£98 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
r May 15, 1890. 
and duly attended to in cleaning and trimming, will make a good 
hedge in four to six years. It will form a barrier in due course 
that will effectually stop intruders. 
In locations near the sea winds are sweeping through, there 
being little wood, copse or hedgerow trees to soften their effects or 
break their force. Of all subjects that I have seen used for the 
purpose of shelter on the sea coast none had the vigour and 
sturdiness of the common Elder (Sambucus niger). A double row 
of plants, a foot apart, form in a short time a capital screen for 
fruit trees on the dwarfing system, which appears best suited to 
these locations, as it is difficult to get anything upon a plane sur¬ 
face sufficiently tall to protect standard trees. In some “ burns,” 
however, this is readily effected by Willows and Poplars, planting 
them about a yard apart so as to get up quickly. In these minia¬ 
ture valleys the ground slopes sharply, and has a sort of plateau 
here and there in the descent, which are taken advantage of by 
fishermen and others for gardening purposes, on some of the 
southern slopes of which I have seen as fine Apples and Pears 
growm as any reaching our markets from Canada or the Channel 
Islands, and at the base of these slopes there may often be seen 
a good sized orchard, which from the deposit of matter washed 
down from the higher ground, and the stream running higher than 
it does now, had a good depth of soil, in which the Apple luxuriates. 
These locations have the disadvantage of liability to suffer from 
spring frosts ; indeed the trees there may often be seen fruitless 
when the bushes at an elevation of 100 feet or more on the slope 
are carrying heavy crops of full sized highly coloured fruit. In 
other respects they are admirably suited to the growth of Apples, 
being sheltered to the north by the acclivityq and it is not difficult 
to afford shelter from the west and east by planting Willows, 
Poplars and Sycamores, with Mountain Ash, wild Pear and Elder 
for undergrowth. As a hedge plant the wild Pear (Pyrus com¬ 
munis) is unequalled on the sea coast. It should be planted 
() inches apart, the ground being well trenched and manured so as to 
encourage free giowth. It will make a hedge effectual in every 
way for a fruit garden. 
Plaxtixg Hedcierows. 
Planting fruit trees in the hedgerows of fruit gardens and 
orchards may be desirable, or rather feasible, if the proprietor or 
tenant own or rent the adjoining land. Land that grows good 
timber will grow Apples, but the farmer looks upon the removal 
of hedgerow timber as a great aid to successful cultivation, and it 
must be admitted trees in hedgerows prejudice the ground as far 
as their heads overhang and the roots extend. There is no cer¬ 
tainty of a fence or crop whilst the trees remain. Fruit trees in 
the hedge of a fruit garden or orchard may be regarded in the same 
light. They may be used to the prejudice of another, and inter¬ 
fere with the keeping of an unbroken fence. It is only when the 
trees become aged and close headed that they are injurious to the 
fence, as up to a certain stage (which extends to the better part of 
their days) they are beneficiary as shelter and in fruit pr-oduction. 
Up to a certain size and age Apple trees grow quite as freely and 
as abundantly fine, or finer, fruit trees in an orchard in grass from 
the circumstance that the ground has been thrown up and deeply 
stirred for the quicks—an advantage of amelioration and condition 
of soil of which the trees are not slow to avail themselves. It 
follows, however, that soil permeated by the roots of the hedge 
plants and trees will become sooner exhausted, the trees will over¬ 
power the fence, when it is of course a question as to which shall 
go to the wall. That is so remote a contingency that it may be 
excluded from present consideration, besides it is easily remedied 
when the time arrives by a retention of the “ fittest.” 
In planting the hedge with trees we must bear in mind that we 
lose half a row internally, as by planting trees in the hedge we 
must put the first line of trees half as far away from the fence as 
where there no trees in the fence, unless no account is taken 
of the trees in the fence, only relying on them for shelter and 
fruit in the early stages of the fruit plantation. This would, 
perhaps, be the best lines on which to set out, planting in the first 
instance with a view to shelter and early profits, and as experience 
is gained thinning can be effected in accordance with exigencies as 
they arise, which can only obtain where judicious planting has been 
made—namely, thick as compared with current method, in order 
to get shelter, a reasonable, early and increasing return on the 
outlay.—G. Aruey. 
(To be continued.) 
INSECTS OF THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
QContinned fromi)age 253.') 
A very beautiful beetle, almost an inch long, which sometimes 
disports itself upon our flowers during May is called the “ Cardinal,” 
from its colour, or in Latin Pyrochrca coccinea. The thorax and 
body are scarlet, also downy ; the head black, having a curved 
mark of dull red between the eyes, and the antennre are elegantly 
toothed. It nibbles slightly the petals of flowers, but is not guilty 
of doing much damage. As larva Its life is very different, for then it 
inhabits the wood of decaying Poplars or Willows. Nearly relatecJ. 
to the Cardinal beetle is a species generally visible about the same 
time, for which we have no English name, so must call it Rhipo- 
phorus paradoxus, but it is less than half the size. This insect is- 
partial to the flowers of Umbelliferous plants, and to the cymes of 
such species as the Guelder Rose. On the slightest alarm, how¬ 
ever, it bends down the head under the thorax, hides its longish 
antennte, and raises the wing cases, which are orange and black.. 
Possibly this odd movement is a precaution against an attack from 
a hostile wasp, for it is now a well-ascertained fact in the history 
of the species that the larva or grub preys upon the grub of the- 
common wasp, and therefore ic must be accounted a somewhat 
useful insect. How the beetle manages to travel about amongst the- 
cells to deposit eggs, and also when reared how its offspring escapes- 
unobserved, is rather mysterious. It is noticed that extra large- 
beetles emerge from the grubs that have been so fortunate as to 
feed up in the cells of queen wasps. If this species subsists, as 
beetle, upon flowers it is not capable of damaging them materially. 
That pretty but rare beetle, the Spanish fly. Blister beetle, or 
Cantharis, has occurred in gardens upon the flowers of Privet and 
Syiinga, and its tints of green and gold might attract persons to it,, 
so that we need not regret its scarcity with us, for, both living and 
dead, it is a dangerous species to approach near. 
I have now reached the group of beetles which contains the 
bulk of those that are specially injurious to vegetables, fruit, and 
flowers, but which do not cause so much loss in the flower garden 
as in other departments ; still many species appear there in large 
or small numbers, and they bear the familiar name of weevils, a 
word apparently derived from the old German wifel, curious- 
because it is said to mean something woven, and is probably an 
allusion to the closely spun cocoons of some species. They are also 
called “long-nosed” beetlss, the head being lengthened so that it 
forms a kind of snout, upon which are the antennae. In front are 
mandibles or javs furnished with muscles of surprising strength 
considering the size of the beetles. A few of them can produce a 
slight sound by vibration of the wing cases, and a few others that 
frequent woods have the power of leaping. The grubs of all the- 
weevils are short and stout, usually whitish, and they are, as in the 
Pea, Bean, and Nut species, exceedingly mischievous. 
The Pea weevil, so familiar to all who shell Peas, is an insect 
we may at some time or other notice upon the flowers of our beds, 
but so far as I have observed it limits its attacks to the edible Pea,, 
the ornamental species escaping. Much more frequent in gardens 
is the Bean weevil, a tiny creature which looks grey, though its 
colours are really black and white. It haunts the early flowers of 
spring, presumably for their honey, and then betakes itself to the- 
rows of Beans as soon as the pods are beginning to form. Less 
even than the weevil of the Bean is the host of minute beetles 
belonging to the genus Apion, which have received the English- 
name of Pear weevils, because their bodies, if magnified, resemble 
Pears in shape, the head of the insect representing the stalk. We 
may see them upon flowers by hundreds and thousands. In their 
larval life they dwell Avithin the roots or stems of plants, occasion¬ 
ally Ave discover that they are tenants of some gall-like swelling 
upon leaves. Under the microscope they are most interesting 
objects, both from their varied colours and curious tracery on the 
thorax and Aving cases, and the majority do no serious damage to 
our flowers, though they may disfigure a few plants. The one- 
which has been most frequently complained of is A. radiolum ; it 
deposits eggs in spring upon the stems of several herbaceous- 
plants, being partial to the Hollyhock. The grubs feed within the 
stem on its pith, become pup® there, and appear as beetles in- 
October, hiding someAvhere during the winter months. Some- 
people introduce into their gardens specimens of the Mullein, or a 
variety, it being someAvhat showy, if not a choice species, and this- 
plant is the favourite resort of weeA'ils, their larvae nestling in the 
Avoolly leaves, upon Avhich Avhen full fed they spin netted cocoons- 
of silk. 
The larva or grub of the grooved or black weevil (Otiorhynchus- 
sulcatus), a well-known pest of fruit, occasionally turns up in the- 
soil of beds and borders, but it is chiefly troublesome from its- 
habit of infesting plants in pots both in and out of houses. Its- 
favourite position is just beneath the e.ortb, where the roots radiate- 
from the stem ; one et'en has been known to kill a good sized plant,, 
but they generally occur in small parties. These grubs are legless- 
and hairy, white or dull yellow, and liA'e from August to April,, 
when they cease to eat. The beetles are about in May and June, 
and they creep upon the soil in an insidious manner, getting- 
partially under the earth, so are seldom noticed while depositing 
their eggs. I may note that clear lime water has been recom 
