September 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
305 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
w 
D 
SEPTEMBER 13—19, 1849. 
Plants dedicated to 
each day. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon R. 
and Sets. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
13 
Th 
Elder-Ferries ripe. 
Saffron Crocus. 
33 a. 5 
18 a. 0 
1 20 
20 
4 
11 
256 
14 
F. 
Holy Cross. 
Passion Flower. 
35 
16 
2 38 
27 
4 
32 
257 
15 
S. 
Vapourer motli seen. [low. 
Byzantine Meadow Saffron. 
37 
14 
3 53 
28 
4 
53 
258 
LO 
Sun. 
15 S. aft. Trin. Lime leaves yel- 
Sea Starwort. [low. 
38 
12 
sets 
© 
5 
14 
259 
17 
M. 
Lambert. [finches in flocks. 
Narrow-leaved Mai- 
40 
9 
6 a 44 
1 
5 
35 
260 
18 
Tu. 
George I. and II. landed. Gold- 
Drooping Starwort. 
41 
7 
7 9 
2 
5 
50 
261 
19 
W. 
Ember Week. Dotterel arrives. 
Devil’s-bit Scabious. 
43 
5 
7 34 
3 
6 
17 
262 
Holy Cross Day was the anniversary of a festival, instituted 
about the year 615, to celebrate the recovery hy the Emperor Heraclius 
of what the Roman Catholics believe was a fragment of the cross on 
which our Saviour suffered. It had been seized by Cosroes, King of 
Persia, when he plundered Jerusalem. The day was called Roodmass 
day by our Saxon ancestors, rood being their name for the cross ; 
and this will serve as a solution to our readers of the names of some 
of our churches, and one of their constituent parts—Holy-rood and 
Rood-loft. The latter was the place in or near the roof where the 
cross or rood was lrept when not required for exhibition to the vota¬ 
ries. It was a rustic custom for all the young villagers to go nutting 
on this festival; and, as their gambols in the wood were not charac¬ 
terized by the sternest virtue, this proverb preserved by “poor Robin” 
had some reason to sustain it:— 
“ The devil—as the common people say— 
Doth go a nutting on Holy-rood day.” 
September 15th. —A well-known observer of our seasons, Dr. 
Forster, has recorded, as a result of long experience, that in at least 
six year’s out of seven the weather is fine on this day. 
Lambert, or Landebert, was bishop of Maestricht; and although 
giving him no title to a place in an English almanac, yet it is a fact 
to his undying honour that he was murdered by those who were 
enraged by his unsparing condemnation of the vices of his country¬ 
men. He was assassinated a.d. 708. 
Phenomena op the Season. —A “tap at our window” by a 
falling leaf reminds us that this falling is the most prominent pheno¬ 
menon of the season; and if this brief paragraph were not devoted 
to science rather than poetry, we might make this our theme:— 
“ Give me—give me the withered leaf 
That falls on autumn’s bosom dead; 
For that ne’er tells of what has been, 
But warns me what I soon shall be : 
It looks not back on pleasure’s scene. 
But points unto futurity.” 
Such, however, is not our fitting text, but rather the unimaginative 
query —Why do leaves fall ? The reason seems to be one which influ¬ 
ences all the smaller developments of a plant that are only required 
for a time ; so soon as they cease to be useful the plant casts them off. 
It is the case with the petals, the smaller fibrous roots of deciduous 
trees, and the outer bark, as well as with the leaves. So soon as a 
plant has ripened its fruit, and stored up the secretions necessary for 
the next year’s growth (operations effected chiefly by the agency of 
the leaves), so soon do these begin to fade, and after a short space of 
time they fall. Their vessels and fibres contracting or shrinking 
faster than those of the branch from which they spring, the separation 
takes place at the articulation where the differing rates of contraction 
meet; the leaves then fall, and the scar upon the branch is found 
already healed over. This healing is effected by a conversion of the 
sap, cementing the branches, fibres, 
and vessels together, from a soft and 
glutinous to a dry and brittle consis¬ 
tence, so that at last the leaf falls 
merely either by force of its own weight 
or before the slightest breath of wind. 
We believe that the ceasing of the sap 
to flow to the leaves is the cause of 
their decline and fall, for if the root 
action is kept up artificially the leaves 
do not fall if maintained in a temper¬ 
ature and state of moisture favourable 
to them. Does the cocoa-nut tree 
ever shed its leaves ? We do not re¬ 
member to have seen any fall from it 
during a residence of some years in 
Bengal. Evergreens do not shed their 
leaves at the same time as deciduous 
trees, because a root action, though 
weakly, is proceeding throughout the 
winter. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847.. 
1848. 
13 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Highest 
& lowest 
79°—59° 
68°—51° 
72°—47° 
73°— 51° 
71°—53° 
70°— 55° 
64°—41° 
64°— 37° 
temp. 
14 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
Showery, 
Fine. 
78°—55° 
72°—53° 
6 q°— 62 ° 
74°—56° 
71°—39° 
71°—48° 
64°— 39° 
63°—37° 
15 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Fine. 
66 °—55° 
74°—45° 
76°—54° 
72 °— 6 l° 
57°—43° 
76°—49° 
65°—51° 
64°—32° 
16 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Stormy. 
Fine. 
71 °—41° 
72°—48° 
83°—53° 
73°—61° 
64°—54° 
79°—45° 
6 l°—46° 
69°—34° 
17 
Fine. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Showery. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
Rain. 
Fine. 
69 °—41° 
74°—51° 
84°—52° 
72°—53° 
64°—55° 
79°—52° 
6l°—42° 
710—39° 
18 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Showerv. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
72 °—50° 
Fine. 
62 °—48° 
80°—58° 
62 °—37° 
65°—48° 
70°—39° 
58°—36° 
68 °—36° 
19 
Showerv. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Fine. 
Cloudy. 
Fine. 
74°—54° 
68 °—39° 
80°—49° 
65°—42° 
65°—34° 
73°—40° 
6o°—48° 
68 °—37° 
Insects.— The caterpillar of the largest of the 
British moths is most usually found during Sep¬ 
tember, but this year, at Winchester, we know of 
six specimens found about the middle of August. 
These are the caterpillars of the Death’s-head 
moth, Acherantia atropos of some entomologists, 
and the Sphinx or Brachyglossu atropos of others. 
At first the caterpillar is of a dirty-red colour, but 
becomes yellowish green, granulated with minute 
black tubercles on the back, and having seven 
oblique pairs of stripes on each side : the pairs 
are formed of one blue and one white stripe, with 
a purplish tint in the centre. The cordal or tail 
spine is brown. It feeds chiefly on the leaves of 
the potato and jasmine, but is found occasionally 
on the woody nightshade, thorn-apple, elder, 
spindle tree, &c. It is rarely seen, for it feeds by 
night, and hides by day beneath the leaves, and 
even in the earth. When full-grown in August 
or September it descends to a considerable depth 
underground, changes to a deep chesnut-coloured 
chrysalis, and in a few weeks appears again as a 
perfect moth. Its appearance occurs at the end of 
September and in October. This magnificent moth 
measures from four to five inches across its fully 
expanded fore-wings; they are very dark brown, 
varied with black in undulated and rusty-brown patches. The hind- 
wings are pale dirty orange-coloured, barred with greyish black. The 
abdomen or body is also dirty orange, striped with the same kind of 
black, and having a lead-coloured stripe down the centre of its back. 
The head and thorax are brownish black, and on the back of the tho¬ 
rax is that peculiar skull-shaped mark which has obtained it the 
very descriptive name of the Death's-head moth. This, added to its 
| size, and the shrill, mournful noise which it makes, renders it an 
ohject of terror to the ignorant; but it need be so only to the bee¬ 
keeper, for this huge prowler of the night often steals into the hive 
and robs it of the honey. We may notice that this moth always 
comes forth from the chrysalis between four and seven in the after¬ 
noon ; being in this as regular as the Silkworm moth is in, coming 
forth at sunrise, and the Lime Hawkmoth at noon. 
No. L., Vol. II. 
