THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 
03 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
W 
D 
MAY 31—JUNE 6, 1849. 
Plants dedicated to 
each day. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon R. 
and Sets. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
31 
Th. 
Four-spotted Dragon-fly. 
i Yellow Martagon Lily 
51 a. 3 
3 a. 8 
1 44 
9 
0 
40 
151 
1 
F. 
Nicomede. Botan. Soc. Meeting. 
Yellow Rose. 
51 
5 
2 8 
10 
2 
31 
152 
2 
S. 
Virginian Spider-wort flowers. 
Pimpernel. 
50 
6 
2 32 
11 
2 
22 
153 
3 
Sun. 
Trinity S. Common Red Poppy flowers. 
Provence Rose. 
49 
7 
2 57 
12 
2 
13 
154 
4 
M. 
Spotted Fly-catclier lays. 
Indian Pink. [Rose. 
48 
8 
Q ON 
13 
2 
3 
155 
5 
Tu. 
K. Hanov.b. 1771 ■ Dinn.& Rot. Soc.Meet. 
Three - leaved China 
47 
9 
rises 
© 
1 
53 
156 
6 
W. 
Landrail first heard. 
Common Pink. 
47 
10 
8 a. 20 
15 
1 
42 
157 
Nicomede was a Christian who suffered martyrdom at Rome 
during the persecution under the Emperor Domitian. He is believed 
to have been a disciple of St. Peter, and to have suffered death on 
account of his strenuous efforts to protect his brethren of the same 
faith. We can discern no good reason why his name has been 
retained in the reformed calendar in preference to others now omitted. 
Pimpernel. —In Hr. Jenner’s well known enumeration of the 
natural indications of rain approaching, is included this flower:— 
“The walls are damp ; the ditches smell; 
Closed is the pink-eyed pimpernel.” 
And so certain an indication is it of wet weather being at hand, if 
the flowers of this plant (Anagallis arvensis) are still shut some 
hours after sun-rise, or if they close in the day after having opened, 
that it is called “ the poor man’s weather-glass.” There are several 
other flowers equally sensitive to the presence of great moisture in 
the air. The common daisy is a familiar instance; for, at the ap¬ 
proach of rain, every one of their white stars will be found closed, of 
the thousands which may expand and spangle a field or lawn when 
the weather promises fair. To these may be added the field bind¬ 
weed (Convolvulus arvensis), small Cape marigold (Calendula pluvi- 
alis), purple sandwort (Arenuria rubra), and chiekweed or stitchvvort 
(Stellaria media). If the African marigold (Tagetes erecta) remains 
closed after seven in the morning, rain will speedily fall; but a still 
more curious phenomenon is said to be shewn by the Siberian sow¬ 
thistle (Sonchus sibericus), for if it shuts at night the following day 
will be line, but if at night it remains open the day ensuing will 
be cloudy and rainy. 
Phenomena of the Season. —If there is any truth in the old 
adage, 
“A cold May and a windy, 
Makes the barn fat and findy,”* 
we shall have a plenteous harvest this year, for an unseasonable re¬ 
duction of temperature and high winds have characterized the month 
now closed. On one of its days we observed a large earth-worm rush 
forth from its hole in a lawn, evincing the greatest agony by its con¬ 
tortions ; and we expected to witness another struggle between this 
worm and a centipede, but we found its assailant was a wireworm. 
This comparatively small creature continued shifting and relixing its 
fangs into the flesh of the worm with a ferocity and tenacity that 
were really painful to witness, and a severe pinch was required to 
compel it to loosen from its hold. We were not aware, before, that 
the wireworm preyed upon anything but the roots of vegetables. 
In this season, so characterized by flowers, the most beautiful phe¬ 
nomena of the year, we may appropriately offer some popular expla¬ 
nations of their parts and vises. Flowers—that is, the organs of 
fruitfulness—are absolutely necessary, and are always producible by 
garden plants properly cultivated. Plants may be deficient in leaves, 
or stems, or roots, because other organs may supply their places ; but 
plants are never incapable of bearing flowers and seeds, for without 
these they can never fully attain the object of their creation—the 
increase of their species. Every flower is composed of one or more 
of the following parts, viz., the calyx, which is usually green, anil 
enveloping the flower whilst in the bud ; the corolla, or petals, leaves 
so beautifully coloured, and so delicate in most flowers ; the stamens 
or male portion of the flower, secreting the pollen or impregnating 
powder; the pistils or female portion, impregnatable by the pollen, 
and rendering fertile the seeds ; and, lastly, the pericarp or seed- 
vessel. In succeeding numbers we shall remark more fully on all 
these parts of a flower. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
31 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Rain. - 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Highest 
& lowest 
O 
04 
T 
l 
CD 
73°—41° 
67°—54° 
610—42° 
69°— 43° 
81°—46° 
O 
to 
1 
O 
O 
CO 
69 °—41° 
temp. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
i 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
72°-47° 
76 °—56° 
ti7°—5i° 
72° —44° 
72°—43° 
790 — 46 ° 
79°—45° 
60 °—49° 
2 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
75°—53° 
73°—41° 
66°—52° 
Gl°—41° 
81°—46° 
82°—43° 
78°—51° 
66°—40° 
3 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
73°—41° 
7fi°—42° 
68°—43° 
()9°—41° 
81°—44° 
85°—45° 
770 — 42 ° 
65°—40° 
4 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
72 °—4fi° 
82°—48° 
68 ° — 38° 
79°—40° 
70°—49° 
83°—49° 
77°—50° 
6 b°— 47 ° 
5 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
73°—46° 
80°—48° 
C8°—3<j° 
79° — 53° 
68 °—45° 
84°—49° 
.6*°—48° 
70°—40° 
6 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Cloudy. 
59° — 40° 
82°—41° 
60°—43° 
70°—53° 
67°—50° 
89° —53° 
64° — *36° 
73°—46° 
Insects.—N o insect is more insiduous or more sweeping in the 
destruction it brings upon some of the farmers and gardeners crops 
than the Turnip Flea (Haltica nemorum). Turnips of all kinds, 
beet-root, mangold-wurtzel, radishes, and flax, are all liable to be 
destroyed by this insect; and it is only one instance of many of the 
weakness of man when opposed to the apparently insignificant natural 
agents with which God works, that, despite the indefatigably applied 
skill and labour of the cultivator, this minute insect will often rob 
him of ^100,000 worth of turnips in a single county in one year. It 
is another singular misapplication of terms, on which we lately com¬ 
mented, that this insect is known among cultivators of the soil as the 
black fly and the turnip fly, but none of them ever call it a beetle, 
which it really is ; and the most descriptive name is the Turnip Flea- 
beetle, for this describes not only its real nature but its favourite 
food, and its extraordinary power of skipping or leaping like the 
common flea. This insect is represented in our drawing of its natu¬ 
ral size and magnified. The body, one-eighth of an inch long, is 
rather flattened, and of a brassy black colour, thickly dotted ; the 
wing cases arc greenish black, with a pale-yellow broad line on each; 
the base of the feelers (antennae) and the legs are pale clav-colourcd. 
The eggs arc laid on the under side of the rough leaf of the turnip 
from April to September; they hatch in two days. Their maggots 
live between the two skins or cuticles of the rough leaf, and arrive at 
maturity in sixteen days. The chrysalis is buried just beneath the 
surface of the earth, where it remains about a fortnight. The beetles 
are torpid through the winter, and revive in the spring, when they 
destroy the two first or seed leaves of the young turnip. There are 
five or six broods in a season. These insects are most to be feared in 
fine seasons. Heavy rains, cold springs, and long droughts, destroy 
them. Their scent is very perfect: the beetles fly against the wind, 
and are attracted from a distance. The rapid growth of the plant 
is the best security against them : to secure which, sow plenty of seed 
all of the same age. Burning the surface of the land is beneficial, 
by destroying the chrysalides. Deep digging is an excellent practice, 
when the chrysalides are in the soil. Drilling is a far superior 
practice to sowing the seed broadcast. Destroy charlock, it affords 
support to the beetles before the turnips come up. The most 
effectual banishment of the turnip fly, we think, is secured by 
sowing the surface of the soil with gas-lime two or three mornings 
after the turnip seed has been sown. This is so offensive to the 
insect as to drive it away just at the time the young plants are ap¬ 
pearing above ground. 
* Findy, full. 
No. XXXV., Vol. II 
