284 
THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOaiST. 
[ Decembbb 
- Stevens* Garden Edging Bricky which we recently saw in use in the 
kitchen garden at Trentham, is by far the best and neatest of any we have met 
with. It is represented in the accompanying figure. Mr. Stevens is doing away 
■with live edgings, such as Box and Ivy, which have been foi’merly used, and after two years’ 
experience is preparing to replace them by this brick, a light stone-coloured brick of 
his own design, remarkable for its neatness and durability. Its form admits of its being 
laid so firmly as to be practically immovable; its colour gives it the appearance of stone edging ; 
and its outline is so simple and neat as to be thoroughly unobtrusive, though perfectly effi¬ 
cient. With an edging of this sort the walks can be kept clean with the least possible trouble 
by adopting the system of dressing them with salt, which is always a risky experiment when 
live edgings are made use of. This edging brick is 18 in. long, 5 in. high, and 5 in. wide 
at the sole, in. being set above ground. Its great merit is the combinafion of elegance 
with durability and efficiency which it presents. This durability of course is due to the par¬ 
ticular material of which it is made. The annexed woodcut is from the Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
- ^ LAEGE amount of information respecting tbe Phylloxera is being 
got together in France. Amongst other matters, M. Lichtenstein sums up the 
life-history of the insect, so far as at present known, thus:—(1) Colonising 
females begin to appear probably in August and September; (2) small uniform hybemating 
progeny; (3) oval pyriform testudiniform types, reproducing by parthenogenesis all the 
Bummer; (4) pupae of two forms, oval and narrow at the waist, specially found on the 
nodosities of the rootlets in June and July; (5) swarming takes place in August, the insects 
emerging from the earth in myriads, exactly as in a formicary, when the winged insects 
escape; (6) laying of eggs on the leaves of Quercus coccifera end of August; (7) birth of 
sexual apterous individuals, copulation and production of colonising females. M. Maurice Girard 
has made some laboratory experiments concerning the action of toxic gases on the insects. The 
sulphocarbonates suggested by M. Dumas for their destruction are said to give certain results. 
Experiments made first on the plants and then on the insects themselves showed that plants 
did not in any way suffer from being syringed with weak solutions of these salts, while the 
insects which were placed near the substances impregnated with the solution invariably 
perished. M. Girard made experiments at Cognac with sulphocarbonate of potassium, pre¬ 
pared by the old costly method, and found that when some of this salt was placed at the 
bottom of a jar, and the insects introduced into the air in the upper part of the vessel, they 
soon died. As an insect-powder ho considers this salt as at least as effective as cyanide of 
potassium. The next step was to procure it by a less costly method, and M. Dumas found 
that without the use of alcohol, hitherto believed to be necessary, the sulphide of potassium 
dissolved in water and the sulphide of carbon would mix when certain pains were taken. A 
wholesale manufacture of the salt was undertaken on this principle by M. Dorvault, and the 
necessary cheap materials procured for fm'the* experiments, which were carried foiward by 
M. Monillifert, who found that Vines in pots boro for a long time the effect of the solution 
without any injury, while the Phylloxera, if present, were all dead in a few days; and that in 
the open ground, from 30 to 40 grammes (1 oz.—1^ oz.) of dry sulphocarbonate of potassium, 
dissolved in water, and poured into holes around the stem of the Vine, destroyed the insects 
without in the least degree injuring the Vinos. M. Balbiani believes that the species seen by 
M. Lichtenstein on Quercus coccifera is not identical with Phylloxera vastatrix, and proposes 
to name it P. Lichtensteinii. 
- ^ VALUABLE series of experiments as to the Movement of Water in 
Plants has been carried out by Dr. McNab, whose general results we quote. As 
