364 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 22, 1885. 
are pricked off when large enough into boxes, and in due time placed 
singly into 3 or 4-inch pots and grown on in cold frames. Good plants 
may be produced by shifting again into 7-inch pots ; and extra large ones 
by another shift into those 10 or 11 inches across. The soil used for them 
i 9 a good loam enriched with a third of cowdung and a sprinkling of 
bonemeal thrown. Plenty of water must be supplied in all stages and as 
required. Manure must be given either in the water or on the surface to 
be watered in. The plants are best grown on out of doors until the 
flowers begin to open, when they will be greatly improved by being 
placed under glass to expand. It may be noted that the flowers, though 
scentless in the daytime, are sweetly scented in the evening.—B. 
SCRAPS ABOUT FRUIT. 
Now that we have such an excellent hardy fruit season it would prove 
highly interesting to fruit-growers in all parts of the kingdom if the 
Editor would kindly devote a small portion of its columns to publish¬ 
ing short notes or scraps on hardy fruit, similarly to the method adopted 
in these pages a year or two ago. Such would enable growers to have an 
interchange of opinions on the merits of the different varieties of fruit, 
which could not fail to be of great service, independently of the advan¬ 
tages of the Pear Congress, to the numerous readers of the Journal. 1 
give two for a start, and hope the example may be followed by others. 
Gansel’s Bergamot Pear.—A capital variety for growing on the 
cordon system. With us it is a free grower and a good cropper, and 
yields large handsome and highly coloured fruit, with white buttery 
flesh, and a very juicy, sugary, and delicious rich flavour. Grown as a 
pyramid it is very inferior as regards flavour except in the more southern 
districts. It requires to be grown against a south or west wall to bring 
out its beautiful colour and delicious Bergamot flavour. 
Beurre d’Amanlis. —Another valuable September Pear suitable for 
cordon training. Grown on a wall, same aspect as the preceding variety, 
a cordon 8 feet long bore eighteen large handsome fruits, which were of 
a deliciously melting, buttery, and rich juicy flavour. This variety is not 
so well adapted, in our experience, for pyramidal training, being of a too 
straggling habit of growth.—T. W. S. 
THE GLADIOLI AT SOUTH KENSINGTON. 
I DO not think that the remarkable collection of Gladioli shown by 
Mr. Campbell of Gourock, N.B., should be passed over with the short 
notice given in last week’s Journal, for I have no hesitation in saying that 
it was the most remarkable collection ever exhibited (in the south of 
England, at least) in the middle of October, and reflected great credit on 
the grower, both for the character of the blooms and for his enterprise in 
bringing them up such a distance and setting them up in such grand 
condition. As I have seen almost every exhibition of these grand flowers 
and am the oldest amateur grower of them in the kingdom, I feel that I 
may speak with confidence about them. The Royal Horticultural Society 
gave them the highest award it could do, but it ill requited Mr. Campbell 
for the expen-e and trouble he had been put to in bringing them up to 
London. 
When I said they were remarkable for the middle of October, Ido not 
mean to say that there was any need of excusing them in any way on 
account of the lateness of the time when they were exhibited. On the 
contrary, on comparing them in my mind with what Mr. Campbell 
exhibited at the Crystal Palace five weeks or more since, I believe that 
they were fully equal to those then exhibited. When you get spikes with 
ten or twelve expanded blooms bright and clean in colour, I do not think 
that any excuse is needed for them, and that was the case with those 
exhibited on Tuesday last. The same feature, too, was as noticeable now 
as then, that many of the older varieties which many had thought had 
been entirely superseded were exhibited in such form that one will have 
to “ hark back ” to them again. 
Amongst the best of the varieties staged were the following :—Adolphe 
Brongniart, rose tinted oraDge, an old flower, but still one of the best; 
Africaine (1878), slaty brown on scarlet ground with white centre; 
Amalthee, pure white tinted violet, a long spike well arranged, and, 
although out some years, still valuable ; Anna, cherry, tinted orange, 
carmine stripe on white ground ; Archduchesse Marie Christine (1879), 
white tinted lilac, flamed rosy carmine, a fine large flower ; Baroness 
Burdett Coutts (1879), delicate lilac tinted rose, flamed rosy purple, a 
large and striking flower ; Belladonna, white tinted clear lilac, lower 
petals striped bright carmine ; Cameleon (1880), steely lilac, flamed 
orange, white lines ; Coiinne (1880), rosy carmine, shaded cherry, creamy 
white blotch ; Crepuscule (1883), a long spike, but somewhat too narrow ; 
Dalila (1880), one of the best grown, bright rose, streaked and flamed 
carmine, large pure white blotch. There were several spikes of this with 
ten and eleven expanded blooms. Delicatissimus, an old flower, but 
pretty, white flamed and edged carmine ; De Mirbel, fine rose, tinted 
lilac violet ; Dumont D’Urville (1879), very long spike, bright cherry ; 
Flamboyant (1881) fine spike of blight scarlet flowers, a very remarkable 
variety ; Hesperide (1878), white ground, flaked rosy salmon ; Leandre, 
lilac, slightly shaded carmine, white lines, large white blotch ; L’Unique 
Violet, dark lilac, tinted violet, flamed dark violet ; Marquis of Lothian, 
flowers fresh, rosy lilac, good form and substance, a northern flower 
raised in 1875, very robust ; Meyerbeer, brilliant red, flamed vermilion 
an old and fine flower ; Murillo, rosy cerise, white lines, white throat’ 
good ; Psyche, clear light rose, flamed light carmine ; Roseus peTfectus’ 
rose tinted violet; Samuel Jennings (Kelway, 1880), scarlet, with whitg 
blotches on lower divisions ; Tour du Monde, dark cherry red, white 
blotch, edged lilac. 
It may be asked, How could such flowers be exhibited in such condition 
after the severe and stormy weather we have lately experienced P It is 
astonishing how much of this rough weather the Gladiolus will stand 
without injury if they are properly staked, but in this instance these 
flowers had been covered by wooden cases made expressly for them, and 
by means of which they are protected from all weathers. I do not, of 
course, know what is Mr. Campbell’s mode of culture, but whatever it 
may be he has safely established himself as one of the foremost culti¬ 
vators of this grand but capricious flower. 
I cannot forbear saying what a splendid flower it is for cutting, and 
what a prolonged season of bloom one can have. I only planted some 400 
corms, and yet from the middle of August I have had a succession of fine 
spikes, and I, this day, Oct. 17th, cut, I suppose, the last of them, 
although I see a few others which may yet flower ; nor were these I cut 
to-day poor things, but really good spikes with a number of finely ex¬ 
panded flowers of good substance and bright colour.—D., Deal. 
THE INSECT ENEMIES OF OUR GARDEN CROPS. 
THE CABBAGE. 
Like that useful vegetable, the Potato, the demand for which is 
little affected by the diatribes of some modern philosophers who 
regard it as comparatively innutritious, the Cabbage, in one or other 
of its varieties, is to be found upon dinner tables all the year round. 
The circumstances of the growth of most of these render them 
very liable to the insidious attacks of insects, and there is not a 
month from January to December during which some species is not 
getting its subsistence off a Brassica that is under garden cultivation. 
A considerable proportion, however, of the Cabbage-loving insects are 
easily kept under by a moderate amount of care, and others less 
readily detected are seldom numerous enough to cause serious damage. 
Needless alarm has occasionally been excited amoDgst the growers of 
Cabbages and kindred vegetables by reports concerning destructive 
insects, circulated in ignorance of the fact that generally each species 
keeps to its particular food. Thus in 1782, when the caterpillars of 
the brown tail moth swarmed in several counties, an apprehension 
arose that they would lay the kitchen gardens bare, because people 
did not know they fed only on fruit trees. Also it has happened that 
when a few specimens of the great green grasshopper have wandered 
from field or hedgerow in amongst the Cabbages, a gardener has 
regarded them with disgust, on the supposition they were the pioneers 
of a hungry company of locusts. 
In referring to the insects that commonly occur upon Cauliflowers, 
we have given an account of the caterpillars of the great yellow 
underwing (Tryphaena pronuba) and of the abundant Cabbage moth 
(Mamestra Brassicae), concerning which it will not therefore be 
needful to say more here than that there are few seasons when these 
insects are not observable in our gardens, though sometimes their 
numbers may be comparatively small. Also, we have named the 
small white butterfly (Pieris Rapae) as an insect which in its larval 
state presses to the heart both of Cauliflowers and Cabbages, yet from 
its habits and size is a less serious enemy to our plants than is its 
relative, the large white (P. Brassiest), an object pretty enough while 
it is on the wing in the summer sunshine, but too pernicious amongst 
vegetables to get much encouragement from us. Yet personally we 
must confess to a bit of sentimentalism which makes us loth to kill a 
butterfly, and there are other ways of keeping this species under even 
more efficacious. Like the small species, it is flying about as soon as 
winter has departed eager to deposit eggs, and caterpillars of the 
autumn brood may be taken until the end of October in the kitchen 
garden or on Cruciferous plants in the flower beds. It is scarcely 
necessary to describe so abundant a butterfly as this, but the fact 
should be noted for the benefit of those who may incline to destroy 
the perfect insect, that the females have several black spots scattered 
over the wings, which are lacking in their male companions. Since 
the eggs are deposited by the parent flies in clusters of three or four 
to a dozen, they may be found upon the leaves of Cabbages (and also 
upon Mustard and Turnip) during May, and by picking them off a 
check is given to the increase of the species at an important period. 
These eggs are yellow and ribbed, standing up on the leaves like tiny 
ninepins ; the first business of the juvenile caterpillar is to devour its 
eggshell. If left undisturbed the period of caterpillar growth occupies 
about a month, on any alarm they drop hastily from the food plant, 
though, as Newman pointed out, they return almost exactly to the 
spot they quitted after the danger appears to be over. That velvety 
aspect displayed by several caterpillars of this genus is not discernible 
in P. Brassicae, which is bluish green above, paler below, and lined 
with yellow ; all over the body are warts, each topped by a hair. 
Having had these caterpillars repeatedly under observation, I was 
at one time inclined to think that there were three broods each year, 
not two only, as is the general statement of British entomologists. 
For it is certain that in most counties there are but very short intervals 
during the season when we fail to perceive them upon some Brassica 
