June 9. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
ir-3 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Mi W 
D u 
9 Th 
10 F 
11 o 
12 Sun- 
13 M 
14 To 
is! VV 
JUNE 9—15, 1853, 
Pale Prominent; willows. 
Cream-spot Tiger; woods. 
St. Barnabas. 
3 Sunday afticr Trinity. 
Marbled Brown; oaks. 
Beaut. Yellow Underwing. 
Bird-wing; fir trees. 
Weather near Uondon 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. 
N 1852. 
Rain in I 11 . 
Sun 
Ritica. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. tk S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
Day o! i 
Year. 
1 
29.570 — 
29.518 61—51 
S.W. 
1.48 
46 
12 
10 44 
3 
1 
7 
160 
29.548 — 
29.539 59—42 
N.W. 
18 
45 
13 
11 23 
4 
0 
56 
161 
29.598 — 
29.490 57—40 
W. 
01 
45 
14 
11 53 
5 
0 
44 
162 ! 
29.738 — 
29.589 61—42 
N.W. 
j 02 
45 
14 
morn. 
6 
0 
31 
163 
29.719 — 
29.476 65—48 
W. 
28 
44 
15 
0 17 
7 
0 
19 
164 i 
29.374 — 
29.214 67—46 
w. 
13 
44 
16 
0 37 
) 
0 
6 
165 
29.570 — 
29.477 67—44 
w. 
I 16 
44 
16 
0 54 
9 
bef 
6 
166 
Meteorology of the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-six years, the average hi 
tures of these days are 72.4° and 49.5° respectively. The greatest heat, 90°, occurred on the 15th in 1852 : and thel 
in 1838. During the period 110 days were fine, and on 72 rain fell 
e highest and lowest tempera- 
THE DEATH-WATCH. 
This is so called 
“ Because, like a watch, it always cries click : 
Then woe be to those in the house who are sick ; 
For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost. 
If the maggot cries click, when it scratches the post.” 
So wrote, satirically, Dean Swift, in the reign of Queen 
Anne, in ridicule of those, who, a century and more before, 
agreed with Grose, that “ the clicking of a Death-watch is 
an omen ol the death of some one in the house wherein it 
is heard.” Now, either the Death-watch has lost its cunning, 
or else every one beneath the roof-tree where this is written 
has had a charmed life for some years past. The Death- 
watch may be heard in it every year, and almost in every 
room ; and it may be started off into ticking, or clicking, 
any hour of any day during the milder months of the year, 
by merely tapping gently against the waintscoating with the 
head of a pin. 
It is very easy to comprehend how the superstition arose. 
In the studied silence of a sick chamber, when the watchful 
relative even subdues her breathing for fear of disturbing 
the fragile slumber of the invalid; and at that still period 
of the night when every noise of waking man is hushed, 
and when the nerves are morbidly alive, and listening for 
even a change of tone in the breath of the patient—then to 
hear the measured click of the Death-watch is painful even 
now, and must have been still more so in days when igno¬ 
rance and superstition brooded over our population. We 
have heard it in such anxious hours, but, it never lead us to 
anticipate having upon our desk, on satin paper, in small 
well-tutored penmanship, and grammar unobjectionable, 
such a sentence as we now read—“I am in no spirits for 
writing, for my poor sister continues in the same precarious 
state, and as I sat by her bed side last night the Death- 
watch was painfully loud.” In the year of the Diffusion of 
Useful Knowledge, 1853, we never expected to read such a 
confession; but so it is; and we will endeavour to effect 
for our correspondent, and for any other reader similarly 
enervated, that relief, and earn that reward which Sir 
Thomas Browne says the man would merit, “ who could 
eradicate this error from the minds of people, for he would 
lowest cold, 33°, on the 10th 
save from many a cold sweat the meticulous heads of nurses 
and grandmothers.” 
We will not rest satisfied with telling our correspondent 
(M. R.) to adopt Dean Swift’s cure— 
“ A kettle of scalding hot-water injected, 
Infallibly cures the timber affected : 
The omen is broken, the danger is over, 
The insect will die, and the sick will recover; ” 
hut will give an account, as well as a drawing, of the pygmy 
beetle, and then leave the conclusion to be drawn by M. Ik’s 
own good sense. 
This little beetle, being only two- 
and-a half lines long, is shown in the 
above drawing of its natural size, as 
well as magnified. It is usually 
called Anolium Icssellatum; its horns, 
or antenna;, are red, having their 
three last joints longer than the 
others, and clubbed. The whole 
body is brown, hut the breast and 
wing-covers are spotted, and covered 
with an ash-coloured down; the 
wing-covers are also slightly streak¬ 
ed ; and the legs are brown like 
the body. When spring is far ad¬ 
vanced, say Kirby and Spence, these 
insects commence their ticking (but 
only when there is a profound silence 
in an apartment, and every one is 
still). It is only a call to each other, to which if no answer 
he returned, the animal repeats it in another place. It is thus 
produced. Raising itself upon its hind legs, with the body 
somewdiat inclined, it beats its head with great force and 
agility upon the plane of position ; and its strokes are so 
powerful as to make a considerable impression if they fall 
upon any substance softer than wood. The general number 
of distinct strokes in succession is from seven to nine or 
eleven. They follow each other quickly, and are repeated 
at uncertain intervals. In old houses, where these insects 
abound, they may be heard in warm weather during the 
whole day. The noise exactly resembles that produced by 
tapping moderately with the nail upon the table ; and when 
familiarized, the insect will answer very readily the tap of 
the nail. 
The constant dropping of water is said to wear away 
the hardest stone in time: and if a public writer urges 
a theory, or any project, constantly before liis readers, 
lie may rely on gaining a large share of converts. 
Truth is not so easily enforced, however ; hut persevere 
in proclaiming it, and it, too, will make an impression, 
uud forco its way to the mind, no matter how unplea¬ 
sant it may he. Some of the writers for The Cottage 
Gardener have maintained, and set forth for years, 
that the great summer exhibitions of the Horticultural 
and Botanical Societies were doing incalculable injury 
to gardening and to the nursery trade, notwithstanding 
the great stimulus they gave to the proper growth of 
certain plants, and to the introduction of new ones. ; 
Irado felt the eftects of these exhibitions, because no 
plants were sought lor by the public except they were, 
or could he made, suitable for the May, June, or July 
shows; and those who relied on the lists of plants that 
were annually published as being seen at Chiswick, 
or at the Regent’s Park, or had won prizes there, and 
bought accordingly, soon found out that they had flowers 
in their greenhouses and stoves only in the summer 
months, when flowers, and especially house flowers, 
were least useful, unless they could ho grown so as to 
run the chance ot a prize medal. It was also dis¬ 
covered, that if a new competitor entered tho field, 
the first thing ho had to do was to solicit the favour 
i of obtaining “ a young man” from one of the chief 
No. CCXLV., Vol. X, 
