THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 
two black spots on the middle. The under side of the under wings 
is light yellow. Breadth, when expanded, two inches. The cater¬ 
pillar is blueish-green, thinly haired, and sprinkled with black 
dots, having a yellow stripe on the back, and the same on the 
sides. These caterpillars are found, throughout the summer and 
autumn, on all the sorts of cabbage, on horse-radish, radishes, 
mustard, and similar plants, as well as on water-cresses. The pupae 
are yellowish green, with black dots, with a point on the head, and 
five on the back. The best way to destroy them is picking off and 
killing the caterpillars, as well as the pupae, as far as it is possible ; 
the latter are found attached to adjacent trees, hedges, and walls. 
But care must be taken not to destroy those pupae which have a 
brown appearance ; because they are full of the larvae of ichneu¬ 
mons, and other allied parasites, which are the great scourge of these 
caterpillars. A lady, and an entomologist, gentle as the Lepidopterae 
she studies, saw, a few weeks since, about thirty grubs of the Ich¬ 
neumon fly (Micrograster glomeratus ) actually eat their way out 
through the back of one of these caterpillars. So little did the cater¬ 
pillar seem injured that it was thought he might survive, but he died 
during the night. 
\AA_W 
In our last number we brought clown our considera¬ 
tion of the principles of gardening to the point where 
it is necessary to consider the circumstances essential 
for the germination of a seed. Now a certain degree 
of warmth is essential, for no cultivated plant, has 
seeds that will germinate below or at the freezing- 
point of water. A temperature above 32° of Fahren¬ 
heit’s thermometer, therefore, is requisite ; and the 
plants of which the seeds will germinate nearest to 
that low degree of temperature, in this country, are 
the winter weeds. For example, we have found the 
seeds of the Poa annua , the commonest grass of our 
gravel walks, germinate at 35°, and the seeds of 
groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) would probably require 
no higher temperature. But, on the other hand, the 
temperature must not be excessively high. Even 
no tropical seed, probably, will germinate at a tem¬ 
perature much above 120 F., and we know from the 
experiments of MM. Edwards and Colin, that neither 
wheat, oats, nor barley, will vegetate in a temperature 
of 113°. 
Every seed differing in its degree of excitability, 
consequently has a temperature without which it 
will not vegetate, and from which cause arise the 
consequences that different plants require to be sown 
at different seasons, and that they germinate with 
various degrees of rapidity. 
I or example, two varieties of early pea, sown on 
a south border on the same day, and treated strictly 
alike throughout their growth, were about a fortnight 
differing in all their stages of vegetation. 
n i i t-> • in Sown. In bloom. Gathered from 
Cormacks Prince Albert Jan. 4. April]. May 14 
Warwick.Jan. 4. April 13. May 2s! 
In another set of experiments, of the following va¬ 
rieties all sown on the 28th of March, 
Prince Albert bore peas fit for table June 19-3 ft. high, fine early sort. 
iah°p s Early dwarf, do. June 26—9 ins., inferior in every way. 
Early Racehorse, do. June 29—3 ft., nothing meritorious. 
Shilling s Grotto, do. June 29—3 ft., most excellent. 
Wa crop reen MarrOW ’ d0, ,Iuly 10 - 3f t-> large pea, fine quality, full 
Blue Prussian, do. July 10—2 ft., good. 
sr- =4 utr ‘ ! - 31 ‘"s' 
Lynn’s Wrinkled Marrow, do. Aug. 1—4 ft,, good late sort. 
American Marrow, do. July 17—2 ft., fine pea, full crop. 
Blue Scymitar, do. July 25—3 ft., good bearer. P 
U? I 7 per , la , 1 ’ do - Ju h 20-good pea, full crop. 
Y 1 . ctona > do. July 17—2.i ft., large pea, full crop. 
Adanson found that, under the most favourable 
circumstances, various garden seeds might be made 
to germinate in the following very different spaces of 
time. 
Spinach, Beans, Mustard 
Lettuce, Aniseed 
Melon, Cucumbei 
Radish, Beet 
Orache . 
Purslain. 
Cabbage. 
Cress 
3 days. 
5 
6 „ 
8 „ 
9 „ 
10 „ 
30 „ 
40 or 50 do. 
1 year. 
2 do. 
Hyssop . 
Parsley . 
Almond, Chesnut, Peach 
Rose, Hawthorn, Filbert 
In one instance M. Adanson certainly must have 
experimented with old seed, for we have found good 
new parsley seed, sown on fresh fertile soil in May, 
had germinated in two days, and its leaves were 
above the surface within a week from the day of sow¬ 
ing. Then again in the case of rose seed,—at all 
events, in the case of that of the dog rose,—if the 
hips be allowed to endure the frosts of winter before 
they are gathered, the seed will germinate in much 
less time than is named by M. Adanson. This lesson 
was probably taught the gardener by nature, for the 
hips of roses never shed their seed in this country 
until they have been frosted. The gardener should 
always bear in mind that it would be a very erro¬ 
neous conclusion, because a seed does not germinate 
at the accustomed time, that therefore its vegetating 
powers are departed, No two seeds taken from the 
same seed-vessel germinate precisely at the same time; 
but, on the contrary, one will often do so promptly, 
while its companion seed will remain dormant until 
another year. M. De Candolle relates an instance 
where fresh tobacco seedlings continued to appear 
annually for ten years on the same plot, though no 
seed was sown after the first sowing; and the same 
phenomenon usually occurs for two or three years 
when the seed of either the peony or hawthorn are 
sown. Why one seed is more easily excited than 
another is as yet unexplained, but the wisdom of this 
one of many provisions for avoiding the accidental 
extinction of a species in any given locality is readily 
discerned. An ungenial spring may destroy the 
plants arising from those seeds which first germinated, 
