THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
May 
60 
M 
D 
w 
D 
MAY 10—10, 1840. 
Plants dedicated to 
each day. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon R. 
and Sets. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
10 
Th 
Daddy Long-legs appears. 
Fine-leaved Poeony. 
18 a. 4 
35 a. 7 
10 
20 
18 
3 
50 
130 
11 
E 
Reed Bunting lays. 
Yellow Asphodel. 
10 
30 
11 
17 
10 
3 
52 
131 
12 
S 
Lily of Valiev flowers. 
German Iris. 
15 
38 
11 
59 
20 
3 
54 
132 
13 
Sun 
Rogation Sunday. Swift appears. 
Common Comfrey. 
13 
30 
morn. 
21 
3 
55 
133 
14 
M 
Dot Motli appears. 
Common Poeony. 
11 
41 
0 
35 
22 
3 
55 
134 
15 
Tit 
Hawthorn flowers. 
Eastern Poppy. 
10 
42 
1 
7 
£ 
3 
55 
135 
10 
W 
Spotted Ely-catcher appears. 
Large Star of Bethlehem. 
8 
44 
1 
37 
24 
3 
54 
136 
Rogation Sunday. —Among the Romans it was customary to 
celebrate annually a festival called TerminaHa, in honour of their 
idol Terminus, who they considered as presiding over the bounds of 
their estates. During that festival, the owners prayed for a blessing 
upon their farms ; but there is little room for doubting that one in¬ 
tention of the ruler who instituted this annual festival was thereby to 
perpetuate the memory of the boundaries, for the avoidance of litiga¬ 
tion. Even at a still earlier period, we know that the Levitical law 
not only forbade the removal of land-marks, but invoked a curse upon 
this act so tending to a confusion of property (Deut. xix. 14, xxvii. 
J7). The benefits arising from “ walking the boundaries,” and the 
facilities afforded to the introduction of Christianity by grafting re¬ 
ligious exercises upon the old idolatrous customs, induced its early 
teachers to make a religious ceremony of these perambulations ; and, 
until a very recent period, these perambulations have been kept up, 
accompanied by a particular form of “ rogations,” or prayers (from 
rogare, to ask) and sermons under “ gospel trees,” in which God’s 
blessing upon the neighbourhood was besought, and his providence 
enforced. The religious exercises have now almost or entirely ceased 
throughout England, yet many remnants of the festival and its at¬ 
tendant customs remain: all shewing that the particular production of 
the place was especially the subject of the people’s supplication on the 
occasion. For example, in the salt districts of Cheshire and Worces¬ 
tershire, the brine springs are decked with flowers; at Newcastle, 
“ cheerful libations ” are still poured out in honour of the “ coaly 
Tyneand about Keston, in Kent, the land of fruit, they run into 
the orchards, and, encircling each tree, sing— 
“ Stand fast root; bear well top ; 
God send us a vouling sop ! 
Every twig an apple big, 
Every bough apples enow.” 
Phenomena or the Season. —We will conclude our observa¬ 
tions upon the leaves of trees, for their blossoms are rising around us 
and becoming prominent phenomena. The following is from “ The 
Principles of Gardening:”—The duration of a leaf is in general 
but for a year, though in some plants they survive for a longer period. 
It is generally of a green colour. Light seems to have a powerful 
influence in causing this ; since, if kept in the dark, leaves become 
pale yellow or even white, unless uncombined hydrogen is present, in 
which case they retain their verdure though light be absent. Hence 
their blanching seems to arise from their being unable to obtain this 
gas under ordinary circumstances, except when light is present. Now 
the only source from which they can obtain hydrogen, is by decom¬ 
posing water: and how light assists in the decomposition, may per¬ 
haps be explained by the disoxygenizing power with which it is gifted. 
The violet rays of the spectrum have this power in the greatest de¬ 
gree ; and Sennebier has ascertained by experiment, that those rays 
have the greatest influence in producing the green colour of plants. 
When leaves are of any other hue than green, they are said to be 
coloured. This variegation is often considered to be a symptom 
either of tenderness or debility; but Mr. Knight has demonstrated 
that variegation is not a certain indication of a deficiency of hardi¬ 
hood. The function of the leaves is a combination of those of the 
lungs and stomach of animals ; they not only modify the food brought 
to them from the roots, so as to fit it for increasing the size of the 
parent plant, but they also absorb nourishment from the atmosphere. 
The sap, after elaboration in the leaves, differs in every plant, 
though it appears to be nearly the same in all vegetables when it first 
arrives to them. The power of a leaf to generate sap is in propor¬ 
tion to its area of surface, exposure to the light, and congenial situa¬ 
tion. Evergreens transpire less moisture than deciduous plants, 
which would lead to the expectation that they are more capable of 
living in dry situations, which, in general, is really the case. The 
transpiration of plants decreases with that of the temperature to 
which they are exposed, as well as with the period of their 
growth. This explains why the gardener finds that his plants do not 
require so much water in cold weather, nor during the time that 
elapses between the fall of their blossoms and the ripening of their 
seed. During this period they do not transpire more than one-half 
so much as during the period preceding and attending upon their 
blooming. The transpiration takes place from the upper surface of 
the leaves ; and if these gradually decay' and fall, the growth of 
the plant ceases until fresh leaves are produced. Hence arises the 
benefit which plants derive in rooms, greenhouses, and other con¬ 
fined inclosures, from keeping those surfaces cleansed with the 
sponge and syringe. Some plants are particularly sensitive to in¬ 
jury from any check to their transpiration, among which are the tea- 
scented roses ; and it thence arises that they cannot now be culti¬ 
vated in nursery-gardens near London, where they once flourished 
when that metropolis was less extensive. The drier the air the greater 
is the amount of moisture transpired ; and this becomes so excessive, 
if it be also promoted by a high temperature, that plants in hothouses, 
where it has occurred, often dry up as if burned. The justly la¬ 
mented Mr. Daniell has well illustrated this, by showing that if the 
temperature of a hothouse be raised only five degrees, viz., from 75° to 
80°, whilst the air within it retains the same degree of moisture, a plant 
that in the lower temperature exhaled 5 7 grains of moisture, would 
in the higher temperature exhale 120 grains in the same space of time. 
Leaves have the power of absorbing moisture as well as of emitting 
it, which power of absorption they principally enjoy during the night. 
During the day leaves also absorb carbonic acid, gas, which they de¬ 
compose, retaining its carbon and emitting the greatest part of the 
oxygen that enters into its composition. In the night this operation 
is in a certain measure reversed, a small quantity of oxygen being 
absorbed from the atmosphere, and a smaller proportion of car¬ 
bonic acid emitted. Carbonic acid gas in small proportions is essen¬ 
tial to the existence of leaves, yet it only benefits them when present 
in quantities not exceeding one twelfth of the bulk of the atmosphere 
in which they are vegetating, though one twenty-fifth is a still more 
favourable proportion ; and as hotbeds, heated by fermenting matters, 
rapidly have the air within their frames contaminated to a much 
greater extent than the proportions above-named, thence arises the 
injury to the plants they contain from a too long neglected ventila¬ 
tion. The leaves turn yellow from the excess of acid, which they are 
unable to digest, and which consequently effects that change of co¬ 
lour which also occurs in autumn, and which will be more fully con¬ 
sidered when the decay of plants is detailed. 
Insects. —Every grower of the ap¬ 
ple knows how liable his fruit is to be 
“ worm-eaten.” He finds basketsful 
of “windfalls” even in the calmest 
weather, and that the cause of the loss 
is a small grub, which has fed upon 
May 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
10 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Highest 
& lowest 
65°—°46 
64°—35° 
57 °—33° 
68°—38° 
58°—36° 
O 
O 
T 
0 
0 
O 
»o 
1 
N 
76 °—36° 
temp. 
11 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
77°—46° 
650—440 
62°—34° 
64°—52° 
58°—42° 
72°—34° 
65°—40° 
84°—40° 
12 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
62°—39° 
51°—37° 
67°—46° 
72 0 — 41 ° 
58°—42° 
690 — 48 ° 
65°—45° 
80°—41° 
13 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
66 °—36° 
70 °— 36 ° 
66°—42° 
78°—39° 
6 l°—44° 
69 °— 46 ° 
68°—41° 
81°—41° 
14 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
65°—40° 
720 — 38° 
64°— 50° 
70 °—38° 
61 °—36° 
62 °—38° 
65°—46 ° 
81°—48° 
IS 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
O 
o 
Tl* 
1 
o 
67 °—36° 
65°—47° 
60°—41° 
63°—48° 
63°—34° 
67 °—51° 
85°—43° 
16 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
Cloudy. 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
740 — 49 ° 
68°—42° 
630 — 50 ° 
65°—40° 
63°—45° 
63°—46° 
68 °—49° 
82°—47° 
the pulp of the fruit; but how, when, or where those grubs got there 
he has not the slightest notion. As it is one of the most injurious of 
insects to one of our most useful of fruits, we shall give more full 
particulars than usual, borrowing them chiefly from Mr. Westwood’s 
essay in the Gardener’s Magazine, iv. 235, N. S. The grub in ques¬ 
tion is the larva of the Codling Moth, Carpocapsa pomonella of some 
entomologists, but Tinea pomonella, Pyralis pomona, and Tortrix 
pomonana of others. It is upon the pulpy parts of the apple that 
the grub chiefly feeds ; when, however, it has nearly attained its full 
size, it feeds on the pips of the apple, which, thus attacked in its 
most vital part, soon falls to the ground. No sooner is the apple 
fallen, than the grub quits the fruit by the passage which it had pre- 
No. XXXII., Vol. II. 
