THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
229 
the midsummer beetle, M. solstitialis , both rise from the ground after sun¬ 
set, and congregate round the tops of trees, where, in their flight, they 
produce that deep and solemn hum so awful to the superstitious night- 
walker. The young earwigs, too, leave their cradles in the twilight, and 
soar aloft out of sight in the night air for the sake of society. 
All these night-flying insects are guided by instinct to shun their natural 
enemies which find their prey by day. The rook, jackdaw, magpie, and 
house-sparrow, are all the unrelenting persecutors of the beetles ; and the 
swallow tribe, and many other small birds, are equally destructive to the 
smaller species of flies. 
How the flesh-flies above mentioned should so recklessly expose them¬ 
selves to the hirundines so plentiful in the same region of the air in summer, 
can only be accounted for from their being of a larger size than swallows 
usually devour; and perhaps from an instinctive security they feel from their 
exceedingly rapid and devious flight in the air; affording them the same 
sense of safety against the swallows as the swallows themselves have against 
the most impetuous assaults of their sworn enemy, the sparrow-hawk. 
It was in the forenoon of a calm and very warm day that I discovered 
this vast swarm of flies; and having occasion to pass and repass the same 
spot several times in the course of that day, I felt desirous to know when 
they dispersed, and where they took up their abode for the night. I 
watched them for some time late in the afternoon, and observed them singly 
descending towards a wood, to which I also repaired. There I soon 
found them clustered closely together upon the sunny side of the trunks of 
the trees, basking in the chinks of the bark. 
It needs only be added that whoever hereafter may be struck with 
this purely rural sound, have only to look steadily up in the air, when 
they will probably discover the source of it, and be satisfied as to the cause 
of this (to many) unaccountable humming in the air. 
Brompton, 
July 1, 1841. 
METHOD OF DETACHING A BRANCH BEARING FRUIT FROM THE 
TREE, AND PLACING IT IN A FLOWER-POT, SO AS THE BRANCH 
SHALL CONTINUE TO GROW AND BEAR FRUIT. 
COMMUNICATED BY MISS SMITH. 
For this purpose choose a small fruitful branch, well formed, of an 
apple tree, or any other fruit tree you may think proper, and proceed as 
follows. Take a tin vessel, shown in figs. 64 and 66. This vessel is made 
so as to open and enclose the stem of the branch to be removed; when made 
