30 
THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. [ Februaky 
shift will be required. The soil is to be used in the same proportion as above 
recommended, and the plants treated in every way as previously directed, until 
the middle of August, when it should be placed in the open air, well exposed to 
the sun, for about six weeks, after which it should again be returned to the 
greenhouse, and treated as before. One shift in the season will be all that will 
be required, after the first year, and this should be given as soon as the blooming 
period is over.— Henry Chilman, Somerley Gardens. 
MOTHS AND CATEKPILLARS. 
are necessarily entomologists, even though their knowledge of 
insect life may not, in many cases, be at all of a scientific character, since 
they have always a too thorough practical acquaintance with the insect 
world, as illustrated by its depredations—under which category the habits 
of the moths or rather their larvae gain for them a prominent position. We hail^ 
therefore, with much pleasure the appearance of an authoritative work on the 
subject,* by one of the most painstaking and practical of British entomologists, a 
work which is so fully and beautifully illustrated that by its use there can be 
little or no difficulty in identifying the British insects of the moth family, by 
their portraits. Such a work as this, popular in style, sound in its teachings, 
prepared vuth the most scrupulous exactitude, and as we have said, most 
charmingly illustrated, is exactly adapted to meet the wants of the gardening 
community, to whom it may be most heartily and confidently recommended. 
The subject is one of considerable scope, and in dealing with it, the author, 
Mr. Newman, takes up the insects, in order, by their several families, giving of 
each a familiar description, in which the characteristics both of the moth and 
the caterpillar are noted, and its habits and pasturage are pointed out. The 
engravings which accompany these descriptions are literally studies of the several 
insects, and are perfect marvels of art in regard to the effect brought out by 
mere black and white figures. Some two or three of these engravings we are 
enabled to subjoin, through the courtesy of the publisher, and we cannot* 
therefore, give a better notion of the high quality of the book than by quoting 
the passages which refer to them. Here is the account of the Goat Moth:— 
“ So called from the caterpillar having a very pungent disagreeable smell, like that of a he^ 
goat. Fore-wings rich brown, beautifully varied and mottled, the darker markings being dis¬ 
persed in waved lines, placed transversely to the rays; hind-wings pale dingy brown, having 
markings something like those on the fore-wings, but less distinct; antennae slightly fringed 
throughout in both sexes, dark brown ; head also dark brown, "with a nearly white ring round 
the neck; thorax dark brown in front, shaded to whitish-gi’ey in the middle, and having a 
rather narrow black band behind ; body brown and grey in alternate rings. Caterpillar, flesh- 
coloured, with a black head and broad dull red stripe down the back. Feeds on the solid wood 
of willows, elms, oaks, lilacs, and other trees, living for four years. It has caused the death of 
many valuable elms ; and a small beetle (Scolylus destmctor') breeding abundantly in the bark 
of the dying trees, the injury has been erroneously attributed to this beetle, and not to the true 
* An Illustrated Natural History of British Moths, with life-size figures from nature of each species. By 
Edward Newman, r.L.S., F.Z.S. Loudon: W. Tweedie, 337 Strand. Large 8vo, pp. 406, with upwards of 
700 figures. 
