December 29, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
569 
C. Mastersi, 6 guineas ; Coelogyne pandurata, a fine plant in 
a pan, 9 guineas; Laelia anceps alba, 14 guineas ; and Sobralia 
xantholeuca, 9£ guineas. Other plants secured moderate prices, 
and were sold without reserve. 
IMPORTED AZALEAS. 
Thousands of Azaleas, both indica and mollis, are imported 
annually from Belgium. It is said that the business is developing, 
too, very rapidly. The plants are sent direct to private growers, 
also to trade growers and wholesale firms, besides thousands are 
disposed of by auction. Gardeners, as a rule, are rather 
chary about purchasing these plants, for they are not always 
satisfactory ; but I am under the impression the fault lies 
chiefly with the culture accorded them, which is not at all 
times judicious or rational either. When walking through a 
greenhouse I have had it explained to me that the Azaleas 
are not satisfactory, but then they were only imported 
plants last autumn. This answer may do very well in 
some cases, but I fear we shall have to find something 
more plausible to satisfy anyone used to the culture of such 
plants. 
It is well known the plants arrive here without any pots, 
neither have they been grown in any. They are simply cut 
out of beds of leaf soil, at any rate 80 per cent, is composed 
of this material. This proceeding naturally root-prunes 
them to a remarkable degree, cutting away the greater 
part of the feeding roots. In most cases this soil gets dry 
by the time the plants reach their destination. I have seen 
it dust dry when the plants were unpacked in the auction 
room. This state of affairs does not improve the plants; 
on the contrary, it no doubt damages many of the roots that 
have already escaped injury. If we commence by over¬ 
potting, the first cultural mistake is made. I find they will 
just go in 6-inch pots, and allow a little peaty compost to be 
pressed round them. But before they are potted the ball of 
roots should be placed in a vessel of water till it is tho¬ 
roughly saturated. After allowing the water to drain out, 
the plants will be ready for the pots. It is needless to 
remind the grower they require efficient drainage, for they 
will not brook sodden soil. For compost I prefer peat, 
leaf soil, and turfy loam in equal portions, with a liberal 
addition of road or silver sand. This compost may appear 
a little too light, but if it is used at a right degree of 
moisture it can be pressed very firm without becoming pasty, 
the latter condition should be scrupulously avoided. 
After potting the plants require a cool house, where they 
will get plenty of air and light. This is the point where 
failure is often courted. The plants are found to be well 
set with flower buds, and the grower straightway resolves 
to have them in bloom early. Thus they are introduced 
into a warm house, probably a forcing pit. The result 
cf such treatment is too well known to require detailing 
here. It appears to me to be absurd to expect plants to do 
other than fail under such circumstances. The heat causes the 
buds to swell, the leaves demand a supply of food from the roots, 
which they are totally unable to give, owing to their recent treat¬ 
ment, and the inevitable result follows. If cool treatment is given 
them the buds remain quiet, there is no demand, or very little 
from the leaves, and the plants have a quiet time to form plenty of 
roots before spring. I potted a small batch of indica early in 
October. They have been kept quite cool since. To-day I have 
turned out several of them, and am pleased to record the fact that 
they are making a quantity of beautiful white roots that will be 
able to support them sumptuously neat spring when active growth 
commences again.— James B. Riding. 
INSECTS OF THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
(Continued from page 257.) 
Gardeners know how important it is, with many flowers that 
are grown for exhibition, to preserve the petals from all damage 
or displacement, and there is no doubt these sometimes occur 
through the visits of insects seeking honey or pollen. Some of 
my friends who have noticed certain of the larger flies on or near 
flowers, have fancied they might do barm to the petals by biting 
them, but most of the damage done in this way is to be attributed 
either to earwigs or to some species of beetle. Bees rarely bite 
flowers, though they are. furnished with jaws ; flies never do, for 
their sole implement is a proboscis or sucker ; even the species 
that are predatory in habit cannot eat the insects they kill, they 
only grasp them firmly, imbibe their juices, and drop the bodies. 
Many of those flies we see haunting flowers come to them in order 
to seize other insects, and do not touch the flowers themselves ; 
there are also flies which seem to visit our flower gardens for no 
particular object, unless it be to enjoy their beauties. 
Amongst the commoner flies of the garden we cannot fail to 
notice the conspicuous soldier flies of the family Stratiomidse, 
which come next to the crane flies, already mentioned. It is not 
very evident why they were thus styled, for they are not warlike, 
and though a few of them have red markings on a black ground, 
others are tinted with yellow or white. Some of them are large, 
broad-bodied, they possess spines on the thorax, and the bodies 
have more or less of a pattern upon them, in spots, streaks, or 
FIG. 77.— L^ELIA ANCEPS OWENIANA. 
triangles. They visit flowers for their honey, and do not seem to 
meddle with other insects ; harmless species, ornamental in the 
garden, and while some of the larvae or grubs live in ponds or 
ditches, others feed on decaying vegetable matter, so may be useful. 
One or two species are more slim and of brighter colours, such as 
the fly called Sargus cuprarius, a rather abundant insect in the 
south of England, yet beautiful, the thorax being golden green, 
and the abdomen purple. The larva or grub is said to live under¬ 
ground, possibly feeding upon roots. Flower gardens that are 
situated near woods or pastures have an occasional visit from one 
of the breeze flies, so named from the sonorous noise produced by 
their wings. We know them also by the names of oxflies, gadflies, 
and clegs. To cattle they are a cause of painful annoyance, and 
sometimes they produce quite a panic in a herd, while horses 
greatly dread them. The females are the hostile individuals ; nor 
do they spare mankind ; one species, a speckled grey fly, common 
in July and August, dashes fiercely at our faces and hands when it 
has the chance. It is the male of these insects that is likely to 
appear in gardens as a haunter of flowers. Both sexes have sin¬ 
gularly lustrous eyes, green or crimson, and on this colour are 
stripes or spots of various tints. There is no reason to apprehend 
an assault from the male gadflies, for in disposition they are 
pacific, the females only being bloodsuckers. 
Half buried in flowers, and looking as if they had entered them 
for the sake of a nap, we find some small globular flies that we 
call the Acroceras, distiguishable especially by their small heads, 
which seem only big enough to hold the eyes. Their food is the 
honey they obtain, and they offer quite a contrast to their active 
and powerful relatives, the Asili, flies remarkable for long bodies, 
a narrow thorax, and which have what has been described a 
“ hungry look.” Their hunger they satisfy by preying upon other 
