371 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 15, 1859. 
its descending. I mention tliis mow particularly to show that, 
the plan of close-covering Vine borders with asphalt cloths, with 
a view of keeping them dry in winter, perhaps docs more harm 
than good, by preventing the escape of vapour ; whereas, a slight 
covering of straw or dry fern will allow it to pass off. But how¬ 
ever this may be, Tull’s experiment was intended to show his 
neighbour farmers the great utility of hoeing their turnips during 
dry weather, by which the loose soil let in the sun’s rays to 
attract the moisture. I need hardly observe that they laughed, 
and called him something like a boarded-lloor farmer. This 
might arise from Tull’s having grown corn in pots or boxes in his 
window when a lawyer. But so true it is that “littles make 
meikles for out of that simple thing sprang what is now called 
the drill system of farming in general practice throughout the 
country. For when Tull became a farmer, he recollected the 
quick growth of corn in his first farm in the window, after he had 
stirred the soil: consequently, he sowed his wheat in rows, and 
invented hoes of a peculiar construction, adapted to the width of 
the drills, to stir the soil, which brought upon him the ill will of 
his neighbours. 1 am speaking from memory, not having read 
Tull of late ; but I trust that what I have said is correct. There 
seems proof of the opposition of his neighbours in the fact of 
some of his hoes, or forks, being found some years back in the 
bottom of a well where he lived.—J. Wiqhion. 
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY’S MEETING. 
The February Meeting of the Entomological Societv was 
held on the 7th ult.; the chair being taken by Dr. J. E. Gray, I 
F.R.S., the President, who nominated Messrs. Frederick Smith, 
Stainton, and G. R. Waterhouse, to act as Vice-Presidents during 
the ensuing year. Amongst the donations to the library, received 
since the last Meeting, was the “ Accentuated Catalogue of the 
Lepidopterous Insects of Great Britain,” jointly prepared by the 
Members of the Council of the Entomological Societies of Oxford 
and Cambridge. The authors of this work have endeavoured to 
render it more useful, by adding the derivations of the names, 
both generic and specific; and have prefixed a bibliographical 
and biographical list of the chief writers on the order. The 
monograph on the family Hispido, by Dr. Baly, and the sixteenth 
part of Mr. Walker’s “ Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of the 
British Museum Collection,” both published by the Trustees of 
that establishment, were also presented, as well as the publications 
of the “ Liana.'an and Zoological Societies,” the “ Berwickshire 
Naturalists’ Club,” the “ Entomological Society of Stettin,” &c. 
A rather angry discussion took place, on the question of the 
confirmation of the minutes, between Messrs. Waterhouse and ! 
Ianson, concerning the priority of discovery of a certain minute 
Beetle, Tackyusa conoolor. 
Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a variety of fine insects, just received 
from Mr. Wallace, by whom they had been collected, in Araboyna, 
including the gigantic Eueheirus longimanus. Selections from 
another consignment from Mr. Bates, still remaining at Ega, on 
the River Amazon, were also exhibited; including a considerable 
number of beautiful Microlepidoptera. Mr. Bates had also 
forwarded the nests of several species of fossorial Wasps, of which | 
Mr. F. Smith gave an account, and which differed materially from 
the ordinary nests of t his family in the style of their nidifieation ; 
the nest of a species of Larrada being formed of the scrapings of ! 
the woolley texture of certain plants, and resembling German 
tinder, or sponge, beneath which several pupa-cases were found, 
on removing the nest from the leaf to which it was attached; 
whilst the nest of Sphex Lanierii formed a cottony tunnel within 
a curled leaf. 
Mr. Ianson made some remarks on Symbiotes talus, a minute 
British Beetle. 
Mr. White read a communication from Mr. Frimcn, giving an 
account of his entomological captures at the Cape of Good Hope. 
Amongst the observations contained in this letter, the most in¬ 
teresting was, the fact stated concerning the very remarkable genus, 
Bittacus (one of the net-winged flies), which seizes its prey, con¬ 
sisting of flies, with its curiously shaped hind tarsi. 
Mr. Tomkins exhibited three new British species of Moths, 
belonging to the remarkable genus, Psyche. 
Mr. Logan, of Edinburgh, exhibited a number of plates, illus¬ 
trating the transformations of various British species of Lepidop¬ 
tera, executed with great, truthfulness and beauty, and which are 
intended for publication as soon ns a sufficient number of sub¬ 
scribers can be obtained. 
Mr. Westwood exhibited a nearly full-grown Caterpillar, 
Phlogophora mctriculosa, the angle-shade Moth, which had been 
found feeding on the very young shoots of the Southernwood; 
likewise some specimens of Book Worms, from the Bodleian 
Library at Oxford, where they have been found commit ting much 
injury amongst the Oriental manuscripts. They ave the lame of 
two, if not three, distinct species of Anobium, small Beetles, 
known iu the perfect state under the name of the Death Watch. 
Mr. G. R. Waterhouse read a series of notes on the synonymy 
and distinctions of the British species of Heterocerus, a genus of 
small Beetles which reside in the damp earth at the edges of pools 
of water. 
NOTES FROM GUERNSEY. 
I am much delighted with the accounts of your visits to the 
nurseries. Will you be so kiud as to inform me if you meet with 
Ruscus androgynus—a very free-growing climber, with dark-green, 
glossy leaves ? I think it would almost flourish in a cellar.— 
[ -Ruscus androgynus is pictured iu the “ Botanical Magazine,” 
t. 1898, with small yellow flowers issuing from the margins of 
the leaves. We do not remember to have seen it in any nursery¬ 
man’s catalogue.] 
I daresay that Samolus litoralis is well known to you. It 
flowers so freely here, and so long, as to suggest that it might be 
desirable for some of your decorative arrangements.— [Very 
likely ; but we never saw it tried, or on sale.] 
Pray is Crinum Forbesi to be procured in England?—[It has 
never been introduced.] You have given it a most tempting 
description in The Cottage Gardener for 1853. 
When sending to Mr. Salter, a short time since, I enclosed a 
few bulbs of a Lachenalia for you. I dug them from the open 
border, as our potted plants were so nearly over. Will you 
kindly name it for me, and just say if there can be a more charm¬ 
ing bulb for winter ?—[This is quadricolor, a most charming 
tiling; many thanks for it.] With the Lachenalia, I sent a clump 
of the tiny Ophioglossum Lusitanicum. I thought it might do 
for some of your fair friends.—[This, the smallest of the race of 
Ferns, was growing in the best yellow fibry loam.] It is surpris¬ 
ing the amount of drought this little Fern will endure. I have 
lately commenced watering a pot of it which had been lying on 
one side for nine months. The plants are just up, and look well. 
Pray observe the soil in which it grows ; for you may be surprised, 
when I inform you, that Erica cinerea flourishes in it. I expect 
yoft will find a few bulbs of Trichonema Columna and Scilla 
autumnalis in it. I thought you would be pleased to accept them 
through your fondness for bulbs. 
In addition to these little matters, I sent a few pieces ot 
Viburnum tirms lucidum, a splendid shrub, far surpassing the 
old Laurustiniis, and flowering some months later. 1 forget if it 
is common in England. It ought to bo. — [Yes, but it is not so 
good as the common Laurustinus.] 
The name of the Daphne will much oblige.— [Daphne oleoides.J 
The Chenopodium, I think, is C. Bonus Henricus. —[Yes.] It 
was brought from the Pyrennees by a poor consumptive patient, 
who prides himself much on its introduction. lie recommends it 
for eating as Spinach, for salads, and, above all, for soups. These 
Guernseymen have so much French in them, they must have 
soups—Soupe a la Graisse, Conger Soup, &c. 
One more inquiry—the last and most important. IIow am I to 
dispose of the Seedling Apple so well received by the Pomological 
Society, after flattering notices by the Editors of The Cottage 
Gardener, &e. ? I have 100, or 150, scions of it, and a few 
young trees. I would give them away, were it not for some bad 
luck of late making it desirable to realise by it?—[Oiler it to Mr. 
Rivers, or some well-known fruit grower near London. They 
always give a fair value for any good saleable kind of fruit.]— 
W. G., Guernsey. 
REES SECRETING WAX. 
Begging Mr. Wighton’s pardon, I must take leave to say 
that his mode of “ polishing off” debatable questions in natural 
history, is anything but scientific. Certainly a more unsatisfactory 
way of settling a controversy, involving nice questions, concerning 
the mode in which bees carry on their labour, whether of con¬ 
struction or of repair (always so difficult to be observed), I never 
met with. Who, I ask, could be satisfied with such (I must call 
them) bare assumptions? A naturalist would ask for proofs, 
and proofs resulting from oft and patiently-repeated experiments, 
