132 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February It, 1189. 
becomes covered with flowers. The plant is well adapted for culture in 
pots also, and is readily increased by seed. Any ordinary garden soil 
that is not excessively heavy or wet suits it. 
BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLAND COUNTIES GARDENERS’ 
MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION. 
Election of Vegetables foe 1889. 
The following paragraph was some time ago distributed to the whole 
of the members of the above Association, and the result is appended, the 
varieties named being elected by ballot at a meeting on the 29th ult., 
at which about eighty members were present. This is a very good idea, 
and appears to have been very well carried out. 
“ Members are particularly requested to fill in the names of such 
varieties of vegetables that they have found from practical experience 
to be the best, but in no case to name more than the number specified. 
This form to be given in to the Secretary at the meeting on January 22nd, 
or sent by post on January 26th, in order that a properly selected list 
may be prepared for discussion at the meeting on January 29th.” 
Kale or Bokecole, 4 varieties' 
Dwarf Green Curled 
Cottager’s Kale 
Asparagus Kale 
Tall Scotch 
Peas, 8 varieties. 
American Wonder 
William the First 
Prince of Wales 
Stratagem 
Duke of Albany 
Telephone 
Veitch’s Perfection 
Ne Plus Ultra 
Beans, Runners, 2 varieties. 
Ne Plus Ultra 
Girtford Giant 
Beans, French, 2 varieties. 
Canadian Wonder 
Ne Plus Ultra 
Beans, Broad, 2 varieties. 
Seville Longpod 
Johnson’s Wonderful 
Potatoes, 7 varieties. 
Myatt’s Ashleaf 
Snowdrop 
Schoolmaster 
Beauty of Hebron 
Sutton’s Seedling 
Sutton’s Satisfaction 
Magnum Bonum 
Cauliflower, 3 varieties. 
Early London 
Walcheren 
Veitch’s Autumn Giant 
Broccoli, 4 varieties. 
Veitch’s self-protecting 
Autumn 
Snow’s Winter White 
Leamington 
Sutton’s Late Queen 
Cabbage, 3 varieties. 
Enfield Market 
E Ham’s Early Dwarf 
Nonpareil 
Brussels Sprouts, 2 varieties. 
Sutton’s Exhibition 
Aigburth 
Savoys, 2 varieties. 
Dwarf Green Curled 
Drumhead 
Carrots, 2 varieties. 
Early Nantes 
James’s Scarlet Inter¬ 
mediate 
Parsnip, 1 variety. 
Student 
Lettuce, 3 varieties. 
All the Year Round 
Black-seeded Bath Cos 
Giant White Cos 
Celery, 2 varieties. 
Major Clarke’s Red 
Sulham Prize Pink 
Turnips, 2 varieties. 
Early Snowball 
White Stone 
Onions, 4 varieties. 
James’s Long Keeping 
Bedfordshire Champion 
Rousham Park Hero 
Red Italian Tripoli 
Tomatoes, 2 varieties. 
Sutton’s Perfection 
Hackwood Park Prolific 
Vegetable Marrows, 
2 varieties. 
Long White 
Moore’s Cream 
Beet, 2 varieties. * 
Nutting’s Dwarf Red 
Henderson’s Pine Apple 
NOTES ON GRAPES. 
A few words of explanation are necessary on my part to set Mr. 
Dunkin’s mind at rest about the time of starting and the temperature 
of our late vinery. First let me say that I am quite at one with him 
in having all late Grapes started by the beginning or middle of March, 
so as to have them well advanced before the long cold nights come on, 
as I believe they keep better than when heavy firing has to be done to 
bring them up in finishing. Why, then, it may be asked, did we defer 
starting till April ? I ought to have explained this, perhaps, in my last 
notes, but did not think of it. Obligation is no choice, and in the 
starting of our late vinery we had no choice, as new rafters were being 
put in, and, as is the case too often in gardens, we could not have this 
work done till late. Nevertheless, it is a fact that our Grapes on the 
whole have been very fair, and with the temperature as before stated. 
I, perhaps, ought to add that when the Vines were in flower a night 
temperature of 70° was maintained in order to secure a set, and on 
several occasions the temperature no doubt went up with the sun’s heat 
to 80°, or even more, with plenty of ventilation. When I said our 
temperature was seldom above 70°, I might also have said that with 
less ventilation we could have a higher temperature without having to 
resort to hard firing. As it was we had always a circulation of fresh 
warm air in the house. The result, no doubt, would have been different 
if we had been obliged to keep the ventilators closed more or less to 
raise the temperature to what 1 have before stated. 
As Mr. Dunkin seems inclined to doubt the accuracy of my state¬ 
ments, I herewith submit a small shoulder of Gros Colman and a small 
bunch of Lady Downe’s for the Editor’s inspection. I know they are 
not up to exhibition standard, but I think they are passable considering 
the lateness of starting and the dullness of last season.—G. Hilton. 
[The Lady Downe’s berries are well coloured and excellent in 
quality ; Gros Colman not so well coloured, but of good size and quality. 
They are very creditable Grapes as the produce of renovated Vines.] 
THE PESTS OF THE PAST ROSE SEASON. 
(Continued from page 111.') 
There is an insect pest which is occasionally a great nuisance, 
though unknown in some places, I mean the weevil family—little 
beetles of different species and colours, but all of them harmful. Some 
gardeners, looking upon all insects as enemies, adopt the motto of the 
Irishman at the fair, “ Wherever you see a head hit it,” and I am afraid 
they are likely to be more often right than wrong ; still, lest such a true 
friend as a ladybird might suffer as being a beetle, it may be as well to 
point out that weevils, which will do all the harm they can, may be 
distinguished by their long “noses” or “beaks.” Some of them only 
come out at night, and these are of a brown colour, while some of those 
that feed in the daytime are of the--most brilliant green. A myriad of 
these tiny creatures, most beautiful in appearance, attacked one of my 
plants of Boule d’Or against an old paling in 1887. They had nearly 
eaten it when I found, it out, and it was a long time before I exter¬ 
minated them. _ 
But it is the night-feeding brown weevils which have occasioned 
several letters to the Journal, as a novice is often puzzled to account 
for daily injury to his fresh shooting Roses when no trace of any insect 
is to be found. There is a particular malignity about the work of these 
insects, which appear to be most anxious and careful to do the greatest 
harm they can. The part they attack is the late bud just as it is 
beginning to grow in early May. This is annoying on cut-backs, but 
not fatal, as another bud will push later, so they choose, by preference, 
the one bud on which so many hopes rest, on a budded stock. To this 
same bud they will return night after night with unerring persistency, 
till it is absolutely destroyed, and then, I imagine, they celebrate a war 
dance round the now useless stock, and go to look for another budded 
with some new and particularly precious Rose. 
This vindictive perseverance is, however, a help to their destruction. 
When you find a bud has been nibbled at (you will soon learn to re¬ 
cognise their work), you go after dark with a lamp, and do not need to 
search all over rhe rosery for your enemy ; but, treading softly (for at 
the least alarm he will fall to the ground, and it is odds against your 
seeing him again), you go to the injured bud, and there he is at work. 
Then one is generally advised to put a white cloth under each plant, 
shake the beasts down, and collect them for a pot of boiling water, but 
I have generally used a pair of small tweezers. Malignity begets- 
malignity, I suppose, for I confess the “scrunch” always seemed to 
comfort me and do me good. _ 
I remember my first experience of these pests in 1878. I was 
altogether puzzled for a long time, till the bright idea came into 
my head of examining the injured buds after dark with a lamp. I 
“scrunched” upwards of thirty the first night, and also saved some 
specimens alive, which I posted to my learned friend for identification. 
On receiving his answer, I mentioned to my subordinate, who had been 
much pleased at the ravages being checked, that I had heard what 
“ them little beetles ” were—“ they are Otiorhynchus picipes.” “ Ah l 
really now 1” was all he said, but the accompanying tone and gesture 
added plainly enough, “Well, we’ve found them a terrible nuisance, but 
I didn’t know they were as bad as all that.” 
There remain still to be mentioned the dreaded fungoid pests of 
mildew and orange fungus. Of the former, I may say at once that I 
had less during last season than for some years past—decidedly less than 
the average. I consider that it was simply checked, if not killed, by the 
cold. Mr. Worthington G. Smith has told us (if I understand him 
aright) that mildew cannot stand a certain amount of cold, less than 
actual frost, in its summer or active stage, and that when this low 
temperature naturally occurs about the end of October, it goes into the 
winter or dormant stage—viz., the tiny black spots, which are really 
