January 10.] 
THE COTTAGE G ARDEN EE. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
193 
1\I 
1) 
w 
D 
JANUARY 10 — 16 , 1850. 
Weather near London. 
1 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R &S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
10 
Tn 
Black Hellebore flowers. [ing heard. 
T. 49-37. 
s. w. 
Rain. 
0 a. 8 
10 a. 4 
5 15 
27 
7 
50 
10 
1 1 
F 
Hilary Term begins. Common Bunt- 
T. 40—24. 
N. W. 
Rain. 
5 
12 
6 10 
28 
8 
14 
1 1 
121S 
Common Bunting sings. fbge.T.begins. 
T. 38 — 36. 
S. W. 
Rain. 
4 
13 
7 l 
29 
8 
37 
12 
13|Sun 
1 Sun. af. Epiphany. Hilary. Cam- 
T. 53—49. 
S. W. 
Rain. 
4 
15 
sets 
® 
9 
0 
13 
14|M 
Oxford T. begins. Long-tailed I’ocher 
T. 56—32. 
S. W. 
Rain. 
3 
16 
5 a. 32 
1 
9 
22 
14 
UijTu 
Snow Flake goes. [goes. 
T. 55—31. 
s. w. 
Fine. 
2 
18 
6 33 
2 
9 
44 
15 
tSW 
Marsh Titmouse sings. 
T. 62—42. 
s. 
Rain. 
1 
19 
7 37 
3 
10 
5 
16 
St. Hilary is one of “ the Fathers of the Church”—a name he. 
stowed upon eminent ecclesiastics, who wrote upon religious subjects 
previously to the thirteenth century. He was born at Poictiers, and 
became bishop of his native city about a.d. 354. He was the most 
uncompromising champion of the Trinitarian doctrines, and, in 
defiance of all dangers and sufferings, opposed the Arian heretics. 
He died in the year 367 . His most important works are “ Twelve 
Books concerning the Trinity,” and “ A Treatise on Synods.” He 
is a very obscure writer. We do not know why the craft of coopers 
selected him as their patron. 
Meteorology of the Week. —The average highest tempera¬ 
ture of the above seven days, according to observations made at 
Chiswick, during the last twenty-three years, is 40.6°; and the ave¬ 
rage lowest temperature, 30.4°. The greatest height attained by the 
thermometer, during the same period, was 55° on the 15th in the 
year 1834. There were, during the same days, 86 fine, and 75 days 
during which rain fell. On an average of years, the greatest cold of 
the year occurs on or about the 14th of this month. 
Natural Phenomena Indicative of Weather. — If gnats 
dance in a dense swarm in the rays of the setting sun, they indicate 
fine weather ; and if the swarm, in a summer’s evening, is more 
widely outspread, it foretells heat. If, instead of gamboling thus in 
unshaded places, they as¬ 
semble under trees, and bite 
more than usual, rain is ap¬ 
proaching. It is not gene¬ 
rally known that the gnats 
which attack us in-doors are 
almost universally females, 
whilst those out-of-doors, 
and seen sporting in the sun¬ 
beams, are almost as exclu¬ 
sively males. Gossamer 
floating abundantly in the 
air during autumn, and at¬ 
taching to different ob¬ 
jects, is a prognostic of 
fine weather. Halo round 
the moon indicates, ac¬ 
cording to the season, that 
hail, snow, or rain are ap¬ 
proaching; the smaller the 
diameter of the halo, the 
sooner will the fall oc¬ 
cur. When the halo is 
very red, a wind almost al¬ 
ways occurs. 
RANGE OF BAROMETER—RAIN IN INCHES. 
Jan. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
1849. 
10 
B. 
(•29.247 
30.125 
29.861 
30.291 
22.946 
30.477 
30.298 
30.277 
29.133 
I 29.089 
30.027 
29.063 
30.199 
29.761 
30.374 
30.200 
30.219 
29.002 
R. 
0.40 
— 
0.06 
0.01 
0.04 
0.01 
— 
— 
0.06 
n 
B. 
f29.064 
30.007 
29.108 
30.338 
29.665 
30.317 
30.162 
30.461 
30.055 
\ 28.864 
29.984 
28.796 
30.324 
29.643 
30.237 
30.070 
30.268 
29.178 
R. 
0.02 
0.10 
0.16 
— 
0-77 
0.01 
0.04 
— 
0.02 
12 
B. 
;29.578 
30.050 
29.120 
30,237 
29.776 
30.067 
30.018 
30.433 
30.136 
I 29.364 
29-989 
28.706 
29.992 
29.745 
29.846 
29.881 
30.331 
29.879 
R. 
— 
— 
0.29 
0.76 
0.16 
— 
— 
0.01 
0.07 
13 
B. 
(- 29.563 
29.961 
28.649 
30.013 
29.662 
29.654 
29,928 
30.311 
29.736 
t 29.321 
2 g .878 
28.181 
29-988 
29.555 
29.491 
29.846 
30.293 
29.586 
R. 
0.29 
0.28 
0.04 
0.03 
0.04 
— 
— 
0.08 
0.05 
14 
B. 
/ 39.338 
29-704 
29.030 
30.312 
29.730 
29.524 
30.046 
30.228 
29.859 
\ 29 .i 76 
29-558 
28.700 
30.116 
29.606 
29.429 
29.995 
29.963 
29.474 
R. 
0.80 
— 
0.16 
0.01 
0.12 
— 
— 
0.06 
0.08 
15 
B. 
/ 29-687 
29.953 
29.070 
30.346 
29-778 
29.866 
30.150 
29-986 
30.043 
129.559 
29-919 
28.826 
30.317 
29.666 
29729 
30.003 
29.904 
29.966 
R. 
0.15 
0.02 
— 
— 
0.02 
— 
— 
— 
— 
16 
B. 
729.631 
29.900 
29.942 
30.292 
30.080 
29.838 
30.083 
29-972 
29-954 
1 . 29.365 
29.681 
29.310 
30.133 
29-983 
29.722 
29-997 
29-841 
29.720 
1 
R. 
0.16 
0.02 
0.04 
“ 
0.04 
0.02 
Insects. —A frequent enemy of the bee-keeper is the Wax or Honey-comb moth, the 
Galleria cereana of some entomologists, and the Tinea mellonella and cerella of others. 
The expanded fore-wings are from 14 to 18 lines across, grey coloured, with a darker outer 
margin, preceded by a curved row of small, dark, oblong dots; the inner margin has some 
short, purple-chesnut streaks. In the female, the wings are more purplish-brown, with less 
of grey in the middle. In the male, the hind-wings are brown beyond the middle ; but in 
the female, they arc yellowish-white. Our drawing represents a female; and she is so 
differing in colour from, and so much larger than, the male, that, for a long time, they were 
considered distinct species. In both the antenme, legs, body, and abdomen are yellowish- 
grey, but rather inclining to brown in the female. She lays her eggs at night, about the 
lower part of the hive, and two broods of the caterpillar are produced, one in spring, and a 
second early in July. On issuing from the egg, the caterpillars screen themselves from the bees 
by spinning a web, from which they come forth at night to feed. They attack the lower cells 
first, and work upwards, spinning webs as they advance. Three hundred caterpillars have 
been found in one hive, and with the destruction of the cells, and the entanglement of the 
bees in the webs, a hive is soon weakened and ruined. Another species, Galleria al- 
vearia, or Honey moth, is also a pest to bees. 
It would not be either unamusing or uniustructive 
to trace the rise and progress of the taste for Green 
Peas. They were a luxury unknown to our early 
Saxon ancestors, for they had no varieties but the 
common grey pea; and though we have frequent 
mention of beans being eaten by them, we have never 
met with any such particular concerning the pea. 
Soon after the Norman Conquest, however, at monas¬ 
teries and other establishments where gardening was 
cherished, we find that this vegetable was among 
those most desired. Tims, at Barking Nunnery, 
among other things, there were provided green peas 
against Midsummer ( Fosbroolce s Brit. Monasiicon 
ii. 127). And, in the household hook of a nobleman 
[Archceologia xiii. 373), it is directed :—“ If one will 
have Pease soone in the year following, such pease 
are to he sowen in the wane of the moone, at St. An¬ 
drew’s tide, before Christmas.” 
In the 17th century there seems to have been a 
mania in France for the Skinless pea (Pois sans 
parchmeine). Bonnefonds, in his Jardinier Francais, 
published in 1651, describes them as the Dutch pea, 
or pea without skin, and adds:—“Until very lately 
they were exceedingly rare.” Roquefort says, they 
were first introduced by M. de Buhl, the French am¬ 
bassador in Holland, about 1600. The author of a 
Life of Colbert, 1G95, says, “ It is frightful to see 
persons sensual enough to purchase green peas at the 
No. LXVII., VOL. III. 
