76 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 29. 
Mr. Augustus Sheppard exhibited a specimen of the 
extremely rare and beautiful A loth Enuomos ahdaria , 
taken near Margate in September last. Only two 
individuals of this species had hitherto occurred in this 
country. 
Mr. Newman communicated a note, by Air. Oxley, on 
the mode of flight of the species of Lepidopterous 
insects belonging to the genus Sijnaimon, natives of 
Australia, and extremely interesting from their position 
iu the order. By Air. Doubleday, the founder of the 
genus, they were regarded as Alotlis, notwithstanding 
their clubbed nnteume. Mr. Newman, on the other hand, 
from their .mode of flight, and position ol the wings 
when at rest, considered them as more nearly related 
to the Skipper Butterflies ( Hesperidce ), and as forming 
the connecting link between that family and the 
Castnia. Some of the species had been taken abun¬ 
dantly at the gold diggings in Australia. Mr. West- 
wood remarked that the late Dr. King had published 
a detailed memoir on this genus. 
Air. Westwood also gave an account of two new 
genera of Beetles, of small size, remarkable for having 
the heads, in the males, singularly dilated and flattened 
on each side. One of these, from Guinea, belongs to 
the family Erobytidce, and the other, from Colombo, in 
Ceylon (received from Herr Dobrn, the President of the 
Entomological Society of Stettin), was of doubtful rela¬ 
tionship, although it appeared most nearly allied to the 
Melyrida. Mr. Westwood also communicated an ac¬ 
count received from Dr. Lee, F.R.S., the President of 
the Aleteorological Society, of a remarkable case of 
development of vast quantities of a species of Mites in 
a small cabinet belonging to a lady at Lyme Regis. 
They appear to have beeu introduced with a palm-leaf 
fly-flapper from Egypt, and subsequently to have spread 
over several of the adjacent apartments, infesting every¬ 
thing, aud being destroyed with the greatest difficulty; 
numbers having even survived fumigation with sulphur; 
which, whilst it had effected a partial remedy, had 
seriously injured the furniture, books, aud drawings, iu 
the apartments. Various suggestions were made by the 
members present as to the application of chloride of 
lime, a weak solution of corosive sublimate, chamo¬ 
mile flowers, &c., as a probable means of getting rid of 
the nuisance, the President stating that Professor 
Mosely had effectually got rid of great quantities of 
Cockroaches by the employment of chloride of lime. 
A note, by Air. Bates, at present resident in Brazil, 
aud engaged in forming collections of objects of Natural 
History for sale, was communicated by Air. S. Stevens, 
as to the characters distinctive of the two sexes in the 
species of the rare and beautiful genus Agra, belonging 
to the family of the Bombardier Beetle. 
] We wish to call our readers’ attention to the Manuals 
I F oa the AIany, advertised in our columns. These 
i Manuals contain a mass of sound, well-arranged inform¬ 
ation, such as is not to be found in any other works 
upon the same subjects. We say this without any self¬ 
complacency, because the value of these Alauuals arises 
from the knowledge and judgment of our contributors, 
which is now placed within the reach of everybody iu a 
collected form, and at the lowest price. 
AIEETING OF THE HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY - .— April 22nd. 
The first question which T put on entering the rooms 
that day was—“ How aro the subscriptions in aid likely 
to succeed?” “Very well, indeed; much better than 
most of us expected. This very day, three hundred 
pounds are added to the comiuou stock, which is now 
hard upon two thousand pounds, and if we go on at 
this rate till the Anniversary Aleeting, on the 1st of 
Alay, we shall certainly bo able to keep on the Garden 
so far. The proprietors of your Cottage Gardener 
came out most handsomely." “ They always do,” says 
1; “ aud depend upon it, there are none among your 
friends who wish the retention of the Garden, and the 
success of the Society, moro than the said proprietors.” 
As if to anticipate the good work, the best growers in 
the country, and round London, sent up beautiful 
flowers—new flowers, which no one in London had ever 
seen before ; a good many crosses or cross seedlings, 
and sports, with most excellent Grapes, Strawberries, 
and Pears, aud one handsome Pine-apple. Unluckily, 
however, for the first time, I had to absent myself from 
the lecture, which I regret, as some explanations about 
the nature of sports and cross-bred seedlings were looked 
for, from tho distribution of such things before “ the 
chair;” but the truth is this, I was engaged for some 
weeks on the genealogies of the African Ocraniums .— 
Pelargoniums and Erodiums are only, by law, sections 
of Geraniums, after all; as 1 find that those who were in 
power at the time of the innovation of strange names 
into tho family had protested against such fanciful 
names, and took the necessary means to allow the new 
names to cover no more than sectional divisions of the 
ancient and most respectable family name of Geraniums. 
Well; I went to see Covcnt Garden first, and had 
a long list of names to look out in the library of 
tho Societybeforo entering the show rooms; but on my 
way from Co vent Garden, who should 1 meet but 
Alessrs. Standish and Noble, with the worthy landscape- 
gardener, Air. Lovel, who is writing so ably on the 
subject in these pages, on their way to see the Welling- 
tonia gigantea, with regular passports To this gigantic 
idea I gave up the library for a couple of hours, and 
joined them, got inside the tree with amazement and 
astonishment, and out of it with awe and wonder. For 
all this I had to forego a lecture in which I was par¬ 
ticularly interested, and went into the library as soou as 
I finished my notes in the show room; but as I can 
talk about sports aud crosses, just as well, and as much 
to the purpose, as any of our Professors, so cannot I 
write much about awful big trees without seeing them, 
my readers will rather be the gainers for my losing the 
pleasure of that lecture, when I shall come to tell all 
about the mammoth tree from California. 
On entering the show-room of the Society, the first 
plant that caught my eye, for novelty, was a'little 
bedding-like plant from the Chiswick Garden, which is 
called Nemesia versicolor. It was above a foot high, 
spreading much after the manner of some Spanish 
Dianthus, but is of a different order, that of Figworts 
(Scrophulariaceie), and nearly related to Alonsoa and 
Ilemimeris; the flowers are blue and lilac, and come 
very thickly all over the plant, which, if it continues to 
flower all the summer, or most part of the summer, or 
could be managed so as not to come into bloom till after 
the spring frost, it would be a general favourite for beds, 
