May THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Is 
W 
D 
MAY 17—23, 1849. 
1 
Plants dedicated to 
each day. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon R. 
and Sets. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
17 
Th 
Ascen. Holy Thurs. May-fly appears. 
Early Red Poppy. 
7 a 4 
45 a 7 
2 
3 
25 
3 53 
137 
18 
F 
Midge appears. 
Mouse Ear. 
0 
47 
2 
29 
20 
3 51 
138 
19 
S 
Dunstan. Broods of Starlings fledged. 
Common Monk’s Hood. 
4 
48 
2 
50 
27 
3 49 
139 
[20 
Sun 
Sun. aft. Ascen. Sailor Beetle appears. 
Horse Cliesnut. m 
3 
50 
3 
20 
28 
3 40 
140 
21 
M 
Sun’s dec. 20° 13' n. House-martin builds. 
Ragged Robin or Cuckoo- 
2 
51 
3 
58 
29 
3 42 
141 
22 
Tu 
Trinity Term begins. Raspberry flowers. 
Yellow Star of Bethlehem. 
i 
52 
sets 
@ 
3 38 
142 
123 
W 
Greasy-Fritillary Butterfly appears. 
Lilac. 
hi. 
54 
9 all 
1 
3 34 
143 
Ascension Day.— From a period not less remote than the first 
century after the birth of our Lord, has the Thursday next but one 
before Whit-Sunday been the day on which His ascent into heaven 
has been celebrated (Luke xxiv. 51). Even in the laws of Alfred the 
Great it is mentioned as “ The Holy Thursdayand we must all, 
as Christians, acknowledge and love to foster the remembrance of 
“ The glorious Resurrection and Ascension.” There is one elegant 
custom still observed in some parts of England on this day, which, 
so far from considering “ more honoured in the breach than in the 
observance,” that we .wish it were more associated with thoughts of 
“ the fountain of living water,” and more generally observed. We 
allude to the “ the well-flowering,” at Tissington, in Derbyshire, and 
elsewhere. 
“ Still Dovedale yield thy flowers to deck the fountains 
Of Tissington upon its holiday ; 
The customs long preserved among the mountains 
Should not be lightly left to pass away. 
They have their moral; and we often may 
Learn from them how our wise forefathers wrought, 
When they upon the public mind would lay 
Some weighty principle, some maxim brought 
Home to their hearts, the healthful product of deep thought.” 
At Tissington, the day is a day of entire festival; and the remem¬ 
brance of its yearly household gatherings softens the hearts of many 
wanderers from its homes in distant climes, and who were there not 
since “ long, long ago.” All the wells of the village, five in num¬ 
ber, are wreathed and garlanded with flowers. The villagers put on 
their holiday attire; friends “from afar and from hard by ” gather 
to them; service is performed at church, a sermon preached, the 
wells are visited in succession ; the psalms, the gospel, and the 
epistle for the day are read, one at each ; and the day is concluded 
by the villagers gathering under “ their own vines,” and within their 
own wicket-gates. Shaftesbury “byzant,” an offering from that 
town to the well at Motcombe, whence comes its supply of water, 
had its origin from similar feelings of gratitude. 
Dunstan, after whom so many of our churches are named, if 
divested from all the miraculous absurdities with which his history 
has been disfigured, will be found, as is observed by Mr. Sharon 
Turner, to be “a character formed to act a distinguished part in the 
varied theatre of life.” He was a scholar and a man of science, 
therefore the ignorance of the age confounded his knowledge and 
his experiments in the laboratory with magic and its incantations; 
but he became a courtier, and fell: for the mitre of Canterbury, to 
which he attained, only served to exhibit more prominently his am¬ 
bitious and his remorseless nature. He died a.d. 988, without any 
title to be remembered in our calendar but as a warning. 
Phenomena op the Season.— The Rev. John Byron, writing 
from Killingholme, in Lincolnshire, has favoured us with the follow¬ 
ing interesting and seasonable notes :—“ I send you the dates of my 
having seen the first swallow for five years past—1845, April 21 ; 
1846, April 14 ; 1847, April 27 ; 1848, April 13 ; 1849, April 26 . This 
village is situate two miles from the Humber; and, I believe, 
swallows may almost always be seen besides its banks two or three 
days, or even more, before they are seen at the village. I think a 
good description of that too well known pest, the wire worm, its his¬ 
tory and its changes, with a statement of the best method of banish¬ 
ing it—for, I fear, to destroy it is impossible—would be generally in¬ 
teresting. You must have seen it stated that moles and partridges 
prey on it: but, in cottage gardens, such remedies could not be re¬ 
sorted to. I am inclined to think that soot and water will generally 
succeed in expelling it, having found it do so this spring in a cucumber- 
frame, but I should be glad to hear the opinions of some better informed 
correspondent. It is now pretty generally believed that all stories 
about the hedgehog forestalling the milkmaid are utterly groundless; 
and I see that Rusticus (quoted in Chambers’ Journal of last Feb¬ 
ruary,) brands them as “ horridly unbelievable.” Be that as it may, 
I always find the gipsies adhering to the old notion: and, though I 
am aware that the authority of these gentry is somewhat question- 
able> I am inclined to give some weight to their testimony on this 
point for several reasons. First, as they regard the hedgehog, at 
certain seasons of the year, “ a dainty dish to set before a king,” 
they may be supposed likely to be well acquainted with its habits. 
Secondly, their poaching propensities lead them abroad at an ear¬ 
lier hour than most other persons ; and they assert that the theft is 
committed (to use the words of Southey) 
“ Before the cow from her resting-place 
Has risen up, and left her trace 
On the meadow with dew so grey.” 
And, thirdly, they could have no object in deceiving me in this 
matter. If they could in any way be gainers by telling an untruth 
I much fear that they would not hesitate to do so ; but I cannot be¬ 
lieve that so many parties as I have questioned on this point would 
agree in their testimony unless it was correct, and when nothing 
could be gained by it.” Another correspondent, writing to us from 
Wells, in Somersetshire, says he heard the cuckoo there for the first 
time this year on the 27th of April. 
Insects. — Mr. Westwood has 
justly observed that of the leaf-de¬ 
stroyers the most injurious species 
are those which live in society, en¬ 
closing themselves in a common web. 
One of these is the Small Ermine 
Moth ( Yponomeuta padellaoi some, 
and Phalcena evonymella of others). 
In some seasons, the caterpillars of 
this little insect are very destructive 
to our apple-trees ; and in France 
its ravages are sometimes so exten¬ 
sive, that it has been regretted there 
that the old law, commanding the 
people “ to uncaterpillar the trees, 
had been suffered to fall into disuse.” 
( Gardeners' Magazine, iii.434, N. S.) 
Our drawing represents the moth 
magnified and of its natural size. 
The fore wings of this moth, ordi¬ 
narily, are of a leaden white, with 
about thirty remote minute black 
spots, disposed somewhat regularly in longitudinal rows, but on the hinder margin they are 
more irregular, and tend to a transverse disposition: the hairy fringe of the wings is livid. 
Posterior wings lead-coloured : fringe rather paler. Extremely variable: some examples having 
the ground of the fore wings white; some with a livid or pale lead-coloured central cloud; 
others, again, entirely of a pale or deep lead colour; and all intermediate shades occur: the 
number of spots also varies. The caterpillar is of an ashy white colour, with a brownish head, 
and a number of small black spots, of which the largest form a series on each side of the body. 
It has sixteen feet, the three front pairs being jointed, and attached to the three fore seg¬ 
ments. The four following pairs are membranaceous, false, ventral legs. They are below the 
middle size, and the body is smooth. It prefers only some kinds of apples, which is the more 
remarkable, because its principal food (whence its specific name is derived) is the bird cherry 
(Padus ), although the white thorn is also even more subject to its attacks; whole hedges being 
sometimes entirely defoliated in summer, and covered with webs. It is a peculiarity in the 
history of this insect, that it is not only social in the caterpillar state, but that it retains its 
sociality during the period of its pupation, the cocoons being formed within the web which 
had served for the abode of the caterpillars. These webs are quitted from time to time, and new 
May 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
17 
Highest 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
& lowest 
temp. 
O 
»0 
I 
CO 
68°—13° 
52°—43° 
59°—32° 
Cl 
f 
CO 
0 
6 l°—36° 
69°—45° 
790 — 52 ° 
18 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
66 °—46° 
69 °—40° 
48°—45° 
54°—44° 
59°—42° 
62 °—46° 
70°—45° 
80°—39° 
19 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Stormy. 
Fine. 
60 °—47° 
65°—36° 
60°—46° 
60°—43° 
59°—38° 
63°— 19 ° 
66 °—49° 
65°—44° 
20 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
61°—39° 
630—490 
62 °—48° 
63°—46° 
59°—41° 
60°—44° 
670 — 42 ° 
66 °— 37 ° 
21 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
69 °—54° 
610 — 41 ° 
64°—39° 
62 °—46° 
56°—42° 
71 0 —390 
69°—45° 
69 °— 54 ° 
22 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
68 °—43° 
65°—42° 
56°—45° 
67 °—46° 
590 — 41 ° 
71 °—46° 
77°—50° 
73°—48° 
23 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Rain, 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
750 — 46 ° 
64°—43° 
63°—52° 
70°—43° 
60°—44° 
710-470 
89°—59° 
72°—38° 
No. XXXIII., Vol. II. 
