4 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 2,1800. 
flitting in the twilight of May, the small brown wings are marked 
with white and gold. Then the variable Gr. hypericana, brownish 
also, but paler, and streaked with black and gold, comes from a 
green or greyish caterpillar, which feeds upon the flower-heads or 
tops of St. John’s Worts, or garden plants allied to the Hypericums. 
Our queen of flowers, the Rose, is singled out for attack by 
more than one species of Tortrix, and it needs a watchful eye to 
detect the eggs, which are frequently deposited on the stems in 
autumn, to be hatched out in the spring. It is often the case that 
during April and May, when the caterpillars are feeding, they have 
both weakened and disfigured the Roses before the gardener is 
awake to the mischief. T. Bsrgmanniana is very troublesome in the 
south of Enarland, but is scarcer in the north. Most gardeners have 
seen the little caterpillar of a pale green, with a shining jet black 
head, wriggling from a doubled-up leaf, and small as it is its 
appetite is considerable. First it damages the buds, checking their 
expansion, then feasts on the leaves. We find the moth flying by 
day at the end of June and in July ; under a hand magnifier it is 
seen to have lustrous markings of violet upon the lemon ground 
colour. Then the caterpillar of Spilonota roborana feeds about 
the same time. This is also black-headed, but the body of a dull 
brown colour. It has a penchant unfortunately for the tops of 
young shoots, which it doubles up in a fashion that checks their 
development. A third caterpillar infesting the Rose is S. ocellana, 
allied to the former but less common. The moths in both are very 
variable in appearance. Probably careful hand-picking is the best 
remedy for all these. Of course syringing will remove some of 
them, and dusting the leaves with sulphur while they are damp has 
been recommended. 
A small moth, with glossy, pale brown wings, common in many 
places, named Anchylopera lundana, is developed from a grey 
caterpillar spotted with black, and having a pale shield behind the 
head. The usual food is some leguminous phnt, of which it unites 
the leaves, such as Vicia or Lathyrus. There appear to be two 
broods yearly. Though named from the Rose, the caterpillar of 
Eupsecilia roseana conceals itself in the heads of composite plants 
in gardens, devouring the immature seeds about August or Septem¬ 
ber. It is yellowish white, and adorned with some raised spots ; 
down the back runs a white line. Another enemy of the com¬ 
posites is the caterpillar of Halonota fsenella. The mature insect is 
remarkable for having upon the dark brown wings a curved white 
mark, resembling the head and neck of a bird. While quite young 
its caterpillar bores into the stem of a plant 3 or 4 inches from 
the ground, and works down to the roots, where it may be seen 
early in the year, becoming a pupa about May. It is yellowish 
white, has a brown shield, and a he.art-shaped shining head. The 
plants attacked seldom survive the injury. 
In the group of moths called the Vine® are many species which, 
when in the caterpillar state, by feeding upon buds, leaves, or 
flowers somewhat disfigure them, and a few are specially destruc¬ 
tive to trees, however, rather than to the plants of our beds and 
borders. A species called the greystreak (Plutella porrectella) is 
tolerably familiar to gardeners, since it attacks persistently the 
Rocket, and several other garden plants in the same family. The 
moths, which are greyish white, except some spots of black and 
brown, seem to occur in colonies. A brood is noticeable in early 
summer, and another about two months later, so that there are 
also two broods of the caterpillar ; of these the first does the more 
mischief, as it feeds upon plants while the leaves are tender. A 
bunch of the terminal leaves are, by means of a silken cord, tied 
together, and within this shelter the caterpillar lives securely, at 
least from bird and insect foes. Occasionally we discover a party 
of three or five have joined company, and formed for themselves a 
general covering. It is surprising how these, and similarly small 
caterpillars, can manage to pull or twist the leaves and stems of 
plants, even when working solitarily. These caterpillars may be 
destroyed by throwing tobacco water or a decoction of quassia 
over the plants. In the genus Depressaria, where the moths have 
flat, elongated bodies, several of the caterpillars are sometimes 
found feeding upon the flower heads of the umbelliferous species 
cultivated in gardens, or such species as the Centaurea ; their webs 
are noticeable, and should be promptly removed. To this group 
belongs the one called ths confluent barred moth (Gracillaria syrin- 
gella), a pretty species of yellcw, black, and brown, but very in¬ 
jurious to the Lilac. It appears to attack this shrub most per¬ 
sistently when it is growing in or near a town. I seldom find 
Lilacs in the country much troubled by it. Near London the 
Lilacs are nearly defoliated by it in some seasons, as there is both 
a spring and an autumn brood of the caterpillars. They commence 
proceedings by mining the leaves, causing blotches ; when they get 
larger they roll the leaves, and so effectually as to defy all 
memies. Many may be, however, shaken from these retreats and 
then destroyed. Young Lilacs are, in some instances, greatly 
retarded in their growth by the insect, and older shrubs are 
weakened, the result being that they exhibit few flowers. - 
ENTO-MOLOOIST. 
FORCING SHRUBS. 
The forcing of hardy shrubs is not carried out with so much' 
alacrity in these times as in my younger days. I well remember 
that forty or fifty years since this hardy shrub forcing was one or 
the most important affairs for consideration in the month of 
November. And why ? Simply because they had scarcely any 
flowers in those days which blossomed naturally in winter ; but, as- 
is now the case with the natives of Britain, the love of flowers did 
n'^t cease even in the dormant season. There was still a hankering 
after them in defiance of snow storms and the ravages of King- 
Frost—that imperious monarch who attempts to bind in fetters the 
pets of the vegetable kingdom. 
In those days to which I have adverted gardeners used to rush 
into the nurseries about the metropolis at the beginning of Novem¬ 
ber to mark American shrubs for forcing, and to select Moss and 
Cabbage Roses for forcing purposes, and some other little things,, 
in order to sustain a kind of plant house through the winter ; and 
although a little wide of my purpose, I may observe that there was- 
a great demand fcr Asparagus roots and Seakale, in order to keep 
the cook in temper. . 
But we have had such a splendid lot of plants introduced during- 
the last score years that flower naturally or with little excitement- 
through the winter that we care much less about this shrub forcing 
and indeed it is well so, for no man can force these hardy shrubs 
well at an early period without something like a special provision 
for them. But as there are those who still love to indulge in a- 
forced Moss or Cabbage Rose, a hardy or American Azalea, &c., I 
will make bold to proceed with my remarks. And first let me 
point to the names of a few of the families which stand foremost 
in this affair. I must place them in the order in which they occur- 
to me. 
Roses Moss and Provence, Azaleas the American, Lilacs^. 
Mezereon, Honeysuckle, Sweet Briar, Ribes sanguineum, Deutzias,. 
Weigelas, Forsythias, Sedums, Andromedas, Rhododendrons,, 
Kalmias, and Rhodoras. These are a few of what used to consti¬ 
tute forcing materials as to mere shrubs, and let me add that thejr 
still possess much interest. 
Now in the first place, unless these shrubs have made a growth 
adapted to forcing purposes previously, it is in vain to expect a- 
high degree of success. In order to render the matter familiar to- 
readers who do not understand the formation of blossom buds in 
plants I will put a case or two. Most are familiar with our hardy 
American Azaleas. They have seen bunches of these with blossom, 
buds on some points and none on others. This must strike any 
ordinary observer. Now the barrenness of some shoots may arise 
from more than one or two causes. In the first place those shoots 
may be too luxuriant, or they may be late growths, or they may 
have been too much shaded by other growths, or, finally, they may 
have been too weak to produce a blossom bud, for a certain amount 
of strength is indispensable, although too much constitutes in 
many plants an invincible coarseness. The conditions requisite to 
form blossom buds in this family are an intermediate strength of 
wood, early growth, and ripening the wood. 
And now I may allude to the Moss Rose, and this is more 
difficult, I confess, to explain. It does not blossom from the- 
terminal points of the old wood like the Azalea, but from small 
buds like pin-heads, with which the sides of such shoots are studded.. 
As to why it should be so I cannot fully explain, for it does appear 
strange in pruning such Roses to cut back to these simple-looking 
affairs ; but this may suffice to point to the great difference inhabit 
between such things as the Azalea and the Rose. 
In looking over the plants suggested for forcing purposes I per¬ 
ceive it necessary to observe that some of them must be established' 
in pots to succeed, and that others are quite as well removed from 
the open ground. Roses are almost useless unless well established 
in pots. Lilacs have ever been thought best thus established “ 
Sweet Briars the same, and let us add the Mezereon ; but when we 
come to the American plants the case somewhat differs. These 
have been taken from the open ground, and forced immediately for 
probably nearly a century. 
As to the conditions requisite for forcing them, for, although, 
they will blossom in due time stuck on a greenhouse shelf, yet to- 
have them flower at the end of January, or sooner, requires a special 
course of treatment. A moist heat is of the highest importance ^ 
but that genial moisture which is destined to qualify the heat used,, 
and to satisfy gaping pores in the foliage, depends but too often on 
the chances at command rather than on principle. After all, gar¬ 
deners seem to admit that there is nothing like a dung bed, and, 
indeed, there is much truth in the opinion ; but we must in the 
