2£6 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 22, 1892. 
of helmet ; the lip is large and spreading, very bright scarlet; 
the spur and the bracts ou the stem are very curious. When 
growth has commenced the tubers should be potted into small pots 
(60’s) in chopped peat and sphagnum mixed with sand. A stove 
temperature and plenty of moisture with a position near the glass 
will suit them. The plants commence to flower at the end of 
August and last in beauty about a month. Soon after the flowers 
have faded the plants commence to die down, and as they are 
entirely deciduous water must be withheld ; to keep them through 
the resting period is the hardest part of their cultivation. With 
Ihe two or three plants I have had to do I find that they require 
resting in a stove temperature on a shelf. It is a good plan to 
place the pots containing the plant in a pot a size larger, and fill 
the space between with sand. The moisture in the house prevents 
the sand from becoming quite dry, and it in turns prevents the 
tubers from being shrivellediup, obviating the necessity of watering, 
and so preventing damping off.—C. K. 
Habenakia CARNEA. 
By the side of a plant of H. militaris and in contrast to it a 
plant of H. carnea is flowering in the warm Orchid house at Kew. 
Its requirements are the same as the above, but it does not need 
to be dried off. The leaves, which are 2 inches long by 1 broad, 
are dark green, plentifully marked with w'hite spots. The spike 
is about 8 inches high, carrying six or eight large flowers, white 
with the faintest tinge of pink. The spur attached to each flower 
is about 3 inches long. This plant flowered at Kew for the first 
time last year, and was sent to that establishment by Mr. Curtis of 
the Penang Botanic Gardens, who, I believe, found it in the 
Langkawi Island. If H. carnea could be successfully introduced 
in quantity we should have a splendid companion to H. militaris, 
but at present it is new and rare.—C. K. 
CCELOGYNE FLEXUOSA. 
This species is a member of Lindley’s group Flexuosae, and is 
allied to C. simplex, Littdl. and C. suaveolens, Hoolc.f. From the 
former, however, it is readily distinguished by its sharply hexangular 
ovary, broader petals, and the more slender keels of the lip ; from 
the latter by the narrower petals and the straight, not very undulate, 
keels of the lip ; and from both by its habit of producing the scapes 
from the summit of the nearly mature pseudo-bulbs between the 
leaves, not from the young growths. It is a native of Java, and 
was presented by the Botanic Garden at Leyden to the Kew 
collection, where it flowered in April of the present year. It was 
also received from Mr. F. W. Moore, Glasnevin Botanic Garden, 
Dublin, as a Javan species, as long ago as May 1889, when it could 
not be determined. The flowers are white with a light yellow 
stain across the middle of the lip, which is extended as . a narrow 
line on either side of the disc to near the base, at which point the 
lip is very sharply constricted, producing a narrow transverse 
channel underneath.—(“ Kew Bulletin.’ 7 ) 
Oncidium CRISTATUM. 
A distinct and pretty species introduced from Brazil by Messrs. 
Linden, L’Horticulture Internationale, Brussels, which flowered in 
April of the present year, and was sent to Kew for determination. 
It is allied to O. Schillerianum, Rchb.f., and O. Yolvox, Rchb.f., 
with which it agrees in its somewhat twining scape. The sepals 
and petals are reflexed, undulate, and of a clear bright yellow, the 
lip a little deeper yellow with a row of suffused red-brown dots on 
either side of the crest, and the column-wings deep yellow. The 
crest consists of five parallel cristate-crenulate keels, the two 
outer ones being longer, and the two next considerably shorter 
than the middle one.—(“ Kew Bulletin.”) 
Cypripedium ptjsillum. 
This is a curious little species, closely allied to Cypripedium 
fasciculatum, Kellogg, a native of California and Oregon, being in 
fact the only other member of the section Diphyllie with racemose 
flowers. The present species, however, is a much smaller plant in 
every respect, barely exceeding 4 inches high. The flowers are 
light yellow, longitudinally veined with dull brownish-purple, 
with a light yellow lip ; they become more purple as they fade. 
The infolded margin of the lip, which is strongly infolded round 
the mouth, is at the base suddenly turned out and reflexed. A 
plant was purchased for the Kew collection in May last, without 
any record of its origin, but shortly afterwards it was sent for 
determination by H. J. Elwes, Esq., of Cirencester, who had 
received it with the information that it came from Florida. It 
has also flowered with Messrs. F. Sander & Co., of St. Albans.— 
(“ Kew Bulletin.”) 
INSECTS OF THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
(Continued from page 96 .) 
Space did not allow me, in the preceding article, to complete 
the history of those lively little visitants or dwellers in our 
gardens, the gall-gnats, otherwise Cecidomyise, and I now append 
a few more facts about them. I have called them lively, and so 
they are when winged, but as larvaa they are very slow in their 
movements ; as a rule, indeed, those that live within galls only 
quit them to descend to the earth, then they are said to move 
rapidly. Some of the tiny larvae, however, turn to pupae without 
quitting the gall, in which they spin a slight silken cocoon. 
Obviously, the galls made by these insects on leaves are more 
frequently noticed than the enlargements they produce on the 
stems of plants, or in unexpanded buds, which are apt to be passed 
by as natural peculiarities of the plant. Some deformed buds, 
such as those sometimes seen on Fraxinus species, contain several 
Cecidomyise living in a sort of “ happy family ” condition. What 
is more singular still, some galls serve as abodes for two larvae of 
different species, the egg producing the second larva being deposited 
when the first is partially grown. How the couple arrange matters 
is doubtful ; some entomologists think one of the two dies eventu¬ 
ally, a single fly emerging from the larva which has been stronger, 
and has possibly devoured the other or else starved it out. Some 
wonder has been expressed how these slender, seemingly feeble, 
flies can release themselves from the galls if it has happened the 
pupae have remained in them. It appears they are helped in getting 
out by their antennae, which are horn-like at the base, also they 
obtain leverage from spines situate on the abdomen. 
One remarkable fact is stated about a few species of this group ; 
they are, like the aphides, viviparous, and false eggs form in the 
bodies of some of them, which increase till the larvae become 
distended with young larvae resembling themselves. Such 
Cecidomyiae have occurred under the bark of trees, in the cones 
of Pines, and in fungi. Though, as a rule, the larvae of this 
group prefer living plants, gall gnats have been reared from 
decaying bulbs of Tulips and Hyacinths. Then there are 
other species, which some have placed in a genus by themselves 
and named Diplosis, and which live upon, not in, leaves ; they are 
presumed to feed upon plant lice, possibly also upon mites. 
These are colourless, usually, and transparent, or nearly so ; the 
last ring of the body is spiny, and by the help of the spines 
occasional leaps are made by the larvse in pursuit of their prey. 
These must be considered useful. Some of the flies haunt flowers, 
and, small as they are, it is supposed they assist the impregnation 
in some instances, because they can enter blossoms, from which 
their own size excludes bees and larger flies. In leaving these, I 
should add that the former has a terrible enemy amongst them, 
the Wheat midge, or C. tritici, and to the same group belongs the 
Hessian fly, so-called. 
We pass now to flies of somewhat different form, rather 
stouter, though allied to the gnats and midges. Several of these 
in their larval state occur amongst manure, especially vegetable, 
but one of them is notably a pest wherever it turns up, because it 
makes the roots of plants the object of its attack. From some odd 
reason, this fly has received the name of St. Mark’s fly, or Bibio 
Marci, but I do not think gardeners generally recognise the insect 
by this or any other particular name, as the larva is seldom 
distinguished from similar root-feeders, such as those of the crane 
fly tribe. In the fly, which is small, the males and females have 
heads very unlike. The former have eyes so large and prominent 
that they seem to occupy almost the whole front of the head. The 
larva or grub of B. Marci is slender, brown in colour, muscular, 
and clothed with short, stiff hairs, which serve instead of legs. It 
sometimes infests the Strawberry, and in the flower garden burrows 
at the roots of the Larkspur, Ranunculus, and other favourite 
flowers. Not unfrequently these larvae run tracks for a long 
distance underground, perhaps for the sake of meeting sociably, 
since they have now and then been found in parties of from ten to 
a hundred packed closely together. This pest may be destroyed 
by the application of petroleum, suitably diluted ; it is also killed 
by hellebore tea. 
Passing by the great host of gnats and midges which are, in 
their larval state, of aquatic habit, yet which come to our gardens 
either to visit the flowers or to act as bloodsuckers if they have 
opportunity, I mention one little creature which we frequently see 
on the windows of our p’ant houses in autumn and winter. It 
rejoices in the Latin name of Psychoda pbalamoides, because it is 
supposed to look rather moth-like, with sloping, broadish wings, 
which have tiny hairs and black bands. It runs and hops briskly 
if alarmed, and comes from a larva which lives upon manure. The 
Tipulidoe, or crane flies, are long-legged and long-bodied. Their 
lankiness makes them also share with a species of spider the name 
