July 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
205 
M 
1) 
w 
D 
JULY 26—AUGUST 1, 1849. 
Plants dedicated to 
each day. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon R. 
and Sets. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
26 
Th 
St. Anne. Grayling butterfly seen. 
Wild Chamomile. 
17 a. 4 
56 a. 7 
11 
6 
7 
6 
11 
207 
27 
F 
Blackcap’s song ceases. 
Purple Loosestrife. 
18 
54 
11 
32 
6 
11 
208 
28 
S 
Admiral butterfly seen. 
Mountain Groundsel. 
20 
53 
morn. 
9 
6 
10 
209 
29 
Sun 
8 S. aft. Trin. Common grasshop- 
Red Chironia. 
21 
51 
0 
0 
10 
6 
9 
210 
30 
M 
Wheat cut. |per chirps. 
White Mullein. 
22 
50 
0 
33 
11 
6 
7 
211 
31 
Tu 
Hoary Ragwort flowers. 
Great Mullein. 
24 
48 
1 
11 
12 
6 
4 
212 
1 
W 
Lammas day. Swallow’s 2nd brood fledged. 
Stramonium. 
IV 
VII 
1 
55 
13 
6 
1 
213 
St. Anne is believed by Roman Catholics to have been the mother 
of the Virgin Mary, and that her husband was Joachim. The sisters 
of St. Anne (Mary and Sobe) they also believe to have been the 
mothers respectively of Salome (Mark xv. 40), and of Elizabeth, the 
mother of St. John the Baptist. The Monday after St. Anne’s day 
is celebrated at Newbury, in Berkshire, as Mace Monday. The 
principal dishes of the festival are beans and bacon ; and a procession 
is made, with a cabbage for a mace, and other mock substitutes for 
the insignia of civic dignity. 
Lammas Day is one of the four “cross quarter days,” of which 
Whitsuntide, Martinmas, and Candlemas, are the other three. In 
Scotland, generally, and in some other parts of Great Britain, rents 
are payable upon these festivals. Mas is the Saxon for a festival, 
and hlnf is a loaf, or bread, in the same language. Now, as this day 
is called hutam-mas in the Saxon chronicle, and we know that 
bread made of new wheat was offered by our forefathers at this time 
as a kind of first fruits, we are led to believe that the day was ori¬ 
ginally celebrated as a day of thanksgiving for the blessings of 
harvest, and was literally the bread festival, or halaf-mas. "it is 
sometimes called the gale, or festival, of August —gwyl or gooyl, in 
the old British language, meaning a holiday or festival. 
Phenomena of the Season. —Having shewn the contrivances 
by which, in various plants, the access of the pollen is secured to 
their stigmas, and the general necessity for such access for the pro¬ 
duction of fertile seeds, we may now consider some of the subsequent 
phenomena. It is by no means a matter of indifference how much 
pollen has access to the stigma, for though in the pelargonium, 
Mirabilis jalapa, and M. longifiora , two or three globules are found 
to be sufficient to fertilize all the seed in one ovary, yet from fifty to 
sixty globules are necessary to be similarly efficacious in Ilybiscus 
syriacus. How much plants might be expected to differ‘in this 
respect is intimated by the total want of any relevancy between the 
number of stamens and the number of seeds produced by a flower. 
The two stamens of an orchideous plant fecundate 8000 seeds ; and, 
in tobacco, five stamens are sufficient for 900 seeds, while the fifty 
stamens of Barring Ionia, the eighty stamens of the CoryophylU, and 
Insects.— In this month prevails 
that caterpillar of indiscriminating pa¬ 
late, which is the larva of the Spotted 
Buff moth (Spilosoma lubricipeda of 
the tyvo hundred and thirty of Thea (tea shrub), are only sufficient for 
fertilizing two or three ovaries. So soon as the seed has been 
impregnated the decline of the flower commences, the stamens de¬ 
caying first, and these being speedily followed by the departure of 
the petals, and usually of the calyx also. The stigma then withers, 
and but rarely is its style more permanent. The ovary, on the con¬ 
trary, increases in size, and alters in appearance, and in none more 
so than in the instances afforded by our common fruits—the apple, 
the strawberry, the fig, and the pea. Let us trace the progressive 
changes in the latter. On the fourth of June Mr. Keith cut asunder 
the unimpregnated seed of a pea. It was then filled with a uniform 
pulp, and about one-thirtieth of an inch in diameter. On the eighth, 
in a pod from which the petals had fallen, the seeds had increased to 
one-twentieth of an inch in diameter, and one or two little cavities 
were perceptible in them. On the tenth, the seeds were one-tenth 
of an inch in diameter, and the cavities were filled with thin transpa¬ 
rent fluid, or amnios. On the thirteenth, in a pod of nearly full 
length, the peas were one-fifth of an inch in diameter, anil the 
embryo, or future young plant, was perceptible in the amnios. On 
the fifteenth, the peas were one-fourth of an inch in diameter, and 
the embryo was half that length, but still floating apparently in the 
amnios. On the twentieth, the pea was still of the same 'size, its 
lobes were forming, and the radicle, or future root, was projecting 
where they were joining together. On the twenty-second, the pea 
was one-third of an inch in diameter, the lobes were nearly perfect, 
and the plumule, or future stem, was now discernible. On the 
twenty-fifth, the seed was fully grown, its lobes united, and the com¬ 
plete embryo of the future plant was apparent. The radicle w'as 
one-eighth, and the plumule one-twentieth, of an inch long. It is 
in vain to ask how the pollen acts to produce these mysterious, orga¬ 
nic changes. We can only reply—Brought into contact with the 
stigma, the pollen awakens in the germen the exertion of previously 
dormant powers. New secretions, new depositions, of organic mat¬ 
ters are occasioned, and new forms are produced, corresponding to 
those characterizing both parents ; but how such contact operates is 
among those wonders of vitality which are inexplicable to our limited 
comprehension. 
some entomologists, and Hornby,r lu¬ 
bricipeda of others). No green leaves 
seem to come amiss to this voracious 
caterpillar—those of the elder, turnip, 
carrot, mint, scarlet runner, and broad bean, are only a few that have 
been known to be devastated by the same broods; audit lias been 
justly observed that, if these creatures ever prevailed extensively, 
they would sweep away our crops as effectively as a plague of locusts. 
The back of the caterpillar is a dark greenish brown, and the under 
side considerably paler, and rather greener. The two colours are 
separated by a waving white line down each side, and the body is 
covered with brushes of reddish brown hair. It. changes to a black 
shining chrysalis, wrapped in an oval cocoon composed of silk and 
the hairs of its body, and attached to some fallen leaf. In this it 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
26 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
Highest 
Ik lowest 
72°—53° 
73°—48° 
72 °—56° 
74°—5 r>° 
71 °—52° 
76 °—56° 
75°—45° 
67°— 51° 
temp. 
Fine. 
27 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
70 °—49° 
7 5°—55° 
74°—54° 
O 
o 
ic 
1 
CO 
CO 
67 °—48° 
75°—63° 
81°—50° 
70°—53° 
28 
Cloudy. 
Stormy. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Rainy. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
72° —47° 
75°—55° 
73°—58° 
88 °—57° 
72°—44° 
83°—53° 
77°—57° 
73°—56° 
1’9 
Cloudy. 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
65°—48° 
65°—45° 
71°—53° 
76°—44° 
65°—43° 
88 °— 60 ° 
88 °—54° 
7S°—48° 
30 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
63°—48° 
65°—52° 
71°—49° 
68 ° — 55° 
64°—45° 
89°—62° 
80°—48° 
71 °— 5‘s° 
31 
Showery. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
62°—44° 
fis° — 47 ° 
69°—47° 
72°—49° 
09 °—5(i° 
89 °— 64° 
84° — 48° 
72°— 51° 
) 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
69°—50° 
66 °—49° 
72° — 43° 
72 °—46° 
71°—45° 
68 °- 52° 
92 °—(io° 
91°— 46° 
remains through the winter, and the moth comes forth in May or 
June. The moth is rather more than lj inch across the expanded 
fore-wings, which are yellowish buff-coloured, and the hind-wings 
are rather paler. All the wings are spotted with black, often as 
represented in our drawing, but frequently the spots are larger, and 
running more together. The antennae and legs are black, and the 
body is orange-coloured, with rows of black spots down the back, 
sides, and underneath. Both the moth and the caterpillar should be 
sedulously sought for and destroyed. 
The great horticultural shows of England may be 
considered as having closed with that of Chiswick, 
on the 11 tli instant, and it will be time notmis-spent 
to cast a parthian glance over these past “ floral 
games,” for the purpose of striking at those portions 
which we think should he avoided in future contests. 
We have on more than one occasion objected to 
the highest prize attainable at such exhibitions of 
the results of gardening skill, being awarded year 
after year to those who, though no more skilful than 
their competitors, happen to serve employers willing 
to spend vast sums annually in purchasing from 
florists the finest and the rarest specimens from their 
nurseries. It is quite true, as we have acknowledged 
No. XLIII., Vol. II. 
