March 14.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
317 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
W 
D 
MARCH 14—20, 1850. 
Weather near London 
in 1849. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
14 
Th 
Peacock scream's. 
T. 50°—40°. 
s.w. 
Fine. 
19 a. 6 
VI 
6a.38 
9 
26 
73 
15 
F 
Red Ant appears. 
T. 53°—45°. 
N.W. 
Fine. 
17 
2 
7 49 
2 
9 
9 
74 
It) S 
Frog spawns. [note heard. 
T. 57°—28°. 
N.E. 
Fine. 
14 
4 
9 2 
3 
8 
52 
75 
17 Sun 5 S. in Lent. St. Patrick. Wagtail’s spring 
T, 69°—30°. 
N. 
Fine. 
12 
5 
10 13 
4 
8 
34 
76 
18 M 
Prs. Louisa b. 1848. Edw. K. W. Saxons. 
T. 49°—38°. 
W. 
Rain. 
10 
7 
11 26 
5 
8 
17 
77 
19 To 
Black currant leaves. 
T. 51°— 26 °. 
E. 
Fine. 
8 
9 
morn. 
6 
59 
78 
20 W 
Sun’s declin. 0° 11 ' s. Humble Bee appears. 
T. 46°—27°. 
E. 
Fine. 
5 
10 
0 37 
7 
7 
41 
79 
St. Patrick. —Upon the occurrence of this anniversary last year I 
we gave a biography of this guardian of Ireland, such as we con- I 
sidered the best sustained by the concurrent evidence of the early 
historians. The summary of that biography is, shortly, that he was 
very instrumental in converting the pagan Hibernians to Christianity, 
and that he died on the 17 th of March, a.d. 464 . We then, also, 
expressed our belief that the shamrock, the three united leaflets of 
which he employed as an illustration of the Trinity, is not the trefoil 
or clover, but the Wood sorrel. The leaflets of this is more beau¬ 
tiful, and are similarly united in threes. Subsequent consideration 
has strengthened us in our opinion. The trefoil is not eatable by 
man ; but the shamrock was a common food of the Irish between 
May-day and harvest, the very time that the Wood sorrel leaves are 
in perfection as a salad herb. “Butter, new cheese, and curds, and 
shamrocks, are the food of the meaner sort all this season,” says 
Vallancey, in his Collectanea de Rebus Hiberniris ; and Wythers, 
w'riting inU6l3, alludes to it thus :— 
“And, for my cloathing, in a mantle goe, 
And feed on Sham-roots, as the Irish doe.” 
Besides this, the Druids, long before the introduction of Christianity, 
held the shamrock as a sacred and medicinal plant. Now, the Wood 
sorrel is a native of the groves in which the Druids dwelt, and is 
gifted with medicinal properties, of which trefoil has none. 
Edward, King op the West Saxons, was stabbed on this day, 
a.d. 978 , by order of his step-mother, Elfrida, whilst he was drinking 
at the gate of Corfe Castle, in Dorsetshire. The murder was perpe¬ 
trated to render the throne vacant for her own son, Ethclred, but 
remorse was the fruit returned to the murderess ; and if the following 
was the warning of Dunstan to Ethelred, most literally was it ful¬ 
filled “ Because thou hast aspired to the kingdom by the death of 
thy brother, whom thy mother slew, hear, therefore, the word of the 
Lord: The sword shall not depart from thy house, but shall rage 
against thee all the days of thy life, and shall slay thy seed, until thy 
kingdom be given to another people I” (Roger Wendover’s Chro¬ 
nicle.) 
Meteorology op the Week.— During the last twenty-three 
years, the average highest and lowest temperature of these seven 
days has been 51.2° and 
35.3°, respectively. The 
greatest warmth during 
these days, in the said 
years, was 69 ° on the 19 th, 
in 1846 ; and the greatest 
cold, 20° on the 20th, in 
the same year. Of the 161 
days 105 were fine, and 
on 56 rain fell. 
Natural Phenomena 
Indicative op Wea¬ 
ther. —When the mari¬ 
gold has its flowers fully 
opened early in the morn¬ 
ing, it indicates that the 
day will be fine; and, as 
certainly, if the flowers of 
the Small Field marigold 
(Calendula arvensis) are 
closed in the morning, the 
day will be rainy. Mare’s 
tails —the popular name 
of those curled and twisted 
light clouds known to me¬ 
teorologists as Cirrus — 
indicate the approach of 
wind, and sometimes of 
rain. 
RANGE OF BAROMETER—RAIN IN INCHES. 
March 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
1849. 
14 
B. 
f 30.351 
30.284 
29.605 
29-892 
29.631 
30.156 
30.345 
29-874 
30.308 
130.192 
30.223 
29.426 
29.592 
29.644 
30.001 
30.290 
29758 
30.268 
R. 
— 
0.02 
— 
0.48 
— 
— 
— 
— 
_ 
15 
B. 
r 30.152 
30.332 
29.924 
30.457 
29.745 
29-988 
30.206 
29770 
30.312 
130.005 
30.324 
29 715 
30.447 
29.705 
29.882 
30.006 
29.389 
30.292 
I 
R. 
— 
— 
0.06 
0.04 
— 
0.03 
— 
0.06 
_ 
16 
B. 
/ 29-921 
30.316 
29-986 
29.667 
29.572 
29.570 
29.904 
29.685 
30.337 
1 29-729 
30.138 
29.940 
29-400 
29.500 
29.267 
29795 
29742 
30.309 
R. 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
0.12 
— 
0.26 
— 
17 
B. 
r 29.603 
30.131 
29.891 
29.972 
29770 
22.447 
29.832 
29.401 
30.305 
129.577 
29.761 
29.836 
29.879 
29 746 
29.388 
29794 
29.330 
30.201 
R. 
0.01 
0.05 
— 
— 
0.03 
— 
— 
0.15 
— 
18 
B. 
/ 29.525 
29.739 
29.861 
30.030 
29726 
29.576 
30.825 
29.404 
30.159 
129-404 
29.609 
29-844 
29-985 
29.674 
29.513 
29729 
29.245 
30.057 
R. 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
0.01 
19 
B. 
f 29-713 
29-562 
29.867 
30.039 
29.858 
29.573 
29 729 
29.174 
30.062 
129-598 
29-280 
29-771 
29-897 
29.691 
29.563 
29.489 
29.035 
30.025 
R. 
0.01 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
0.15 
— 
B. 
/ 29.647 
29.638 
29.667 
29.811 
30.274 
29 781 
29.542 
29.005 
30.242 
1 29.565 
29.400 
29.473 
29.450 
30.081 
29-545 
29.493 
28.910 
30.108 
| 20 
B. 
0.13 
0.10 
0.04 
0.04 
0.10 
~ 
0.36 
Insects. —The common artichoke’s leaves suffer sometimes, though 
rarely, during the summer, from the attacks of the larva of a very 
curious small beetle, which may be called the Artichoke Tortoise 
beetle, Cassida Viridis. The beetle, which is found in May and June, 
is not more than one-sixteenth of an inch long; the antennae are 
black, the dotted wing-cases and other outer coverings green, but the 
body beneath them black, and the legs pale, with black thighs. It is 
found upon the Water mints, as well as upon thistles and artichokes. 
The larva has a very flat body, with spines upon its edges ; and it has 
the singular habit of covering itself with its own excrement, which it 
unites together in a mass, and carries on a kind of fork attached to 
its tail. The pupa is also very flat, having thin toothed appendages 
at the sides of the body, with a broad thorax prolonged forward into 
a rounded expansion, which covers its head. 
a, larva; b, the same on a leaf, with its canopy of excrement; c, 
pupa ; d, the perfect insect. 
Any question connected with potato culture is much 
too important—is too intimately connected with the 
comfort and subsistence of our countrymen—for us 
to pass it by, or to neglect any ray of light that may 
be thrown upon it. Now, one of the most important 
questions, both as involving expense of culture and 
weight of produce, is—“ Ought the stems of the 
potato to be earthed up ? ” 
We thought, and we still think, that our own ex¬ 
periments were so carefully conducted for the testing 
this question, and those experiments so uniformly 
gave results unfavourable to the practice, that we 
have never directed our attention to the subject 
since, but have continued to grow potatoes without 
earthing them up, and have been perfectly satisfied 
with the produce; for we have had better and for¬ 
warder crops than our neighbours, who continued to 
earth up in accordance with the old practice. 
No. LXXVL, You III. 
