I April 27. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
51 
I 
! 
D 
D 
w 
APRIL 27—MAY 3, 1854. 
Weather near London in 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. 
1853. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
i 2 7 
j 28 
i 29 
30 
1 
2 
i 3 
— 
Th 
F 
s 
Sun 
M 
Tu 
W 
Oodes helopoides. 
Loricea senea. 
Agonum ccerulescens. 
2 Sunday after Easter. 
St. Pii. & Jas. Pr. Arth. b. 1850. 
Syctodes thoracicus. 
29.872—29.836 
29.821—29.718 
29.634—29.586 
29.808-29.66.5 
29.885—29.808 
29.S 69 —29.748 
29.802—29.658 
60—28 S.W. 
56—40 E. 
56—37 E. 
66—31 S.W. 
68—40 S.E. 
64-47 E. 
55—47 E. 
38 
30 
()6 
58 
42 a 4 
40 
33 
36 
34 
32 
30 
13 a 7 
15 
17 
18 
19 
21 
23 
sets. 
8 a 51 
10 3 
11 10 
morn. 
0 10 
1 0 
O 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
2 27 
2 36 
2 45 
2 54 
3 r 
3 9 
3 16 
117 
118 
119 
120 
121 
122 
123 
| Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick,from observations during the last twentv-seven vears the avpMffP q „j 1 ., 
8, °- — 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
(Continued from page 10.) 
Cardamine amara : Bitter Lady's Smock; Bitter Cress • 
Bitter W ater Cress. 
Description .—It is a perennial. Root toothed, somewhat 
creeping. Stems one to two feet high, leafy, a little zigzag, 
more or less hairy, their lower part creeping, putting forth 
several rootlets, and sometimes a few slender scions. Leaf¬ 
lets all widened in the middle; those of the upper leaves 
\ oblong or elliptical, deeply and unequally wavy or notched; 
those of the root leaves more rounded, blunt and entire. 
; Flowers the size of the Cardaminc pralensis, but petals 
! always white, or cream-coloured, with violet anthers. Mr. 
j Curtis first pointed out the essential mark of this species, in the 
slender, obliquely elongated, style, and minute stigma, which 
seem to be deciduous, still leaving the pod with a sharp 
straight point. 
Places where found .—Common in boggy places, near' 
streams, ami in moist meadows and pastures. 
Time of flowering .—April and May. 
History .—There is little doubt that the earliest herbalists 
] considered it a variety either of the Common Lady's Smock 
I (C. pratensis), or of the common Water Cress. To the 
latter, before it flowers, it bears a strong resemblance, but 
j its taste, differs from it, being very bitter and nauseous, 
j Mr. Curtis.was the first distinctly to point out its permanent 
and botanical differences from O. pratensis. In the latter 
the anthers are yellow, but in C. amara they are purple; 
the petals of pralensis are tinged with purple, but in amara 
they are creamy-white; and, lastly, the style of pratensis is 
upright, whilst in amara it has a very unusual bend to one 
side. 
No animal but the sheep and goat eat it readily, for its 
taste to most palates is disagreeable. The young leaves, 
however, are sometimes mixed with salads in Lincolnshire. 
When the plant is full grown the bitter flavour increases, 
and Parkinson justly observes, “ that none can away with it 
to eat it, unless it be boiled in water, and shifted again into 
other fresh boiling water, to take away the bitterness, aud 
so some do eat it." 
A very beautiful Butterfly, Euchloe cardamines, the Papilio, 
Pier is, and Ganoris cardamines of some entomologists, is 
j often found in the vicinity of various species of Cardaminc, 
for on these it deposits its eggs, and on them its caterpillars 
, feed. The common names of this Butterfly are The Orange- 
j lipped, on account of its white wings being tipped with that 
t colour; and The Wood Lady.—{Smith. Withering. Curtis. 
1 Parkinson. Westwood.) 
Tiie Meeting of the Entomological Society for April 
was held on the 3rd instant. W. Wilson Saunders, 
Esq., F.L.S., Vice-President, in the chair. A small but 
highly interesting collection of minute insects, chiefly 
of the order Colcoptera, from Ceylon, was presented by 
G. PI. K. Thwaites, Esq., the superintendent of the 
Botanical Garden at Paradenia. The insects had been 
sent in spirits, and consisted of a selection of all the 
unique species, many new and very curious. 
The Secretary announced that a new part of the 
Transactions, being the eighth and last part of Vol. ii., 
of the second series, was ready for distribution. 
Dr. Baly exhibited a number of Hymenoptcra, chiefly 
of the fossorial and melliferous tribes, collected in Dal¬ 
matia, by M. Bottari, now in this country, and who is 
about to start to Mexico, on a natural history excursion. 
Mr. Samuel Stevens exhibited a box of small diurnal 
Lepidoptera, recently received from Santaren, in the 
interior of Brazil, collected by Mr. Bates. Amongst 
the species were a number belonging to the beautiful 
family Erycinulce, to which family Mr. Bates had paid 
particular attention, South America being the chief 
metropolis of the family. By this means he had been 
able to determine the sexes of different species which 
had hitherto been regarded as belonging to distinct 
species, and even, occasionally, to different genera! 
Amongst some of them are the loveliest little Butterflies 
with which we are acquainted. Their mode of flight 
somewhat resembles that of the geometrideous Moths, 
being weak and unsteady, and like them, too, they are 
generally beaten from the trees. 
Mr. Stevens also exhibited three Coleoplera, of great 
rarity, just received, by post, from Mr. Fortune, who had 
obtained them in China. They are the Dicranooephalus 
No. CCXCI,, Vol. XII. 
