May 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
83 
M 
D 
w 
D 
MAY 24—30, 1849. 
Plants dedicated to 
each day. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon R. 
and Sets. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
•24 
Th 
Q. Vic. b. 1819. Small Heath Butterfly. 
Oriental Poppy. 
58 a. 3 
55 a. 7 
10 
14 
2 
3 
29 
144 
25 
F 
Prs. Helena b. 1846. Bees first swarm. 
Common Avens. 
57 
56 
11 
7 
3 
3 
23 
145 
20 
S 
Augustine. Ox. T. c. Grizzled Skipper Bfly. 
Rhododendron. 
56 
58 
11 
50 
4 
3 
17 
146 
27 
Sun 
Whit 8 . Ven. Bede. Garden Carpet Moth. 
Buttercup. 
55 
59 
morn. 
5 
3 
10 
147 
28 
M 
Whit M. Sandpiper first seen. 
Dingey Iris. 
54 
VIII. 
0 
24 
31 
3 
3 
148 
29 
Tu 
K. CnAS. II. rest. 1660. Stinging Fly seen. 
Mountain Blue-bottle. 
53 
1 
0 
54 
7 
2 
56 
149 
30 
W 
Ember Week. Ox. T. b. Swallow-tail Bfly. 
Spearwort. 
52 
2 
1 
20 
8 
2 
48 
150 
Augustine was the Benedictine monk sent to evangelize in 
England by Pope Gregory, as noticed by us in the calendar for March 
12 th. He landed in Kent in the year 596 ; was instrumental in re¬ 
animating Christianity among our countrymen; became Archbishop 
of Canterbury; and died on this day, about the year 607. 
Venerable Bede was born at Jarrow, in the county of Durham, 
a.d. 6/2. Contemporary historians give ample testimony to his 
piety; and his “ Ecclesiastical History” is a surviving evidence of his 
learning and industry. It is not an excess of praise to say that he 
was the best scholar and the most pious ecclesiastic of the dark age 
in which he lived. He died on the day to which his name is appended 
in our calendar, and in the year 735. His body was at first buried in 
the chapel of his monastery at Jarrow, but was afterwards removed 
to Durham, and placed in the same coffin with the remains of St. 
Cuthbert. 
Whitsuntide. —This festival, superseding the Pentecostal feast 
of the Jews, celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the first 
Christian converts, Gentiles as well as Jews. (Acts ii.) Whitsunday 
is the seventh Sunday after Easter, and appears to have been annually 
commemorated even in the time of the Apostles. It has been thought 
that the name Whitsun is allusive to the white garments, indicative of 
purity, worn by the early Christians at this season; but it is more 
probably derived from the Saxon word Wita, superior knowledge, it 
being the festival commemorating the gift of wisdom direct from 
God. 
Restoration of Charles II.—Although oak apples are worn 
on this day, it was not because Charles the Second was at this season 
of the year concealed in the oak at Boscobel. That concealment 
was on the 6 th of September, 1651, three days after his defeat at 
Worcester) but “Oak-apple day” is the anniversary of the king’s 
birth, which was in 1630, and of his entry into London, after the 
Protectorate was overthrown, in 1660 . The king’s concealment in the 
oak is thus described in a little volume published at the time, and 
called “ Boscobel”—“ Colonel William Carlis (Careless) made choice 
of a thick leafed oak, into which William and Richard Penderel 
helped both the king and the colonel, and brought them such pro¬ 
vision as they could get, with a cushion for his majesty to sit on. In 
this oak they continued most part of that day, his majesty resting his 
head on the colonel’s lap, who was watchful that his majesty might 
not fall; and in this posture his majesty slumbered away some part 
of the day.” An oak tree, said to have been raised from an acorn 
of the real “ Charles’s Oak,” and enclosed within a brick wall, was 
growing at Boscobel but a few years since, and, probably, is there 
still. 
Phenomena of the Season. —A very trustworthy correspondent, 
writing to us from Bury, in Suffolk, says :—“ With us the night¬ 
ingale sang on the 23rd of April, swallows appeared on the 25th, the 
cuckoo was heard on the 26 th, and the redstart seen on the 29 th. 
Perhaps you will oblige us in a week or two, in your entomological 
corner, with a figure of the ‘ Cicada,’ ‘ Frog-hopper,’ or ‘ Flea-locust,’ 
(for by all these names is it known,) and its history—that destroyer of 
carnations and picotees, and general defacer of almost every plant. 
How is it generated ? The perfect insect is not seen till August, and 
yet we have the young now in abundance in the greenhouse, and 
even upon seedling plants under glass.” We will, before long, give 
a drawing of the curious insect to which our correspondent refers, 
and which is more popularly known as the “ Cuckoo-spit,” ( Tetti - 
gonia spumaria). 
May 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
24 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Rain. 
Cloudy. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Highest 
O 
*0 
TJ* 
1 
O 
O 
& lowest 
O 
O 
1 
O 
O 
65°—40° 
CM 
1 
4 - 
0 
66°—45° 
75°—45° 
O 
I 
d- 
O 
750—410 
temp. 
Cloudv. 
25 
Fine. 
Showery. 
63°—48° 
Fine. 
Cloudv. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
73°—54° 
670 — 41 ° 
65°—40° 
57°—46° 
75° —53° 
69°—35° 
80° —44° 
26 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudj'. 
80°—58° 
66°—47° 
66° — 45° 
58°—41° 
59 0 — 36 ° 
73°—39° 
75°—36° 
83°—51° 
27 
Stormy. 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
82 °— 60 ° 
68°—51° 
63°—43° 
550—430 
67 °—48° 
71 °—42° 
84°—50° 
67°—34° 
28 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
Cloudy. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
OO 
e 
0 
1 
On 
O 
O 
O 
1 
O 
65°—44° 
590—430 
67°—49° 
67°—41° 
91°—5g° 
770 — 37 ° 
29 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
Showery. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
Fine. 
O 
1 
O 
<N 
71 °—46° 
54°—34° 
58°—44° 
55°—48° 
73°—39° 
770—450 
81°—53° 
39 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
74°—49° 
73°—46° 
64°—48° 
610 — 45 ° 
640 — 39 ° 
79°— 44° 
O 
Tf* 
1 
O 
72°— 39 ° 
Insects. —During the latter part 
of the evenings of this and the next 
month, a middle-sized brown moth 
may be seen very often flying in our 
gardens, and visiting our beds of 
cabbages and lettuces, of which its 
caterpillars are most destructive. This 
is the Cabbage Moth ( Marnestra bras- 
sicce, and Nuctua hrassicce of some 
naturalists). It measures about lj 
inch across the opened fore wings, 
which are dusky brown, clouded with 
darker shades, and marked with pairs 
of dark spots on their front edge; 
from these spots proceed the streaks 
which mark the wings across ; there 
are various spots on the wings, some 
yellowish, and those in the middle 
surrounded with white, the kidney¬ 
shaped one with a whitish grey cres¬ 
cent round it, and blackish beyond ; 
the wings have a grey, yellowish- 
striped fringe, and near this, at the point farthest from the body, they have a row of 
black triangular marks; the hind wings are light-brownish grey, with dark veins; 
the body and head are of various shades of blackish grey, with a darker stripe of the 
same colour down the centre of the back. During the day this moth rests on the 
shady sides of the stems of trees, or the branches of hedge-row bushes, and even by 
the side of clods on the soil. The caterpillar is green, variously marked with grey or 
black, with a dark stripe down the back, and a dirty yellow one down each side ; the 
spiracles (breathing holes) are white, surrounded with black, and close above the 
yellow stripe. The caterpillar is found in July, August, and September, feeding upon 
the hearts of cabbages and lettuces. The only remedies are, destroying the moths 
whenever seen, and hand-picking the caterpillars. The latter bury themselves in the 
ground, and remain in the pupa or chrysalis state all the winter. 
A subject foi’ very just regret occurs iu the want of 
precision in the language, or rather in the names, 
employed by the cultivators of the soil. Take as 
examples the terms “ Mari' and “ Loam," and ask 
any six farmers, or any six gardeners, to explain the 
kind of earth which they intend when they make use 
of either of those terms. Not one of their definitions 
will be quite alike, and some of them so irrecon¬ 
cilably different as to shew that they are speaking 
of different things. It was but the other day, after 
Mr. Beaton had recommended the employment of 
loam in potting camellias, that a correspondent 
wrote to inquire whether he was right in employing 
brick earth to those flowers, for brick earth is known 
as “ loam ” iu the district where he resides. Another 
intelligent correspondent, from the neighbourhood of 
Bungay, writes as follows :— 
“ The term ‘ loam ’ lias such a wide field of appli- 
No. XXXIV., Vol. II. 
