August 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 225 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
L> 
w 
D 
AUGUST 2—8, 1849. 
Plants dedicated to 
each day. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon R. 
and Sets. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
0 
Th. 
Large Eggar moth seen. 
Tiger Lilv. 
27 a. 4 
45 a. 7 
2 44 
14 
5 
57 
214 
3 
F. 
Botanical Society’s Meeting. 
Hollyhock. 
28 
44 
3 41 
15 
5 
52 
215 
4 
S. 
Mugwort flowers. 
Blue-bells. 
30 
42 
rises 
© 
5 
47 
2L6 
5 
Sun. 
9 Sun. aft. Thin. Mushrooms abound. 
Egyptian Water-lily. 
31 
40 
8 a 18 
17 
5 
42 
217 
6 
M. 
Pr. Alf. b. 1844. Transfiguration. 
Meadow Saffron. 
33 
38 
8 45 
18 
5 
35 
218 
7 
Tu. 
Name of Jesus. Hort. Society’s Meeting. 
Common Amaranth. 
35 
37 
9 9 
19 
5 
28 
219 
8 
W. 
Swift last seen. 
Love-lies-bleeding. 
36 
35 
9 34 
20 
5 
21 
220 
Transfiguration. —This festival of the Roman Catholic church, 
commemorating our Lord’s glorious appearance on Mount Tabor 
(Matt, xvii.), was instituted by Pope Calixtus in the year 1456, 
on the occasion of the deliverance of Belgrade from the Turks. It 
is customary in France on this day to place fresh grapes on the altar, 
for the priest to bless the vintage of the year. 
Name of Jesus. —This anniversary, celebrated by the same 
church, in honour of the name of Him to whom “ every knee shall 
bow,” is said to have been instituted with a design to awaken the 
sensibility of converts, and to promote the habit of reverence for His 
name. 
Phenomena of toe Season. —In rural districts, as observed 
above in the calendar, the swift is last seen, on an average of years, 
about the eighth of this month. In towns, or other places where 
large buildings or lofty towers afford these birds the kind of shelter 
in which they so especially delight, they linger for about three weeks 
longer. This largest of the swallow tribe is really a tropical bird, 
and this appears to be the reason why it can only endure to be with 
us during the hottest period of our year. It arrives about the middle 
of May, and often leaves at the end of July, though its stay, as 
already observed, is frequently prolonged to the close of the present 
month. Its black plumage and shrieking cry associate it with ill- 
omens in the minds of the superstitious, whence arose its name of 
the deviling , and the blade martin. The extreme lightness of its 
body, and the great expanse of its wings—for the first weighs but 
one ounce, and the latter measure eighteen inches across—render it 
the most untiring in its flight of any bird visiting our climate. 
There are much fewer swifts than usual this year in the neighbour¬ 
hood where this is written (Winchester), and old people have thence 
inferred the early arrival of cold weather, but it is difficult to discern 
how the two events can be connected. 
Insects. —From the end of June 
to the commencement of August, ac¬ 
cording to the temperature of the 
season, may be found clinging to 
trees, especially the lime, that beauti¬ 
ful insect the Wood Leopard moth 
(Zeuzera cesculi of some, and Boinbyx 
or Cossus cesculi of others). Its specific 
name, from oesculus, a horse chesnut, is 
singularly inapplicable, as it frequents 
that tree less than any other. It is 
white, covered with bluish-black spots, 
as represented in our drawing ; the 
antennee short, very feathery at the 
lower half, tapering to a fine point. 
The female is full twice as large as the 
male, often measuring nearly three 
inches across the expanded fore-wings. 
She is furnished with a long ovipositor, 
or egg depositor, admirably adapted 
for inserting her eggs in (he cracks of 
the bark of trees, on the wood of which the caterpillar feeds. To the 
pear, apple, hazel, walnut, elm, lime, and other trees, it is most 
destructive, burrowing holes into them, destroying their sap vessels, 
and forming reservoirs for wet to lodge in and promote decay. The 
caterpillar is white, tinged with yellow, and spotted with black ; its 
head being horny, with black patches upon it, and on the segment 
of the body next to it. Its length is about two inches when full 
grown, being hatched in August, and attaining its full size in the 
June following. It then enters the pupa state, becoming a brownish 
yellow chrysalis, in a cocoon formed of the dust of the wood which, 
as a caterpillar, it gnawed down in working its passage. From this 
cocoon, as already stated, the moth comes forth, either at the end 
of June or some time between that and the beginning of August. 
August 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
2 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
Stormy. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Highest 
& lowest 
O 
00 
o 
1 
o 
o 
O 
to 
to 
! 
05 
62°—52° 
72°—49° 
64°—48° 
810—56 0 
O 
CO 
1 
05 
CO 
6 /°—54° 
temp. 
3 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
73°—5/° 
83°—52° 
62°—54° 
69°—52° 
69 0 —54° 
77°—51° 
77°—38° 
68°—43° 
4 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
Stormy. 
Fine. 
Fine, 
Fine. 
Fine. 
69°—57° 
86°—62° 
68°—46° 
77°—44° 
71°—55° 
O 
CO 
1 
05 
*>. 
8l)°—51° 
73°—48° 
5 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Stormy. 
Showery. 
Rain. 
64°—57° 
79° — 59° 
72°—53° 
7 2°—57° 
75°—55° 
80°—62° 
72°—54° 
7l°— 50° 
6 
Showery. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Showery. 
6/°—57° 
72°—53° 
70°—42° 
71°—52° 
73°—50° 
83°—64° 
69°—47° 
72°—46° 
7 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery, 
Stormy. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
74°—58° 
78°—48° 
75 0 —58° 
71°—50° 
690 — 47 ° 
83°—6o° 
76 0 —49° 
73°—40° 
8 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Cloudy. 
Stormy. 
Rain. 
670—52° 
82°—51° 
80°—58° 
O 
1 
O* 
r>. 
71°—55° 
74°—55° 
76°—49° 
68°—45° 
Of the London Horticultural Society—that instance 
of the associations which should not only encourage 
the practitioner of the art hy the judicious sugges¬ 
tions of their prizes, but should teach hy their pub¬ 
lications, and demonstrate what is good cultivation 
in their gardens—we have already spoken. We have 
also urged upon the attention of our readers that 
most important class of horticultural societies hav¬ 
ing for their prime object the encouragement of a 
taste for gardening and the improvement of its prac¬ 
tice among the cottagers of the United Kingdom; 
and for these we held up, as a model, the Society of 
Pytchley. A third class of horticultural societies, 
scarcely less important, and certainly tending to the 
improvement of British gardening, yet remains to he 
noticed; and we will take, as our exemplar, “ The 
Stamford Hill Horticultural Society.” 
This Society was instituted in 1833, and, judging 
from its exhibition, which we attended on the 18tli of 
the July just past, there is no reason to say that, as it 
then was held in the grounds of Josiah Wilson, Esq., 
of Stonard House, so in 1933 its centenary shall not 
he celebrated in the same grounds, under the auspices 
of one of his descendants. It has the elements of 
longevity about it, and it is for the purpose of noting 
some of these that we deviate from our prescribed 
course, and dwell upon the transactions of a local 
Society. We are obliged to refrain from noticing these 
generally, for we have no right to prefer a few before 
the others, and it is impossible for us to notice the 
whole of the three hundred or thereabout, which do 
service to horticulture in every section of the British 
Isles. 
The Rules of the Stamford Hill Society are so 
No. XLIV., Vol. II. 
