November 6. COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANFON. 88 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
1 
; 
D 
W 
NOVEMBER 6—12, J855. 
Weather near Eon 
Barometer. Thermo. 
DON IN 
Wind. 
1853. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R . & S , 
Moon's 
Age. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
6 
To 
Commoa Flat-body Moth. 
30.359—30.301 
53-25 
4 a 7 
21 a 4 
3 1 
26 
16 
15 
310 
7 
w 
Necrobia rufipes. 
30.501 — 30.421 
51—36 
w. 
— 
6 
22 
4 12 
27 
16 
12 
311 
8 
Ta 
November Daeger Moth. 
30.378—30.164 
51 — 31 
w. 
11 
7 
20 
5 26 
28 
16 
8 
312 
9 
F 
I’r. OF Walks born, 1841. Eord 
30.246 — 30.156 
44—18 
N. 
— 
g 
19 
sets. 
@ 
16 
3 
313 
10 
s 
[Mayor’s Day. 
30.209—30.002 
60—41 
w. 
01 
11 
17 
4 a 20 
1 
15 
58 
314 
11 
Son 
23 Sunday after Trinity. 
30.126—29.994 
49—28 
N.E. 
03 
13 
10 
4 48 
2 
15 
51 
315 
12 
M 
Bunting’s note ceases. 
30.228—30.219 
47--2I 
W. 
14 
14 
5 27 
3 
15 
44 
316 
Meteoeology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest tern- 
peratures of these days are 51.7°, and 37.0°, respectively. The greatest heat, 68°, occurred on the 12th, in 1841; and the lowest cold, 21°, 
on the 11th, in 1623. During the period 192 days were fine, and on 94 rain fell. 
The leaves and young shoots of Pear-trees have been 
unusually and extensively diseased this year. We have 
noticed this in Hampshire, and elsewhere, and Mr. 
Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, writes to us as follows:— 
“I enclose leaves and shoots of Pears. The orange- 
coloured rust first made its appearance on the 24th of 
June, after the frost of the 21st, and first attacked the 
thin-leaved sorts, such as Wi/iter Nelis, and the leaves 
of those sorts turned black, and fell off in August. The 
excrescences on the under side of tlio leaf did not 
appear till September, and the same upon the shoots not 
till very recently. It is altogether a most interesting 
‘blight.’ I should like to see it ‘ discoursed about.’ ” 
At first, we thought the excrescences were caused by 
the grub of some Cynips, but Mr. Westwood says:— 
“ I can find no insect, either imago, larva, or eggs, in 
the excrescences on your Pear leaves, and suppose 
them not to be produced by insects. In their young 
state the pustules are filled with a white powder, but 
afterwards tliey seem to burst and emit a brown rust. 
It is, I should think, a case of vegetable pathology, 
which is well worth investigating. If you should find, 
by examining them at some later period, that they are 
insect production, I shall be glad of more specimens, 
but from their various states, as shown by those sent, 
I scarcely think this will be found to be the case.” 
We then thought, observing that the excrescences 
became gradually more fibrous and brown, that it might 
be a result of the dampness of the autumn air, and that 
the Pear-trees were influenced, as sometimes are gross 
Vines in an excessively moist atmosphere, which then 
emit fibres from their branches. ’This was in some 
degree sustained by the fact, that the excrescences 
appeared chiefly upon the most luxuriant trees. How¬ 
ever, as the excrescences occurred far more numerously 
on the leaves, we sought for some other cause, and we 
think we have found it among the Eungi. 
At first, a small lump appears, and in the case of the 
leaves always near the foot-stalk, or in the vicinity of 
the mid-rib, and invariably upon the underside of the leaf. 
Gradually the surface of the excrescence becomes more 
and more rough, and finally attains a chesnut brown 
colour, covered, apparently, with pale brownish wool. 
Upon being shaved off parallel witli the disk of the 
leaf, the excresoonco exhibits a cork-like texture, en¬ 
circled by oval colls filled with a dark brown dust. 
Under the microscope the woolly fibres are displayed in 
curled bundles issuing from the chesnut-coloured mass 
on which they lie. ’This mass, when struck, emits the 
brown dust, and this is shown by the microscope to be 
the reticulated spores of some Fungus. 
This Fungus, we think, is Erinemn lanosum (Woolly 
Hedgehog Fungus). 
The only preventive measures we can suggest, is to 
have the leaves collected and burnt; to have the stems 
and branches syringed with a brine of common salt in 
early spring, before the Pear buds unfold; and at the 
same season to have the surface of the soil on which 
the trees are growing sown with salt, and pointed in 
with a fork, burying the surface at least six inches. 
HAMPTON COURT GARDEN. 
If it be true that the half of the world do not know 
how the other half live, it must be equally true that 
one-half of the gardening world do not know how the 
gardeners at Hampton Court manage to make both ends 
meet, for we never hear of their doings at all in these 
days. I have lived within the sound of their bell these 
four years last past, and have seen part of their grounds 
every clear day during that time, also the loads of 
Londoners passing my own garden, as if it were of no 
account, to see the beauties of Hampton Court, and all 
this without giving it a thought that anything was worth 
crossing the ferry for to Hampton Court; but, the other 
day, having had occasion to pass the gates on my way 
to the once celebrated Garrick’s Villa, at Hampton, I 
went in to see what it could be which attracted so many 
people from London to visit Hampton Court. Could it 
bo the great Vine, or the maze, or what? I had no 
notion of seeing flowers of any interest there, or any¬ 
thing else worth telling about I knew that Mr. Jack- 
son, of Kingston, rented the kitchen-garden and the 
forcing-ground; that ho was successful with forced 
Strawberries, Cherries, and other things in that line; 
and I recollect that ho once promised to drive me over 
there, and forgot all about it; and that I forgot it as well. 
But all this time, I had it in my head that he kejit the 
flower-garden tidy, as a part payment for the run of the 
rest; and wishing to keep on good terms with him, I 
did not much fancy going alone, as if to spy the naked¬ 
ness of the land; licnce the solo reason why the rest of 
us did not hear about Hampton Court long since. 
Well, on passing the gates, the first note of prepara¬ 
tion made a bad impression on me—the road to the north 
front of the palace is not properly laid down, according 
to the lines right and left of it, and it enters the“ coach¬ 
ring” sideways. When a “coach-riug” is very largo, 
and in the shape of a half-moon, as it is here, the 
carriage drive should enter it either directly on one side, 
at the point of one of the horns of the moon, or exactly 
in the middle of the curve. ’To enter it anywhere 
between the points aud the centre, throws the building 
No. CCCLXXI. VoL. XV. 
