July 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
.193 
M 
D 
w 
D 
JULY 19—25, 1849. 
Plants dedicated to 
each day. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon R. 
and Sets. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of ! 
Year, j 
19 
Th. 
Humming-bird Hawk-moth seen. 
Golden Hawkweed. 1 
7 a. 4 
5 a. 8 
sets 
© 
5 
56 
200 
20 
F. 
Margaret. Goat moth seen. 
Virginian Dragon’s Head. 
8 
4 
8 a. 17 
1 
6 
0 
201 
21 
S. 
Sun’s declin. 20° 28' n. Musk beetle seen. 
Philadelphian Lily. 
10 
2 
8 
54 
0 
6 
3 
202 
0\) 
Sun. 
7 Sun. aft. Trin. Magdalen. 
African Lily. 
11 
1 
9 
20 
3 
6 
6 
203 
23 
M. 
Turtle-dove last heard. 
D ark-purple Scabious. 
12 
0 
9 
53 
4 
6 
8 
204 
24 
Tu. 
Swallow-tail moth seen. 
Tree Lupine. 
14 
VII 
10 
18 
5 
6 
10 
205 
25 
W. 
St. James. Ds. Camb. b. 1797. 
Bane-berry. 
15 
57 
10 
43 
0 
6 
11 
206 
Margaret was the daughter of an idolatrous priest of Antioch, 
and became a convert to Christianity. Olybius, the Roman president 
of the East, wished to espouse her ; but, upon her refusing to relapse 
to idolatry, he had her tortured, and then beheaded, about the 
year 275. 
Magdalen. —This festival, in commemoration of her out of whom 
Christ expelled “seven devils ” (Mark xvi. 9), was first instituted in 
the time of Edward VI. 
St. James, surnamed the Great, either because the senior of the 
two James’s, or the most distinguished by Christ during life, or 
because the first martyred of the apostles, was the son of Salome, 
the cousin-german of the Virgin Mary. He and his brother John 
were summoned from mending their nets to be “ fishers of men,” 
and were named, by their blessed Master, “ the sons of thunder ”— 
Boanerges. St. James boldly preached the gospel among the dis¬ 
persed Jews until a.d. 44, when he was accused before Herod, and 
beheaded by his order. He is not the author of “The Epistle ” which 
forms a part of our New Testament. Oysters come into season on 
this dav; but the adage relating to this shell-fish warns us that it 
is never excellent except when there is an r in the name of the 
month_an adage evidently intended to exclude the months in which 
the oyster is breeding. On this day, when the Roman Catholic 
religion prevailed in England, it was customary for the priests in the 
orchard districts to bless the apple-trees, and sprinkle them with 
holy water. 
Phenomena of the Season. —The most striking phenomenon 
now occurring in our gardens is the ripening of the fruit. Currants, 
gooseberries, apricots, early apples and pears, cherries, raspberries, 
and strawberries, are now gratifying every sense with which we are 
blessed, for the very vendor’s cry of them in our streets is musical. 
Varying as fruits do in form, colour, flavour, and odour, still they all 
have one common office—the maturing of the seed they contain. To 
effect this they require a due supply of sap as well as of the peculiar 
juice of the parent plant, for they make no further advance if the entire 
wood be cut through below them, so that they are only attached to 
the parent by a strip of bark ; neither will they advance, though fully 
supplied with sap, if the peculiar juices are cut off from them by 
Insects. —During the evenings of 
this month and August, the Magpie 
moth is very commonly found. It is 
the Abraxas grossulariata of some 
entomologists, and the Geometra gros- 
sulariata of others. It usually mea¬ 
sures about one and a half inch across 
the expanded fore-wings, which are 
very slightly yellowish-white, variously 
spotted with black, more or less like 
those in our drawing, for the marks 
are never uniform ; and there is a band 
of pale orange across each of the fore¬ 
wings. The hind-wings are of the 
same colours, but without any orange 
colouring. The body is orange, spotted 
with black. The female deposits her 
eggs upon the leaf of a gooseberry 
or currant-tree, and, from these, little 
looping caterpillars come forth in Sep¬ 
tember, and, surviving the winter, 
begin to feed again upon the leaves as soon as these open in the 
spring. They are full grown towards the end of May, and enter the 
chrysalis state between that time and the end of June. In this state 
they remain for about three weeks, and then the perfect moth comes 
forth. The caterpillar is yellowish-white, with an orange stripe, 
more or less complete, on each side, and with numerous black spots, 
largest on the back. The chrysalis is black, with orange circles 
round the pointed end. The caterpillar prefers the leaves of the 
gooseberry and red currant, but, after stripping these to their very 
stalks, it will feed upon those of the sloe, peach, and almond. 
Hand-picking, dusting with the powder of white hellebore, and 
burning the leaves early in autumn, are the best remedies and pre¬ 
vention against this marauder. 
removing the leaves that are above them on the branch. Yet each 
fruit has a peculiar elaboration of its own to perform, for though the 
fluids afforded by the branches and leaves be nearly similar, yet each 
fruit differs from another in fragrance and flavour ; six different 
varieties of the peach and of the apple, budded upon the same 
branch, still retain unaltered their times of ripening, and their dis¬ 
tinctive colours and flavours. Now, the processes going on at dif¬ 
ferent periods of a fruit’s growth are very opposite in their character. 
During their green and growing state they are usually converting 
gummy matter into an acid ; but during ripening they, as commonly, 
are converting an acid into sugar. To convert gum or mucilage into 
tartaric acid, as in the early growth of the grape, oxygen in excess 
should be absorbed, for their relative components stand thus:— 
Gum. Tartaric Acid. 
Carbon . . . 42.23 . . 24.05 
Oxygen . . . 50.84 . . 69-32 
Hydrogen . . . 6-93 . . 6.63 
They might, therefore, be expected to absorb more oxygen than the 
leaves, and this is actually the case; for though a vine branch will 
continue to vegetate in a glass globe hermetically sealed, yet the 
grapes upon it will not increase in size unless oxygen gas be from 
time to time admitted. The same phenomenon occurs during the 
ripening of the grapes; oxygen has to be absorbed during the con¬ 
version of the tartaric acid into sugar, but a larger volume of carbonic 
acid has to be evolved, and this is coincident with the result of well 
established experiments, uniformly testifying that carbonic acid is 
given out abundantly by ripening fruit. “ Six equivalents of tartaric 
acid,” says Liebig, “ by absorbing six equivalents of oxygen from 
the air, form grape sugar, separating at the time twelve equivalents 
of carbonic acid.” This, however, is not the only decomposition 
taking place whereby sugar is formed in ripe fruit, but there is suffi¬ 
cient reason to believe that its mucilage and starchy constituents are 
converted into saccharine matter by the combined agency of warmth 
and the acids. It is thus that apples are rendered so much sweeter 
by baking; and M. De Candolle states that the pulp of apple dis¬ 
solved in water with a vegetable acid is converted into sugar; and 
that gummy matter obtained from starch, and mixed with tartaric 
acid, aided by warmth, effects a similar transmutation. 
July 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
19 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Highest 
& lowest 
73°— 54° 
73°—52° 
68°—44° 
1 ° 
4- 
O 
71°—52° 
74°—52° 
O 
C9 
kn 
1 
o 
o 
74°—59° 
temp. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
20 
Showery. 
Cloudv. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
76°—58° 
Stormy. 
63°—55° 
73°—50° 
68°—54° 
76°—43° 
71°—53° 
78°—51° 
72°—44° 
21 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine, 
Cloudy. 
67°—54° 
6j°—47° 
66°—55° 
82°—49° 
73°—57° 
73°—55° 
79°—58° 
71°—51° 
22 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Cloudv. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Cloudy. 
67°—51° 
66°—46° 
65°—52° 
89°—53° 
71°—54° 
76 °—54° 
73 °—45° 
73°—65° 
23 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
64°—53° 
70°—42° 
64°—40° 
89°—6l° 
58°—53° 
80°—-58° 
74°—44° 
76°—53° 
24 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudv. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
6o°—-50° 
84°—49° 
65°—42° 
87°—5 3° 
60°—55° 
7i°-47° 
76°—53° 
73°—51° 
25 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
68°—51° 
77°—43° 
72°-47° 
92 °— 62 ° 
64°—57° 
76°—45° 
67°—46° 
68°—53° 
Let any two parties take precisely similar flowers 
and vases, let them be in separate rooms, and when 
they come forth with their bouquets, these will never 
be similarly arranged. When we say “ similarly,” we 
do not allude to the doctrine of chances, shewing that 
it will be thousands to one against the same flowers 
being placed exactly in the same places, but we mean 
that the taste of the arrangers will be so differing that 
the same colours will be not placed together, and the 
same form will be not adopted. More than this, we 
No XLIL, Vol II. 
