THE COTTAGE GABDENEF, AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION, Aran. 7. 1857. 
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obtained from eggs deposited by the female in the pie- 
ceding year in the Isle of Wight. They fed upon 
plantain, and were now for the first time described. 
Mr. Douglas exhibited some small larvae which he 
believed were those of some species of Ptinidee, which 
he had found on shaking over a sheet some shoit grass, 
of the species Dactylus glomerata, cut off close to Pie 
ground. He had met with a considerable number oi 
insects in this manner, which he accordingly lecom- 
mended as an excellent mode of collecting in the winter 
months. 
Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a number of drawings of the 
transformations of five species of Moths and Buttciflies 
made by Mr. Plant in Natal. Amongst them were 
figures of the larva and pupa of a species of the genus 
Acrcea, a group almost peculiar to Africa, and of 
which the transformations had been imperfectly known, 
having been confounded with those of the Ameiican 
genus, Heliconia, by Dr. Horsfield. 
Mr. Westwood made some observations on the nu¬ 
merical variations in the joints of the tarsi of Beetles, 
with a view to determine the mode in which the different 
modifications were effected, and which he illustrated by 
sketches of the structure of the tarsi of a new species 
| of Octhoperus brought from Madeira by Mr. Wollaston, 
as contrasted with that in the British species, which, 
j from imperfect observations on these organs, had been 
| formed into no fewer than three different genera. He 
had found that when some of the contiguous joints be¬ 
came soldered together the places of their articulation 
were indicated by the hairs and spines generally found 
at the tips of the joints. Mr. Lubbock confirmed this 
i observation, having noticed it in various microscopical 
Crustacea which he had examined. 
Mr. Westwood also exhibited a species of Moth be¬ 
longing to the genus Nonagria , brought from Madeira 
by Mr. Wollaston, which was extremely injurious in 
that island to the Sugar Canes, the larvee burrowing into 
the stems in the same manner as the Borer Caterpillar 
of the West Indies and Mauritius. Mr. Westwood also 
exhibited a large Lepidopterous Caterpillar, communi¬ 
cated by Sir W. Hooker, from the banks of the Parema 
river, in Brazil, where it does great damage to the crops 
of Maize. 
Mr. Wire exhibited a nearly black variety of the 
common garden Tiger Moth, of which a description 
by Mr. Newman was read. 
Mr. Westwood communicated an extract from a letter 
from a friend in India, giving an account of the effects 
produced by the sting of a large Scorpion, together with 
the native mode of cure, which consisted in holding the 
inflicted part over the fumes of melted wax. 
Mr. Stainton read an extract from the Journal of the 
Society of Arts containing an account, by Mr. Bashford, 
of a series of experiments made in India, with the view 
of improving the native breeds of the Silkworm, the 
cocoons of which are much smaller than those of the 
European varieties. Eggs had been imported from 
France and Italy, and the perfect insects obtained from 
periments were not satisfactory. Mr. Westwood stated 
the results of the experiments made in Europe, which 
had produced such excellent effects in the hands both of 
M. Guerin-Meneville and M. Bronski; the cocoons ob¬ 
tained by the latter, especially, had attracted much I 
attention in the Great Exhibition of 1851. It was : 
mainly by great care in the selection of fine individuals 
of both sexes, and attention to the caterpillars during 
l their early state, that these results had been obtained. 
Mr. Douglas read a notice of a memoir by. Dr. Hagen 
on the British species of the genus Cicada. 
Mr. Baly read a paper containing descriptions of new 
exotic species of the genus Doryphora, and Mr. Pascoe 
exhibited a beautiful new species of Longicorn Beetle 
from Borneo. 
GRAFTING GERANIUMS. 
You recollect my telling about a collection of 
grafted Geraniums of the scarlet breed which was ex¬ 
hibited last autumn at the Crystal Palace, and you 
heard the other day what “ The Doctor’s Boy” wants 
to know about the process; but who would not be a 
doctor’s boy if he could but graft Geraniums? I said I 
could graft them on the Walnut—a figure of speech ; 
and surely I need never be a doctor’s boy for that 
count. Grafting Geraniums is as old as the doctor 
himself. I saw the first of it at a place near Dudding- 
stone Lock, where the people of Edinburgh go to skate, 
and where, had I not had a good, sound, thick skull, I 
should have been a dead man that very winter. No 
sooner was I in my skates than my heels went ten 
times faster than the rest of the body, and down I came 
in more senses than one. 
Any man or boy who can graft an Apple scion on a 
Crab stock can graft Geraniums on Geraniums, and in 
as many ways, and “ The Doctor’s Boy ” is answered 
in this sentence. The grafting is not the information 
that is required, but how to get the scion to ‘‘take,” j 
which is the least-known process to British gardeners of 
all the mysteries of propagation. There is not one , 
gardener in twenty who can so graft a Geranium as to 
make as sure of success as if it were an Azalea or 
Rhododendron. I never grafted a Geranium but once, 
and that for no particular purpose that I recollect. 
The graft died, and I thought no more about it. The 
plants at the Crystal Palace looked as if they were in j 
the second or third year after they were worked; but 
one could see in a moment where the secret lay, at least 
I think I did; but if I am wrong perhaps the gar¬ 
dener will be so good as to write a paper for us on the 
subject. I have a most decided objection to strangers j 
writing to ask favours about things which have ap¬ 
peared in public print, else I would write to the gardener j 
myself on the subject. I look upon him as among the 1 
very best gardeners in England for that one thing; for I 
it is all but a new- invention comparatively speaking. 
He is Mr. Peed, gardener to T. Tredwell, Esq., St. John’s 
Lodge, Norwood. In case Mr. Peed does not take in 
The Cottage Gardener, some of our readers in that i 
quarter who know him would do good service by giving 
him notice that some of the craft are getting daft and 
crazy on the subject, and that we are not likely to have 
peace day or night till we have a leaf out of his book 
on grafting all manner of Geraniums. , 
Meantime, my own observation of his plants would 
warrant the following process:—Cut back the stock 
to a place where the wood is neither ripe nor green. 
Gardeners know this part of every stock and stem j 
