June 19.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
175 
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C. glabra belongs to tlie 1-L-Didynamia 2-Angiospermia 
class and order of the Linn scan system. It is a stove plant, 
erect, and about a foot high ; stem, round, succulent, and 
reddish-brown; leaves, in pairs, yet very unequal in size,— 
one being small and spear-head-shaped, and the other large, 
egg-shaped, and saw-edged,—succulent, and smooth; flowers, 
on short, hail-}' stalks, rather crowded in between the leaves 
and the stem ; calyx, five-lobed, tipped with purple, rather 
hairy, four lobes equal-sized, but the fifth much smaller, and 
bent back by the spur of the corolla.; this is tubular, enlarged 
upwards, and five-lobed at the mouth, pale yellowish-white. 
Cuttings root readily without the aid of a bell-glass. B. J. 
THE ERUIT-GARDEN. 
Causes of the Prevalence of Insects. —It is very 
common for folks to blame the east wind for a blight, 
&c., or to term a tree infested with the lilliputian 
enemies, “ strucken,” as the good country people here, 
in Cheshire, do. All these terms might be fairly merged 
into one, to save farther trouble, and that “ the inex¬ 
plicable.” 
It is a custom to apply the term strucken to animals, 
in these parts; for when a very virulent inflammation 
(which probably had been smouldering some days in the 
viscera of the animal), at last bursts forth into a mani¬ 
fest blaze, apparently beyond the help of man; this 
the holders of the precise opinions of many generations 
term “ strucken.” In such a case, as we take it, the 
house has been on fire many hours before the engines 
arrived, and, as the Irishman observed, “ were just in | 
time to be too late.” Let no one, therefore, in an im- j 
patient mood, give up these things, like the Turkish 
fatalist. Our gracious Creator has placed few mere 
material matters entirely beyond the reach of man, 
and to come to the gist of this question, we would re- i 
spectfully suggest, that in three-fourths of insect in- [ 
vasions, as bearing on the culture of fruit-trees, whether 
in-doors or out—the cause—the remote cause, it may 
be—must be sought for in the conditions of root culture. 
Extreme drought, stagnation of corrupted moisture, and J 
leathery kind of adhesiveness in the soil, are amongst 
the principal of the evils to which we would now direct 
attention. 
Drought may occur through shallow soils, through 1 
soils being too light or sandy, or from too much of 
porous materials being combined in their texture. Now, 
it is almost needless to observe, that drought at the 
roots of a plant or tree must act in a way somewhat 
analogous to partial starvation in the animal system. 
Vital energy, is, doubtless, much reduced; the absorption 
by the roots is much less active and copious; and by a 
parity of reasoning, the elaborated secretions must be 
thicker, sweeter, and more viscid, consequently, slug- | 
gish. It is manifest, then, that it is something more 
than the mere ascending sap that insects in general 
seek from fruit-trees, as witness the position in which 
they are for the most part found—viz., the back of the 
leaf. Hence, then, it becomes plain, that since the 
insect tribes most infect under a torpidity of tlie vital 
action, the cause must be sought mainly in the root; 
and this brings us up to the question of mechanical 
texture in the soil, of which more in due time. 
Stagnation of Corrupted Moisture may arise from 
at least three causes. The soil in which a tree is 
planted, be it ever so fine in its own nature, may be 
recumbent on a bed of clay; or, what is much worse, on 
a “ moss-pot; ” or it may itself be of too adhesive a 
character; and, moreover, may have been originally 
handled when in a wet state, and this will spoil the texture 
of even a line soil. Many persons, in making stations, 
or borders, for trees, prosecute the work with such an 
eager impetuosity, that the very point of all others on 
which a permanence of success should be based is lost 
sight of in the turmoil. Good soil is procured, drainage 
secured, &c., &c., and so far so good; when, forsooth, a 
wet period supervenes, and instead of the work standing 
over until the new compost had emptied itself again, it 
must be filled in, and the work completed. Now this 
done, the surface finished, and all dressed off stylishly 
above, how many would feel annoyed at some old 
practical telling them their labour would never prove 
thoroughly satisfactory ! “ Oh, these fussy gardeners !” 
might be the secret ejaculation of the instant; “who ever 
can understand them?” But gardening is not learnt in a 
I day, a week, or a year; and, however valuable science 
I may be, this is an art in which experience carries as 
much weight as in any one that can be named. 
To return : Stagnation from a bed of Clay, as the 
i substratum, generally happens when the surface of that 
day or marl is on a dead level. In such case, the surplus 
water cannot drain off fast enough ; and the tree being 
glutted, a torpidity in the fibres takes place, and it may 
he rot. 
The other case— Stagnation from a bed of Moss, or, 
what are practically termed, moss-pots, is still more pre¬ 
judicial; inasmuch as the moss is more absorbent and 
retentive in its own nature. It is scarcely requisite to 
add, that no appliance can be expected to prove 
thoroughly curative in the latter case. “ The midden 
must be removed in order to get rid of the Mushrooms.” 
It will now seem strange to some persons to observe, 
that all those cases meet nearly in a point as to the 
question with which we set out, viz., the influence of the 
soil below, as hearing on the insect tribes above. Tor¬ 
pidity of root-action in the wet soils, and a state of 
ieanuess, or partial starvation, in the hot and dry ones, 
for a time paralysed the absorbent powers, and a less 
watery condition of sap in the system of the tree is 
the sure result. To digress for a moment; we would 
here beg our readers not to confound the influence of 
gross manurial matter with the absorption of ordinary 
fluids through the agency of the roots. It is not an un¬ 
common thing to find writers asserting that their peach 
or other fruit-trees were too gross, through being placed 
in too wet a soil, or having roots too deep. It is not, 
however, excess of mere moisture which produces luxu¬ 
riance, but artificial manurial matters in the soil, at 
depths never liable to become anyways dry, which throws 
fruit-trees into what may be aptly termed a gouty con¬ 
dition. We will quote a case or two in point. The 
Thunbergia family, especially alata and its varieties, 
if ever so free from insects, whilst growing freely and 
in a young state, invariably become attacked, when 
older, by the red spider, if they are pot-bound, and now 
and then suffer for want of water. The same, indeed, 
may be said of Cinerarias, Verbenas, and a host of in¬ 
door things, which lay more within the province of the 
able writer of the Greenhouse and Window Gardening, 
and who, doubtless, can speak to endless cases of the 
kind. In fact, the cleanliness ill exhibition matters of 
these days, as well as by consequence, the healthful luxu 
riance, manifest in all “ show ” matters, is, in the 
main, attributable to the fact, that torpidity of root- 
action finds no place in the vocabulary of those perse¬ 
vering gentlemen, unless it be the annual rest or cessa¬ 
tion of action in both root and branch which some 
plants require. 
In the Kitchen, or Fruit-garden, too, numberless are 
the cases where the same thing is manifest. An apple- 
tree is transplanted of some size, and the top but slightly 
pruned; ten to one this tree is the prey of the aphides, 
the scale, or the red spider, during the succeeding sum¬ 
mer, unless special means are taken to prevent it; and i 
the Plum, tlie Black Currant, &c., are overtaken with J 
drought in a warm and loose soil, immediately they are j 
smothered with aphides. We have written thus much 1 
to pave the way to a full appreciation of such means j 
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