May 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
W 
MAY 3—9, 1849. 
Plants dedicated to 
each day. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon R. 
and Sets. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
3 
Th. 
Invent, of the Cross. Yell. Wagtail arrives. 
Poet’s Narcissus. 
i 30 a. 4 
24 a. 7 
3 
14 
11 
O 
17 
123 
4 
F. 
Botanical Soc. Meeting. Pettyehaps heard. 
Stock Gillyflower. 
28 
25 
3 
38 
12 
Q 
• t 
24 
124 
5 
S. 
Latticed Hea.tb Moth seen. 
Apple-tree. 
20 
27 
4 
0 
13 
3 
29 
125 
li 
Sun. 
4 Sun. aft. Easter. Greenfinch builds. 
Globe-flower. 
24 
28 
4 
20 
14 
3 
35 
120 
7 
M. 
Long-eared Bat seen. [heard. 
Asiatic Globe-flower. 
23 
30 
rises 
© 
3 
39 
127 
8 
Tu. 
Easter Term ends. Turtle-Dove 
Lily of the Valley. 
21 
32 
8 a. 41 
10 
3 
43 
128 
9 
W. 
Burying Beetle seen. 
!Solomon’s Seal. 
19 
33 
9 
37 
17 
3 
47 
129 
Invention of the Cross. —We know not why this anniversary 
should be retained in our almanacks, as nothing: more is intended by 
it than to point out the day on which Roman Catholics believe that 
the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, discovered the 
cross on which our Saviour was crucified. 
Globe-Flower (Trollius Europosus). —As in the south of Eng¬ 
land the “ May blossoms,” or flowers of the hawthorn, are considered 
emblematic of the season, so in Scotland, Westmoreland, and other 
Border counties, is this flower, known there as the lucken gowan, 
considered especially as the May flower. It is the festival flower of 
those parts, and many and joyous are the parties assembled at this 
season to go and gather “ the gowans gay.” 
Phenomena of the Season. —The most striking event of the 
season is the gradual development of the leaves of our deciduous 
trees and shrubs. The “ young green ” tints of spring are indeed 
highly characteristic, but they are not monotonous in colour; and, 
although green predominates, yet, as we look out from our library- 
window, we can see many beautiful varieties of that same green, and 
other hues blending and harmonizing with it. The dark glossy upper 
surface of the Pyrus japonica’s leaf, and its dull paler surface be¬ 
neath, looking as if nature had united the leaf of the camellia with 
that of the apple to form a third; the green, shot with red, of the 
young cherry leaves, and so polished as if they were newly varnished 
for their first appearance; the grass-green sweetbriar leaves, the 
slightly darker peach leaf, with one stain of carmine upon its young 
point, and the yellow-green of the double-blossomed crab, are all 
strikingly before us, and all telling of that wondrous and beneficent 
variety in unity which characterizes the universal handiwork of 
their Creator. Various beyond enumeration are these colours, and, 
therefore, never monotonous: yet green prevails, and this above all 
other colours is that which is most grateful to the eye, and on which 
it can look longest without fatigue. The kindness of God is here 
apparent, for he who “ clothes the grass of the field,” if he had been 
even careless of man’s comfort, might have permitted that general 
dress of nature to have been painfully crimson or drearily purple; 
for plants with leaves of this colour are to be found, and such colour 
is, therefore, not inconsistent with vegetation. Wc need refer only 
to the red beet, the under side of the cyclamen, and the bracteal 
leaves of the scarlet bartsia ( Bartsia coccinea). The utility to 
man of the leaves of plants is no less than their beauty is gratifying. 
The senna is only one plant out of hundreds that have healing in 
their leaves ; those of the tea-plant give a beverage that is the quiet 
cheerer of all the homes of England; those of the mint and the sage 
are examples of others affording a grateful seasoning to our food ; and 
the sweetbriar and verbena are examples, as common, of those which 
gratify another of our senses. Turning our attention to size, we find 
that the smooth burdock ( Arctium lappa) has the largest leaf of 
our native plants, it being often 20 inches long and 18 broad ; but 
this is lilliputian when compared with the leaf of the Talipot-tree 
(Corypha umbraculifera) : this native of Ceylon has a leaf ll feet 
long and 16 feet broad in its widest part. Being about 40 feet in cir¬ 
cumference, this leaf forms a most capacious and efficient shelter 
either from rain or from the sun’s rays. On some future occasion, 
we must consider the importance of the leaf to the plant itself. 
Insects. —Every gardener must 
have observed the leaves of his 
pear-trees, especially those of the 
Chaumontelle, blotched with dark 
brown spots in the autumn. We 
had a standard tree of this variety 
in Essex that annually was thus 
injured, whilst a Swan’s Egg and 
an Easter Bergamot close by were 
comparatively untouched. These 
brown blotches are caused by the 
caterpillars, or grubs, of a very small 
moth called the Pear-tree Blister- 
moth ( Tinea Clerckella). The 
caterpillars of this moth belong to 
a family called “ miners,” on ac¬ 
count of their working beneath the 
skin of the leaves they attack, 
feeding only on their pulp. The 
red spots often seen on the leaves 
of the vine and turnip are caused 
by grubs of this habit. On opening 
one of the brown blisters on the pear-tree leaf, a small active shining grub will be found, 
fleshy, yellowish white, hairy, and with If) black feet ; the head and a line down the 
back are brown. When thus disturbed, the grub lets itself down towards the ground 
by a silken thread. It forms its cocoon in the earth, or beneath some withered leaf 
upon its surface. From this cocoon, the moth comes forth chiefly during May, though 
it has been observed at the beginning of April. In our drawing, the grub and moth 
are represented of their natural size, and the moth magnified. The upper wings are 
orapge, with a silvery spot on its outer edge, and a mingling of black, lilac, and pink 
on the inner angle ; an orange feathery mark and four black lines mark their upper 
surface, and they have a white fringe around them. The hind wings are narrow, lead- 
coloured, and fringed. Mr. Knight’s pear-trees were so injured by their grubs that he, 
at one time, resolved to remove them. The best mode of prevention seems to be to 
collect the leaves, and to pare off about an inch of the surface round each tree in the 
autumn, and to bum them. 
May. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
3 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Cloudy. 
Stormy. 
Fine. 
Highest 
& lowest 
temp. 
4 
50°—43° 
710—460 
66 °—44° 
65°—45° 
59°—37° 
V* 
O 
o 
1 
O-I 
53°—40° 
72°—33° 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Cloud v. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
6q°—50° 
65°—33° 
66 °—45° 
59°—48° 
60°—36° 
66 °—46° 
58°—36° 
72°—38° 
5 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
62 °—46° 
63°—46° 
63°—42° 
72°—43° 
58°—27° 
66 °—45° 
60 °— 31 ° 
74 °—36° 
6 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
65°—43° 
60 °—47° 
53°—32° 
72°—36° 
55°—37° 
63°—43° 
62°—40° 
78°—38° 
7 
Cloudy. 
Rain. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
66°—47° 
63°—46° 
59°—29° 
76°—43° 
50°—37° 
66°—43° 
65°—50° 
78°—37° 
s 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
62°—44° 
63°—41° 
49°—42° 
79°—44° 
52°—34° 
69°—42° 
60°—48° 
760 — 36 ° 
9 
Cloudy. 
Stormy. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
65°—50° 
60°—32° 
54°—39° 
78°—49° 
59°—38° 
72°—49° 
65°—48° 
78°—38° 
We noticed briefly, in our last Number, that the 
mildew, which for the last three or four years has 
been such a scourge to the vines in Kent and the 
neighbourhood of London, lias again made its ap¬ 
pearance in the same vicinity. We have bad leaves 
from vineries at Walthamstow, vineries, where the 
entire foliage had been destroyed once this season 
by the application of the fumes of burning sulphur, 
but the mildew is again strong upon- them, and 
affording evidence that the fungus, which is the 
disease, is capable of resisting agents fatal to the 
leaves on which it preys. 
We have examined the mildew by the aid of a 
very powerful microscope, and detected, in various 
stages of growth, the minute parasitical fungus to 
which Mr. Berkley has given the name of Oiilium 
No. XXXI., Yol. II. 
1 
