July THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 171 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
w 
D 
JULY 5—11, 1849. 
Plants dedicated to 
each day. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon R. 
and Sets. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
5 
Th. 
Chaffinch’s song ceases. [Meet, 
Double Yellow rose 
52 a. 3 
16 a. 8 
rises 
© 
4 
11 
186 
0 
E. 
Old Mids.-d. Cam.T.e Bot. Soc. 
Bearded Crepis 
53 
16 
8 a. 
39 
16 
4 
21 
187 
7 
S. 
Th.aBeck. Oxf.T.e. Glowworm shines 
Nasturtium 
54 
15 
9 
15 
17 
4 
31 
188 
8 
Sun. 
5 S. aft.Trtn. Lappit moth seen 
Evening Primrose 
55 
15 
9 
45 
18 
4 
40 
189 
9 
M. 
Shore beetle seen 
Marsh Sowthistle 
56 
14 
10 
13 
19 
4 
49 
190 
10 
Tu. 
Yellow-under-wing moth seen 
Speckled Snapdragon 
57 
13 
10 
39 
20 
4 
58 
191 
11 
W. 
Elephant Hawk moth seen 
Yellow Lupine 
1 58 
13 
11 
4 
21 
5 
6 
192 
Thomas a Becket, Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of Canter¬ 
bury in the time of Henx-y II., was born at London in 1119, and mur¬ 
dered in the cathedral of'his see, by four of the King’s retainers, on 
the 29th of December, 1170. Beeket’s remains were translated on 
the 7th of July, 1220, to a sumptuous shrine at the cast end of that 
cathedral; and this day has ever since been noted as his anniversary. 
We cannot afford space for the consideration of the merits or demerits 
of Becket, but we must warn every one, when reading his biography, 
to consider that he was no less opposed to the excessive tyranny and 
power of the barons than he was to the misrule of the King. To con¬ 
trol these there was no other engine at his command than the Church ; 
for the people, as a political power, did not then exist. Without be¬ 
ing at all blind to Becket’s very great and many faults, yet we know 
enough to convince us that his great merits have been almost entirely 
overlooked. 
Phenomena op the Season. —We now are arrived to the consi¬ 
deration of the instil, or maternal portion, of the flowers blooming at 
this season so abundantly around us. A pistil is usually composed of 
the stigma, the part at, or near, the point, to which the pollen must 
be applied to fertilize the seed; the style, usually very long, but 
sometimes absent, supporting the stigma; and the ovarium, or em¬ 
bryo seed-vessel. The accompanying drawing of a section of the 
pistil of the whortleberry (Vaccinium ameenum) will give a correct 
idea of a customary arrangement of its parts. The ovarium, a, of 
this flower is wrapped over by the leafv portion of the flower itself, 
which is seen to rise beyond it at b. The centre of the ovarium is oc¬ 
cupied by a thick fleshy placenta, or seed cord, to which the ovules 
or embryo seeds are attached, and through the vessels of which pla¬ 
centa the sap is conveyed requisite for sustaining the growth of the 
seeds. There is no doubt that the stigma is the organ for rendering 
the seed fertile ; it is always in perfection at the same time that the 
pollen is shed, and is as invariably viscid, or clammy, so that the 
pollen adheres to it, and immediately bursts. The pansy has a 
stigma gaping only when the pollen is ripe; and the Jacobsean lily 
(Amaryllis formosissiina) is described by Linnteus as having a liquid 
drop protruding every morning from its 
stigma, which is reabsorbed during the 
afternoon turbid with the pollen which 
has fallen upon it. In the saxifrages, 
the stamens bend one or two at a time 
over the stigma, and, having shed their 
pollen, retire to make way for others. 
In the cockscomb, the stamens retire 
during wet weather beneath the shelter 
of the concave petals, but in dry weather 
they advance and scatter their pollen 
over the stigmas. In the barberry, the 
stamens are similarly bent back under 
the petals, but if their filaments are tic¬ 
kled by the foot of an insect, or the ap¬ 
plication of a hair, they spring forward, 
and dash their pollen against the pistil. 
Pages might be filled by a detail of con¬ 
trivances for bringing the pollen to the 
stigma, but we have quoted a sufficient 
number to demonstrate “ that system of 
wise provisions, having for their object 
and consummation the production of 
seeds.” It is upon the number and 
other circumstances connected with the 
pistils that Linnaeus founded the Orders, 
or first great subdivisions, of his Bota¬ 
nical System. 
Insects. —In June and July, a small 
pretty beetle very often may be found 
among the petals of white roses. It is 
nearly half an inch long, and rather less 
than a quarter of an inch broad. Its 
wing-cases are reddish brown, shining, 
and shorter than the body; the body 
a, the ovarium ; b, the 
calyx ; c, the disk, from 
which the petals grow ; 
d, the placenta; e, the 
ovules (embryo seeds) ; 
/, the style ; g, the 
stigma. 
July. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
5 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
Fine, 
Fine. 
Highest 
& lowest 
temp. 
O 
1 
O 
»o 
4^ 
O 
to 
Tf« 
1 
O 
O 
88°—55° 
70°—50° 
77°—56° 
95°—50° 
8 /°—53° 
CO 
to 
O 
1 
O 
O 
6 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Showerv. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine, 
Fine. 
72°—52° 
O 
O 
1 
O 
4>« 
73°—51° 
65°—54° 
81°—60° 
71°—55° 
88’—59° 
88°—59° 
Cloudy.. 
670—530 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
62 0 —47° 
68°—53° 
fi8°—53° 
84°—56° 
72°—49° 
75°—52° 
74O—5i° 
8 
Showery. 
Rain. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Rain. 
7^—470 
Showery. 
67 0 —45° 
66°—48° 
62°—45° 
77°—58° 
78°— 54° 
68° — 56° 
70°—51° 
9 
Fine. 
Showerv. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Showerv. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
7)0—440 
72°—49° 
730—470 
"4 
<4*. 
O 
1 
to 
O 
710—530 
72°—56° 
77 ° — 57° 
68°—52° 
10 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Showerv. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
71°—49° 
73°—50° 
69°—55° 
O 
O 
to 
1 
0 
CO 
4~^ 
71°—55° 
73°—45° 
79°—61° 
72°—47 0 
11 
Cloudy, 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
70°—43° 
78°—53° 
62°—52° 
78°—56° 
70°—46° 
73°—49° 
83°—56° 
72°—48° 
and head are dark green, and the antennte reddish, having at their 
ends a dark green club. This is the garden beetle (Phyllopertha 
horticola, and Melolontha horticola of some): it feeds on the leaves 
of apples, pears and roses, gnawing them full of small holes, and even 
transferring its attacks to the young fruit of the apple. During the 
latter part of July the female retires into the earth for the purpose of 
there depositing her eggs, from which the grubs speedily are pro¬ 
duced, and feed upon the roots of plants. The only mode of reducing 
the number of these beetles is by searching for them during the even¬ 
ing, when, if detected, they stiffen Dheir outstretched legs, and feign 
death ; but in the day they fly about swiftly, and are captured with 
great difficulty. 
Having before us more than one application for dis¬ 
sertations on the commonest operations of gardening, 
we shall comply with the request, commencing with 
Digging, fully aware in doing so that we have no¬ 
thing new to offer for the consideration of the expe¬ 
rienced practitioner, yet agreeing in opinion with 
one of the applicants, that “ each operation will offer 
much suggestive observation suitable and beneficial 
for amateurs yet in their apprenticeship.” 
It is worthy of remark, that digging, the funda¬ 
mental operation of all gardening, is almost the last 
to be improved and well performed even in countries 
No. XL., Vol II, 
