308 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Aioril 20, 1893. 
dews which fell during the evenings has invariably been towards 
early morning almost neutralised by frost. In my garden, which 
has the great advantage of absolute protection from north and 
east winds, some plants have been almost absolutely stationary ; 
while others, like the gigantic Lily of the Himalayas (Lilium 
giganteum cordifolium), are developing with great rapidity. Of 
all my floral possessions the above is the most interesting. It has 
taken three years in accordance with its unique yet invariable 
custom to build up its present immense flowering bulb, and now it 
is beginning to throw out successively its magnificent heart-shaped 
leaves. My other Lilies, such as auratum, speciosum, longiflorum, 
umbellatum, Martagon, and Krameri, are of somewhat slower 
growth but considering the excessive dryness of the season they 
are doing tolerably well. 
“ Long sleeps,” says Tennyson in his immortal “ InMemoriam,” 
“ the summer in the seed.” But this assertion is hardly expressive 
of the rapidly germinating Convolvulus minor, which, sown less 
than a week ago, is above the ground to-day. The exceedingly 
graceful Shirley Poppy, which is just the wild flower of that name 
introduced into our gardens and improved by cultivation, seems 
also to be a notable exception to the general rule. 
Should April showers come soon—falling like mercy, as depicted 
by Shakespeare, “ upon the place beneath ”—Roses will be excep¬ 
tionally early this year. With me Duke of Edinburgh, Sir Garnet 
Wolseley, Belle Lyonnaise, Marguerite Dickson, Reynolds Hole, 
and many others have long been in leaf ; and several buds are 
already very prominent on that earliest of all Roses, Gloire de 
Dijon. 
In a recent letter, abounding in characteristic flashes of humour, 
the Dean of Rochester (whom I am to have the pleasure of visit¬ 
ing next month) gave me the parentage of Reynolds Hole, one 
of the most exquisite dark Roses in cultivation, which bears his 
honoured name. “ It comes,” he says, “ Horn Cheshunt, and is 
closely affiliated to the Duke of Edinburgh. It is, like many other 
beauties, uncertain, coy, and hard to please, yet exquisitely lovely 
when in a good humour.” 
One of the latest additions to my miniature rosarium is the 
Salamander Rose, described in several horticultural journals as 
a “gorgeous crimson” from Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire. It is 
like its distinguished predecessors, Mrs. John Laing, Marguerite 
Dickson, and Mrs. Paul, which it resembles not in colour though it 
has many of their finest attributes—a gold medallist of the National 
Rose Society. 
Another valuable recent acquisition is a bed of modern Pansies 
and Violas, received from the great Rothesay cultivators of those 
flowers, of which my special favourites are the Duchess of Suther¬ 
land, the Countess of Hopetoun, the Countess of Kintore, Crimson 
King, Ardwell Gem, and Duchess of Fife. The last mentioned is 
an especially charming variety, a beautiful shade of primrose, 
distinctly edged with blue. The Viola blooms incessantly from 
March to November, and amply repays the most assiduous 
attention. It is a modest contemporary of the vernal Daffodil, 
and blooms with equanimity upon the grave of the latest autumnal 
Rose.— David R. Williamson. 
INSECTS OF THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
{Concluded fcom iyaije lOSd) 
Some years ago, before London had assumed its present huge 
proportions, and when it was belted around with many acres of 
suburban market gardens, those that had houses near these 
frequently complained of the host of flies that infested their 
rooms. This was to be accounted for by the large quantities of 
natural manure used, in which the flies found a breeding place, 
especially the common house fly and the yellow dung fly. Arti¬ 
ficial manures have diminished the multiplication of flies in gardens ; 
but they are always favourite resorts of the Muscidie, or what we 
caT the flies proper, insects very diverse in size and form, yet 
marked by a family likeness. Various are the causes that bring 
them into our flower gardens. Many are seekers of honey, others 
c#me in pursuit of smaller insects, and a few appear in the capacity 
of bloodsuckers if they have the chance of attacking anyone. A 
large number amongst the tiny species are, while larvie, producers 
of galls, or leaf-miners ; but they are only disfigurers, and do not 
really weaken or kill plants. 
It is likely there are flies which help to fertilise flowers, but 
their agency is not so marked as is that of the bee tribe. Some 
plants of the Composite order, allied to the Chrysanthemum, and 
the peculiar aroma of which has a repellant influence on bees, are 
much visited by some of the larger flies. But flies have their 
fancies, and the house or domestic fly is found to have a dislike to 
the smell of naost Pelargoniums, so that if a row of these plants 
is placed outside a window, even if the sash be raised, very few 
flies will cress them to enter a room. Frequently this fly is 
accused of “ biting ” people indoor or out; but in fact all it does 
is to settle upon the skin should it happen to be moist, and take 
up a drop or two with its fleshy sucker. But a fly that does 
frequently “ bite ” or puncture people when sitting in gardens is 
the stable fly, or Stomoxys calcitrans, a fly bred from manure and 
exceedingly like the common fly, but rather more hairy. This fly 
has a slender and sharp proboscis, by which it wounds men and 
animals ; but it does not seem to inject a poison, as does the gnat 
and the flea. 
Allied to the house and bluebottle flies are the species in the 
genus Tachina, of which we have more than a hundred, varying in 
size from the eighth of an inch to half an inch, some of metallic 
lustre, but the majority of dull colours, powerful-looking insects, 
which probably are of carnivorous habit as flies, and in their larval 
state certainly parasitic in habit. Their proceedings resemble 
those of the four-winged ichneumon flies ; they deposit ’eggs on the 
bodies of other insects, and the grubs burrow in, gradually killing 
the victim. Fifty or more of them have been extracted from the 
body of one caterpillar, and they effect the destruction every year 
of part of those caterpillars that are common in flower gardens. 
What is more remarkable, there are some species that select as 
their special objects of attack individuals of the beetle race, even 
choosing hardish species of the Aveevil kind. In a way which is not 
explained yet, one species of Tachina manages to deposit eggs upon 
spiders, and thus revenges, to some degree, the injuries which flies 
suffer from these foes. T. ferox is a great hunter of caterpillars ; 
it is a fly with a grey head, a broAvn thorax, and a yellow abdomen 
that appears as if polished. Another we sometimes notice is 
T. grossa, which we might take for a small black humble bee ; it is 
adorned with some reddish hairs. We may regard the Tachina 
group of flies favourably, whether they appear amidst the flower 
beds or in the kitchen garden. The winter season is generally 
passed by them in the pupal condition under the earth, and these, 
with some other useful insects, are unavoidably killed occasionally 
by the methods adopted for the removal of hurtful insects from 
garden soil. 
Flies of the genus Anthomyia are called flower-lovers, for they 
resort to flowers during the summer season, very often in little 
swarms, but they are not predatory, and regale themselves upon the 
nectar. Most of them are small, greyish brown, black or dull red. 
some being stout-bodied, some rather slender. In habit the larvre 
vary, many of them live in decaying animal or vegetable matter, 
and occasionally attack bulbs or roots which are not decayed. 
Other species mine the leaves of garden plants, such as the 
Columbine and Honeysuckle, and some again produce galls upon 
the leaves or stems of plants, chiefly of the Composite order. There 
is a well-known pest to farmers, named A. Betse, which mines the 
leaves of the Mangold ; to this genus also belong the Cabbage, 
Onion, and Lettuce flies, and they resort to the flower garden, 
though not breeding there. Some of the larvae of Diplosis have a 
curious habit—they live upon aphides, and so move about upon the 
surface of leaves amongst their prey. They have no jaws, but 
somehow draw in the juices of aphides by suction, and they travel 
in a succession of jumps, made by means of bristles along the 
body. In some species the larvae are viviparous, like the aphides, 
during a part of the summer. False eggs occur within the larva, 
which increase gradually till the entire body of the parent is dis¬ 
tended so that it bursts, and young larvae issue forth to finish their 
growth by aphis food. This would seem to be a wise provision of 
Nature to multiply the numbers of an aphis killer just when they 
are most prolific. 
Some of the flies of the genus Tephritis, though they are rather 
small, attract our notice when they settle upon flowers by the 
lustre of their eyes and the markings upon their wings, which, if 
examined with a magnifier, are seen to be curiously spotted or 
banded in different colours. They are rather objectionable visitors, 
as the larva) burrow into the leaves of some herbaceous plants and 
produce blisters or galls, so that they fall off if not removed. 
When full grown they descend to the earth, and there become 
pupse. It is, therefore, desirable to check the increase of these 
and other larva; of flies that disfigure or damage leaves by picking 
and burning those we have discovered to be infected, before the 
insects in them have had time to emerge. The garden Pea is one 
of the plants resorted to by these flies, and the species of Lobelia 
and Silene. We have a tolerably good means of knowing those 
flies that are predatory in habit. Asa rule they do not hover above 
flowers, but go from one to another by leaps, half flying, half 
walking, or else they run actively over leaves and flowers too with 
wings raised perpendicularly, like the pretty little shining species 
Sepsis cynipsea, which is so frequent in gardens about June, and 
destroys lesser insects. 
Before leaving the fly order I may mention an insect which is 
sometimes called a fly, though it is really akin to aphis and coccus. 
