June 30. 
/ 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
233 
M 
w 
JUNE 30—JULY G, 1853. 
Weather near London in 1852. 
Sun 
Moon 
Moon’s 
Day of 
Year. 
'0 
1 
D 
Barometer, jl'hermo. 
Wind. Rain in In. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
R. & S. 
Age. 
af. Sun. 
30 
Th 
Lechean; woods. 
29 937 —29-844i 71—4/ 
S.W. 
48 
18 
0 45 
24 
3 
16 
181 
1 
E 
High-brown Fritiliary. 
30.107 — 29.995| 72—52 
S.W. 
— 
... 
VIII 
1 m 0 
25 
3 
27 
182 
2 
3 
White C.; wood sides. 
30.131 — 30.0991 73 — 50 
S.W. 
— 
50 
18 
l 20 
26 
3 
39 
183 1 
3 
Son 
6 Sunday' after Trinity. 
30.158 — 30.1771 80—51 
s. 
— 
50 
17 
1 42 
27 
3 
50 
184 
4 
\r 
Marbled White ; woods. 
30.077 — 29.943| 94—51 
s. 
— 
51 
17 
2 10 
28 
4 
1 1 
185 
5 
ro 
Wall Moth; moist lanes. 
29.912 —29.819' 97-60 
s. 
— 
I 52 
16 
2 46 
29 
4 
12 
186 ! 
6 
w 
Chalk-hill Blue ; chalk cl. 
29.865 — 29.8081 90—61 
E, 
| - 
| 63 
1 16 
sets. 
© 
4 
22 
187 : 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations 
95°, occurred on 
the 5th 
in 1846 
: and the lowest 
cold. 
37°. 
on the 
during the last twenty-six years, the average highest and lowest tem- 
jperatures of these days are 7^*8° and 53° respectively. The greatest heat, 
30th in 1837. During the period 113 days 
fell. 
were fine, and on 
69 rain 
i 
THE LETTUCE SAW-FLY. 
Mr. Curtis, in writing upon this insect, and in allusion 
to the close resemblance the female bears to the females of 
two other species, raises the justly admonitory suggestion— 
“ this fact shows how extremely careful we must be in 
i studying the economy of insects, not to take for granted that 
things are the same, because they bear a strong resem¬ 
blance to each other.” This is a lesson worthy of being 
borne upon the memory by the student in each and all of 
the departments of science, for it is a propensity of the 
human mind to confound similarity with identity, or, as Sir 
Walter Scott has written—• 
“-So each mortal deems, 
Of that which is, from that which seems.” 
A propensity—an induction—which has led to more error 
from the days of the Alchymists, until the present day, than 
Although the parents of 
the three species so closely 
resemble eacli other, yet 
the habits of their young, 
or larval, vary essentially. 
That of the Lettuce Fly 
feeding upon the seeds of 
that vegetable, whilst the 
larvae of the Cabbage and 
Turnip Saw-flies feed upon 
their roots. 
Of the Lettuce Saw-fly 
(Ant homy ia lactuccr ), we 
have the following parti¬ 
culars from the pen of 
Mr. Curtis, in the Gar¬ 
deners’ Chronicle for 1841 : 
—“The larvae first make their appearance in August, but 
they are abundant in September; they closely resemble 
those from the Cabbage and Turnip, being of a yellowish 
white colour, tapering towards the head, which is pointed, 
and armed with two short, black claws at the nose. 
“ These maggots live in the involucra of different va¬ 
rieties of Lettuce, feeding upon the grains and receptacle; 
and when these are consumed they wriggle themselves out 
backward, either to enter another seed-vessel, or fall to the 
ground and become pupae. 
“When the seed-stems are gathered and dying, the larva; 
change to pupae, called shucks, in Surrey, being bright chest¬ 
nut-coloured, oval cases, which are rough when viewed 
under a lens, with two minute tubercles at the head, and 
i two hooks and a few other tubercles at the tail. 
“ In the second week of May a few of the pupa; hatch ; 
they have, however, been observed as early as April, and as 
late as July. The male is intense black, clothed with short 
hair and bristles; the eyes reddish-brown, and meeting 
above ; face inclining to chestnut colour, with a bright spot 
of the same on the crown ; the fore part of the trunk bears 
four varying whitish stripes; the body is ashy grey, the 
segments blackish, at the base a deep black; wings two, 
stained with black, and beautifully iridescent; the base and 
poisers ochreous, the nervures of the wings pitchy. 
“ The female is entirely ashy grey, and less bristly; the 
eyes not meeting on the crown, with a bright chestnut- 
coloured stripe between them; body oval, the apex cone- 
shaped; horns and legs blackish; wings and nervures 
lighter than in the male, which it equals in size.” 
Like most insect pests their visits are as uncertain as the 
seasons upon which their emergence into life so much 
depends. Thus in the years 1836-7-8 and 9, the larvie were 
most destructive of the Lettuce seed in the county of 
Suffolk. In 1849, they were equally devastating in some of 
the southern counties; but we have not since heard of their 
appearance extensively. In the present year, hitherto, all 
insects have been scarce. 
any other path of fallacy. 
No truth in Political Statics is more clearly established 
than that wherever a love of gardening prevails among 
a population, there also prevail comfort, virtuous 
habits, and little of evil. This is no mere assertion 
of hope, but is the verdict given by those who have 
devoted themselves to the study of such questions; and 
it is sustained not only by the evidence of every beni- 
ficed clergyman watching over the habits of his flock, 
but by the personal experience of every one who reads 
these pages. No one, in town or country, who has 
noticed the pursuits and the condition of his neigh¬ 
bours, whether wealthy or poor, but can testify that 
regular habits and respectability of character are the 
invariable accompaniments of attachment to the culture 
of the garden plot. 
To promote this love of gardening; to provide every 
house, down to the lowliest cottage, with a surface re- 
) quiring the use of the spade and the hoe, is the duty of 
' No. CCXLYIII, Vol. X, 
every government, and every member of a state. Nor is 
this duty one of difficult performance, for it is only aiding 
to strengthen a taste and an inclination implanted in 
every household—indeed, we might say, in every member 
of a household—and which the most adverse circum¬ 
stances cannot entirely destroy. A few weeks ago, our 
excellent Coveut Garden reporter related an instance of 
a garden established on the deck of a barge that floats 
with freight up and down the river Thames. Go into 
the most dismal alleys and courts of a town, and we 
see from the basement to the attic symptoms of the 
love of plant culture—a Primrose in a cracked teapot, 
and a Geranium in a blacking-bottle. Nor does this 
taste depend upon or vary with age. In Manchester 
and Spitalfields you find the oldest weavers still pur¬ 
suing the cultivation of Gooseberries and Auriculas, 
when both hands are upon the crutch, and one foot is 
over the grave. 
