
The spots also vary much in size. 
This beetle is the largest N. A. species, 
and though tolerably common at the 
South, is very rare in the more Northern 
States. It breeds in the decaying roots 
of several trees, and Say informs us 
that a number of them were once found 
near Philadelphia in the cavity of an old 
cherry-tree that was blown down by a violent 
wind. Its larva bears a general resemblance 
to the common White Grub of our meadows. 
The specimen sent by Mr. Forney was packed 
in a paper box, and, for a wonder, came through 
