222 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 11, 189<V 
very late and hardy ; the tree is of a spreading habit of growth, and the 
leaves are larger than any other variety I know. 
I shall conclude with a few remarks as to the marketing of Plums ; 
next to growing them this is of the most importance to the gardener. 
How to make the best of them is the question 1 I have known growers 
who have taken great pains to pack as much straw as possible in the 
bottom of the sieves, so that they may have more bulk for market; this, 
I can assure growers, is a mistake. It is also a mistake to select the very 
best samples for the top of the baskets. I have been sending Plums to 
market by the ton for the last fifteen years, and my plan is to pack the 
bulk of one uniform quality throughout, and where this is done the 
buyers soon get to know and purchase accordingly. 
CENTROPOGON LUCYANU3. 
This is an evergreen plant with pale green rather large leaves, 
and terminal heads of bright red, long tube-like flowers. It is of 
moderate growth, attaining a height of about 2 feet ; but small 
plants may be flowered at a height of from 9 to 15 inches. 
Cuttings of the young shoots may be inserted at any time, and 
in a gentle heat they root freely. I usually insert the cuttings 
as soon as shoots 3 or 4 inches in length can be had. They 
are cut below the lowest joint, the leaves removed 2 inches 
up the cutting, and then inserted singly in pots 2j inches in 
diameter, using a compost of two parts fibrous loam, one part 
leaf soil, and one part sandy peat, with a free admixture of silver 
sand. In putting in the cuttings make a hole in the centre of the' 
pot, drop in some silver sand, and fill up round the cutting with the 
same material ; then water gently, and place the pots in a close 
frame with a temperature of 70° to 75° at night, keeping close, 
shaded, and moist until the cuttings begin to grow ; afterwards 
admit air, and gradually harden them off. They will root all the 
more freely if they have a bottom heat of 75°. 
When the roots are matting the sides of the pots shift the plants 
into 4^-inch pots, using the same kind of compost as before, and 
place them in a house with a temperature of from 65° to 70° at 
night, having a moist well-ventilated atmosphere. The shelf of a 
stove so situated that the plants may be 15 inches from the glass 
will answer well. They will need to be encouraged by a gentle 
sprinkling overhead two or three times a day, and moderate water¬ 
ing at first, increasing the supply as the pots become full of roots ; 
but when the plant has taken to the fresh soil after having been 
potted, the shoot ought to be cut back to within three or four 
joints of the surface of the soil, which will render watering less 
necessary for a time, and yet the moisture must be sufficient for 
free growth. By August the plants should be in their largest 
pots, which for this class of plants may be 7 inches in diameter. 
The drainage should be good, but need not be excessive, and the 
plants must have a moist atmosphere and due supplies of water 
to keep them in a free state of growth. This treatment should 
be continued until they have made a good growth, and as it 
will be of no use for flowering unless it is strong, stiff, and short- 
jointed, they must be kept close to the glass and well attended to 
in point of ventilation. 
No training is required, for by turning the plants round 
frequently and exposing opposite sides to the light, they will grow 
evenly. Irregular growth, however, may need some regulation, 
which should be seen to in time ; a peg at first may give the 
required direction to a shoot, which, if allowed to grow unassisted, 
might required a stake to bring it to the position desired. 
After October the plants should have the lightest and most airy 
position in the stove, and the watering should be no more than is 
sufficient to keep the foliage fresh. This will cause the wood to 
ripen, and the terminal head or point of the shoot to set for flower. 
When the plants show signs of flowering water more freely, but 
avoid making the soil sodden, or syringing much overhead. Though 
sprinkling overhead once or twice a-day does good, yet when it is 
heavy, and the leaves remain long wet, they bee - me spotted and 
fail. The plant usually flowers in January, and continues until 
April. The heads of bloom are excellent for cutting, and though 
it is not so attractive a plant as many, it is nevertheless useful for 
decorative purposes, and deserves extenued culture. 
Centropogon Lucyanus is a stove plant, but may be grown in a 
house having a winter night temperature of 50° to 55°. The main 
point is to secure good growth in summer by giving plenty of heat 
and moisture, and in winter it endures dryness and coolness, and 
flowers all the better under these conditions. 
Should plants in small pots be wanted, the points of the strong¬ 
growing shoots may be taken off in July, inserted in small pots, and 
struck in hear, shifting them in August into 4-inch pots, and keeping 
them on shelves near the glass. Thus treated they will flower on 
6tems from 6 to 9 inches high, and are very pretty. 
The old plants need only have the worn out and weak woodl 
cut out in April, and after they have pushed fresh shoots a few 
inches long, they should be shaken out and repotted, keeping them 
close, moist, and shaded for a few days until established. Shift 
them into their largest pots at the end of July. A well-grown 
large plant is very handsome at midwinter, and invaluable where 
cut flowers are in demand, as it will in no way be impaired by 
the removal of the bloom, for all the blooming shoots need to be, 
cut back.—G. A. 
INSECTS OF THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
( Continued from page 6S.') 
A notoriously destructive group of insects is that we call the’ 
straight-winged order, or the Orthoptera, insects wonderfully agile, 
sometimes musical, sometimes strange in form and mysterious in 
habit, but which, happily for us, do not much infest our English 
gardens. One member of the tribe, the migratory locust—a chance' 
visitor here—is not only terribly injurious in Asia and Africa, bub 
comes as near to us as the Continent, where flowers, vegetables,, 
and fruit are often swept away by their ravenous hordes. These 
insects pass through a pupal stage, but they are as active in that as 
in the larval and winged stages, and though the wing-cases are soft,, 
the jaws are like those of the beetles, and powerful. This fact 
may be easily ascertained by anybody who has a chance of laying 
hold of the great green grasshopper, which is a haunter of hedges, 
and occasionally leaves these to take an excursion in any flower 
garden that may be near. If seized, it can bite sharply enough to 
cause pain, but as entomologists think this grasshopper is partly 
carnivorous in habit, it need not be expelled, possibly it feeds upon 
aphides and similar “ small fry.” 
The grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets belong to that division 
of these insects known as the “jumpers,” the other divisions are 
the “walkers” and the runners. Some have expressed surprise to 
me that the common house cricket, fond as it is of ■warmth and 
moisture, is not frequently found resident in stoves and forcing 
houses ; the species does indeed occur sometimes, but it is unusual, 
so far as I have observed. The preference these insects show fov 
bakehouses and kitchens indicates that such places yield them not 
only shelter but food, and the latter they may not be able to get in 
our houses. Though some years ago it was agreed, from the quarrel¬ 
some character crickets exhibit, that they must be carnivorous 
naturally, it seems now ascertained their food is of a vegetable kind.. 
Perhaps it is quite as well that our gardeners have comparative 
freedom from the monotonous “ song ” of this species, which is to 
many persons a very worrying sound, and according to old authorities 
on the subject of insect-killing, to slaughter crickets is a sure way 
to bring ill-luck upon oneself. The common species of field cricket 
now and then quits the fields, and disports itself amongst our shrubs,, 
or leaps over our lawns ; however, it does neither good nor harm. 
Erasmus Darwin credited it with the power of foretelling a change 
of weather, for he states that the chirp is sharper before approach¬ 
ing rain, the damping acting upon the insect’s drum or sounding 
board. 
In some of the midland counties, and in the west of Englandy 
the mole cricket (Gryllotalpa vulgaris), also called the churi? 
worm, or croaker, by some rustics, from the sound it makes, is 
noticed some years to be the cause of mischief in flower gardens 07 
amongst vegetables ; in other seasons it confines its operations to 
banks and fields. It is a remarkably muscular insect, and there is 
a peculiar development of the forelegs, suggesting a comparison to 
the limbs of the mole, as there is a broad and flattened digger 
armed with claws. Aided by this the mole cricket makes long 
runs or tunnels, gnawing the roots of plants, and, like its namesake, 
often betraying the course it has taken by a ridge of earth raised 
over the track. There must be some natural check upon then 
increase of mole crickets, for the females deposit a large number 
of eggs, about 300 Itosel reckoned, and like their parents their lifo 
is subterranean, but they cease to eat during very cold weather. 
It has been found that the adults cannot turn round in their 
burrows, but they are able to move backwards as well as forwards. 
At night they fly out to start new colonies, moving rather oddly by 
a succession of jerks. I am afraid there is not much advantage in 
trying to kill mole crickets by applying poisonous compounds to the 
soil, and the best way of dealing with them is to catch the adults 
at the egg-laying season when they are taking their excursions. 
A household insect of this order, too, unpleasantly common in 
town and country, is the cockroach (Blatta orientalis), also called? 
blackbeetle incorrectly. I have already noted the fact in these 
pages that this repulsive insect sometimes quits the domestic 
regions, which are its headquarters, and goes out of doors for at 
change, generally preferring the autumn. I have seen them along 
flower beds where they cannot do much harm, but if a greenhous. 
