June 7, 1888. J 
JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE OARDENER. 
4CI 
.So far as the observations have proceeded, they prove that, 
though this midge visits several varieties of the Pear, its favourite 
food is the Marie Louise, a Pear known to cultivators for at 
least fifty years ; brought from France or Belgium, and which may 
have been more or less infested by this insect ever since it has been 
grown in England. At present no complaints concerning it have 
reached entomologists from what are the great districts of the Pear, 
as in those counties where perry is made, or those where the fruit 
is grown for the London market. It is to be earnestly hoped the 
insect will not become abundant in our orchards, for its minute 
size renders it difficult to deal with. Under a magnifier we see it is 
furnished with long antennie, the wings are dusky, and the body 
black and grey studded with yellow hairs. The grub or larva is 
whitish yellow, having a pink projection on the under side near the 
bead, used for holding or grasping doubtless, it being minus legs, as 
is customary in the Dipterous or fly order. 
Mr. R. H. Meade thus outlines the history of the species ;— 
“ Its eggs are laid by the females, which possess a long and slender 
oviduct, in the interior of the blossom buds of the Pear tree before 
rthey expand. They are said to deposit the eggs upon the anthers 
■of the flowers, sometimes piercing through the unopened petals to 
reach them. The eggs soon hatch, and the little maggots bore into 
the -core of the young Pear, where they quickly increase in size, 
and spread and eat in various directions. The vitality of the fruit 
is not destroyed at once, but it continues to grow, sometimes, how- 
>ever, becoming distorted and lumpy in shape. By the time these 
young Pears have become an inch or two long the law® will have 
attained their full growth, and the fruit has become partly rotten 
and disorganised in its interior. If now cut open the core will be 
found partly hollow, the fruit fissured in various directions, and 
fsurrounded by excrement and debris, from ten to thirty maggots 
may be seern Next, the Pears fall off or crack, when the larv® 
leave the fruit, which they seem especially inclined to do in wet 
■weather, as the rain either makes the fruit crack or it penetrates 
into the fissures, and they spring to the ground, for they possess, 
like some others of the genus, the power of skipping or jumping. 
Having reached the earth they bury themselves and remain hidden 
until the following spring.” Besides the removal of all infected 
Pears seen during the season of growth it might be well to ward 
‘off attack by the application of some liquor to the buds which 
'Wculd be distasteful to the flies.—J. R. S. C. 
TABLE PLANTS. 
'Where large numbers of plants are needed for table or room 
‘decoration, and the pots are placed in vases, much may be done to 
improve their appearance by surfacing the soil with low-growing 
plants, which will form agreeable contrasts with the foliage of the 
larger plants. This applies to foliage plants only, which are more 
■often grown in a light manner, as Crotons with a single stem, 
Aralias, and Drac®nas. Flowering plants, as a rule, are more 
bushy in character, and generally so grown as to partially, if not 
wholly, hide the pots or vases in which they are placed. Beyond 
the improved appearance gained by using living plants to hide the 
:Soil in the pots, and frequently several inches of bare stems, much 
•time is gained in changing them, as when properly grown all that 
is required is to simply place a fresh one in the vase instead of 
‘having to cover the soil with moss or Ivy leaves. In some places, 
near towns especially, fresh green moss cannot be had, and artifi¬ 
cially coloured moss has then to be employed, which at its best is 
but a poor substitute for the real article. I propose to name those 
lo.w-growing plants which I have found suitable for the purpose, 
the method adopted in their preparation, and a few examples by 
way of contrast. The advantage of some of the p'ants is that they 
are hardy, and many need only greenhouse treatment, so that 
■several classes of cnltavators can be accommodated. 
Selaginella Kraussiana is the most useful of all. It forms a 
dense green covering, lasting a long time in perfection, is not par¬ 
ticular as to temperature, and may be made to contrast with any 
kind of plant, as for instance, when it covers the soil in which 
•Cocos Weddelliana is growing, by adding a few pieces of Panicum 
variegatum the effect is much improved. The spring is the 
best time to increase the stock by pulling it in small pieces, 
dibbling them into sandj' soil placed in heat and shade—a vinery 
.answers well. Tradescantia zebrina, Fittonia argyroneura and F. 
Verschaffelti are easily increased by inserting short cuttings in 
bottom heat in sandy soih Pilea muscosa is well adapted for this 
purpose, being dwarf in habit, deep green when in growth and 
when in bud deep pink, changing to a greyish white when in bloom. 
Cuttings strike freely at any time. Ficus repens, where low 
drooping growth is required, is capital; Vitis heterophylla and 
Peperomia argyraea are also suitable plants, Sedums Lydium and 
glaucum are useful hardy plants suitable to associate with those 
requiring greenhouse temperature only, and Harrison's Musk is 
sometimes used for this purpose. 
One month before the plants are required is soon enough to 
surface the soil if the plants are suitably prepared and placed in 
sufficiently thick for immediate effect ; or should the plants need 
potting a few weeks earlier than this the surfacing may be put on 
at that time. Drooping plants, such as Panicum and Tradescantia, 
are placed around the pot. These droop over the sides of the vase 
when grown into form ; by pinching out the points a thicker 
growth is obtained. Those of upright growth should be placed in 
the centre. An example of arrangement in this form may be, for 
instance, red-leaved Croton with a base of Selaginella and Pani¬ 
cum, Tradescantia, or white Fittonia, while yellow-leaved Crotons 
may have red Fittonia, Pilea, and Panicum. After planting shade 
should be given for a few days.—E. M. 
NOTES ON EARLY ENGLISH HORTICULTURE. 
( Continued from page 336.') 
The Romans are often spoken of as an iron race, a people 
hardy and fierce, but during their later history their love of gar¬ 
dening brings out their character in a milder phase. We do not, 
perhaps, allow sufficiently for their influence upon English horti¬ 
culture, when we look at the unsettled and warlike times which 
followed, for long centuries, the Roman occupancy. It is true 
that the gardens attached to their town and country villas fell into 
neglect, still we may trace a descent of horticultural tradition? 
from the Romans to the monks, in whose gardens flowers bloomeu 
and fruits and vegetables were reared when other pursuits occupied 
aU the attention of nobles and citizens. And moreover, of the 
large number of plants introduced by the Romans only a part 
became extinct; others propagated and gradually spread themselves, 
so as to make it a doubtful point with many species whether 
they are true natives or early introductions. People show us 
even now, for instance, a Plum growing apparently wild in 
Stone Wood, Kent, which is presumed to have been planted by 
one of the Roman residents in the town which grew up at the 
extremity of the valley below Southfleet, and on the border of 
the ancient road from Dover to London and the north—viz., Wat- 
ling Street. 
Still we discover, or surmise, that some species, once thought to 
be foreign, are really of English descent. Thus the Yew, which 
for centuries writers referred to as an imported tree, has of late 
been found in such abundance amongst other trees of forests long 
submerged, that we are assured it grew here when Cmsar landed, 
and before. That bald-headed and vain-glorious general was a 
successful soldier, but not always a good observer. lie thought 
the Beech or Fagus did not occur in Britain because he did not 
find it along the line of his march, unless by Fagus he meant the 
Sweet Chestnut, which is not a plausible explanation. But the 
Abies which C®sar also said he missed was not the Scotch Pine, 
sometimes erroneously called a Fir, but the Silver Fir, certainly 
not British. If afterwards brought in by the Romans, it died out 
later on, for it was not known to horticulturists of the Middle 
Ages. 
Although we possess a meagre fragmentary account of Roman 
everyday life in Britain while the island owned the supremacy 
of that empire, we can picture to ourselves what the gardens 
of the resident gentlemen were by the accounts we have of 
Italian villas, which would be doubtless imitated on English 
shores as nearly as possible. Being conquerors of the world 
the Romans acquired a knowledge of trees growing in Europe, 
Asia, and Africa, but on the whole they were most indebted 
to Persia and Greece. Few things are new under the sun, and 
on a survey of the Roman gardens lying round London—let us 
say about the third centurj—we should see the two styles de¬ 
scribed in modern works on gardens—viz., natural and artificial. 
That the Romans took the hint of the irregular or natural one (in 
fact our Laureate’s “ careless ordered garden ’’) from the pleasure 
grounds or paradise of Eastern kings seems likely. And the deli¬ 
neation of garden spaces or courts on some of the ancient Egyptian 
monuments by their formality suggest that the formal manner of 
layiii'i' out originated in that land, but the Romans probablj learnt 
it from the Greeks. We should perceive that the larger gardens, 
as might be expected, were chiefly laid out in the natural mode, and 
the smaller in an artificial or geometric fashion. If of any extent, 
the gaidens were always well shaded with lines of trees, and 
shrubberies or clumps interspersed. Seats were numerous, and 
the Romans added the additional luxury of low couches, so 
that persons could lie if they chose without the risk of rest¬ 
ing upon the ground. As a rule they liked to introduce water, 
pieferring to a pond or lake some streamlet, so contrived that its 
turns and changes of level made it flow with a murmuring sound 
