Aprit. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
21 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
w 
D 
APRIL 19—25, 1849. 
Plants dedicated to 
each day. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon R. 
and Sets, 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day ol 
Year. 
19 
Th. 
Alphege. Swallows first seen. 
Bear’s Garlick 
IV. 
VII. 
3 36 
26 
0 
57 
109 
20 
F. 
Song-thrusli hatches. 
Spring Snowflake 
56 a4 
2a7 
4 2 
27 
1 
10 
110 
21 
S. 
Sun’s dec. 11°55' n. Nightingale first heard. 
Cyprus Narcissus 
53 
4 
4 30 
28 
1 
23 
111 
22 
Sun. 
2 Sun. aft. East. Jelly Nostoc on lawns. 
Wood Crowfoot 
51 
6 
sets 
© 
1 
35 
112 
23 
M. 
St. George. Squirrel builds. 
Harebell 
49 
7 
7 a 48 
1 
1 
47 
113 
24 
Tn. 
Whinchat first heard. hpn ,., 1 
Sloe 
47 
9 
9 6 
2 
1 
58 
114 
|25 
W. 
St. Mark. Prs. Alice b. 1843. Whitethroat 
Early Tulip 
45 
11 
10 21 
3 
0 
9 
115 
Alpiiege was a student at Deerhurst Monastery, in Gloucester¬ 
shire, and after various gradations, between being a hermit at Bath 
to being Bishop of Winchester, he finally was Archbishop of Canter¬ 
bury at the time of being murdered by the Danes on this day in the 
year 1012 . Greenwich claims the honour of being the place of his 
martyrdom. 
St. George. —It is but too propable that those who first adopted 
St. George as the patron saint of England knew nothing of his his¬ 
tory. Passing by the fable of his slaying the dragon, and all the other 
nonsense to be found in “ The History of the Seven Champions,” we 
find that George of Cappadocia, whilst a heathen, was so guilty of fraud 
that he was obliged to fly from the country of his guilt. Seeking 
refuge at Alexandria, and professing conversion to Christianity, he 
sided with the Arian sect, and eventually became bishop of that city. 
His avarice prompting him to plunder rather than to convert the 
pagan people of his diocese, he, at length, was thrown by them into 
prison, but was dragged thence and murdered by the populace, A.n. 
331 ; thus giving occasion for considering him as a martyr who ought 
to have died unpitied as a malefactor. In his early struggles to 
establish the Arian power at Alexandria, he had frequently accom¬ 
panied its victorious troops, and was on that account selected by the 
soldiers as their patron. When the English Crusaders reached Pales¬ 
tine, in 1096 , they found St. George thus elevated to be a warrior 
saint ; they sought his aid by prayer at the battle of Antioch, and to 
him was given the credit of that victory. From that time they adopted 
him as their tutelar saint, and his name as their war-cry. Bringing 
his legend with them back to England, he was by degrees selected to 
be the patron of the Order of the Garter, and the guardian of Eng¬ 
land. 
St. Mark, the Evangelist, is stated by Papias, a contemporary of 
the Apostles, to have been a disciple of St. Peter, and this is con¬ 
firmed by the apostle himself calling Mark, “my son.” He was a 
nephew of Barnabas (Col. iv. 10), accompanied him to Cyprus (Acts 
xv. 3"), and afterwards evangelized with Peter in Asia (1 Peter v. 13). 
According to some of the most trustworthy of Christian historians, 
Mark founded a church at Alexandria ; and died there about a.d. 62 . 
Phenomena of the Season. —Chief among these are “The 
April showers,” proverbial throughout England as associated “with 
summer flowers,” and this year they have been plenteous yet gentle, 
refreshing yet mild, fully justifying us in expecting bountiful crops, 
if there is any truth in the country adage, 
“ In April a dove’s flood 
Is worth a king’s good.” 
These gentle rains are especially favourable to the germination of 
seeds just committed to the soil, and we will conclude our notes on 
this department of vegetation by a description of the structure of 
our garden seeds, taking the bean as an illustration. 
This sketch shews the bean 
after its skin has been stripped 
off, and the cotyledons, a a, 
separated. These cotyledons 
contain the nutritive matters 
required for the support of the 
young plant, of which b repre¬ 
sents the germ , until it is en¬ 
abled to draw nourishment from 
the soil and air by its roots and 
leaves. The upper part of the 
germ becomes the plumula, or 
young stem ; and the lower part 
of the germ becomes the radicle, 
or young root. 
The annexed sketch represents 
a young plant; in which a is 
the plumula, b the radicle, and 
c c the cotyledons, which have 
risen above the ground, enlarged 
and become what are termed the 
seed leaves.— Carpenter's Veg. 
Phys. and Botany. 
Among the phenomena of the 
season one of the most interest¬ 
ing is the arrival of the swallow. 
The earliest day of its first ap¬ 
pearance, noticed by Mr. Jenyns 
during twenty years, was on the 
9th of April, and the latest on 
the 26 th of this month. We 
shall state, some day, why we 
attach much importance to the 
record of these natural events; 
but shall at present say no more 
than that you may “sow kid¬ 
ney beans as soon as you have 
seen two swallows together.” 
Mr. Payne, writing to us on the 
7th instant, says, “ The appear¬ 
ance of drone bees so early will 
astonish many persons; it is what 
I have never even heard or read 
of, but it is true, although by 
many it will be questioned. I 
saw them yesterday (Friday, 
April 6 th,) in considerable num¬ 
bers ; I have also seen the small 
white butterfly, many days ear¬ 
lier than I ever saw it before.” 
April. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
19 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Cloudy, ! 
Highest 
& lowest 
58°—32° 
63°—26° 
63°—41° 
66°—42° 
60 °—36° 
53°—34° 
r.'■*0_O*?0 
O/ - ZJ 
6 l°—36° | 
temp. 
20 
Cloudv. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showerv. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
56° — 36° 
64°—33° 
70 °—36° 
670 — 45 ° 
68 °—36° 
54°—27° 
60 °— 30 ° 
59°—46° 
21 
Cloudv. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Showerv. 
53°—40° 
60 °—43° 
65°—45° 
70 °—38° 
66°—38° 
57°—30° 
6 l°—36° 
54°—46° 
22 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
53°—41° 
66 c —36° 
59°—26° 
70°—39° 
63°—31° 
57 °— 37 ° 
60 °— 26 ° 
54°—4.3° 
23 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Showerv. 
48°—28° 
75°—3 7° 
60 °— 28 ° 
710 — 39 ° 
72°—34° 
53°—42° 
59°—30° 
60°—44° 
24 
Showery. 
Stormy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showerv. 
Fine. 
Showery. J 
56°—39° 
75°—37° 
60 °— 27 ° 
71 O— 31 0 
71°—34° 
57°—34° 
58°_28° 
50°—39° 
25 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showerv. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Cloudv. i 
590 — 52 ° 
730 — 42 ° 
56°—34° 
73°—33° 
6/°—52° 
60°—42° 
62 °—36° 
50°—29° I 
Insects. —The Gray-streak Moth, or Rocket Tinea ( Cerostema 
porrectella of some entomologists, but the Tinea porreclella, and T. 
liesperidella, and the Ypsolophus vittatus of others,) is shewn of its 
natural size and magnified in the annexed wood-engraving. The fore 
wings are very pale buff, with large curved marks on the inner margin, 
white, edged with ashy-black, and black patches at the end next the 
body ; hind wings pale brown. This moth appears in June and Au¬ 
gust, but its caterpillars may be now found feeding on the buds of the 
White Rocket. The caterpillars are small, green, with yellowish 
heads, and minutely dotted with black. These caterpillars, by means 
of a tine web, draw the young leaves of the shoots of the Rocket to¬ 
gether, and feed upon the shelter they thus form. 
No. XXIX., Vol. II. 
