December 1, 1894. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
215 
various shades of colour, perfection as regards shape 
and fruitfulness, but if we could have them with a 
more hardy constitution it would be better. 
Vegetable Marrows. 
There is also an improvement in the Vegetable 
Marrows, for instead of having tljose large coarse 
kinds we have now a more perfect shaped form with 
delicate flavour. Horticultural societies have doubt¬ 
less done much towards improving the quality of 
vegetables shown at exhibitions, but it has been left 
to the enterprise of a few of our leading seedsmen 
and enthusiastic growers to produce better strains of 
the numerous varieties that find a place in our 
gardens at the present day. To them all honour is 
due for their untiring zeal, and let us hope that they 
may be rewarded for the pains they have taken to 
supply us with the many new and choice varieties 
now cultivated in our gardens .—Kitchen Gardener. 
- — 
Work in this department must in all cases be guided 
by the state of the weather, and this remark, while 
it is applicable all the year round, specially applies 
to the operations conducted during the next few 
weeks. If very hard frosts prevail, or if we are 
visited by a fall of snow, the work will be consider¬ 
ably hindered ; if on the other hand a continuance 
of the wet weather occurs, the gardener will also be 
hampered to a very great extent, especially if the 
soil be of a heavy and retentive nature. Advantage 
must therefore be taken of every favourable oppor¬ 
tunity now to get the work as well in hand as 
possible, for hindrances will be sure to occur 
presently. 
The herbaceous border should receive a thorough 
dressing of well-rotted manure after the last vestiges 
of the last season’s vegetation have been cleared off 
it. A light forking in may be given, the greatest 
care being taken not to disturb its occupants, particu¬ 
larly the bulbous subjects, any more than is 
absolutely necessary. This done, see that all labels 
are neatly inserted in the soil, and take note of 
those which need to be re-written, to serve as 
employment on wet or snowy days. Any flower 
beds and borders that are empty should be dug up 
roughly in readiness for the ensuing spring, manure, 
of course, being applied if the stale of the soil they 
contain and the requirements of the plants that are 
to fill them next year necessitate its application. 
Beds which it is proposed to fill with Zonal 
Pelargoniums next year should not have a too rich 
soil, or this will inevitably cause rank growth and a 
proportionate scarcity of flower among plants of 
this class. A soil of medium richness, which tends 
to produce a dwarfer sturdier habit in the plants 
growing in it, and a resulting abundance of bloom, 
is what is needed. On the other hand, in situations 
where it is intended to plant Cannas or other sub¬ 
tropical plants given to deep and heavy feeding, the 
soil should be enriched with a liberal addition of 
good manure. 
Continue the planting of deciduous trees and 
shrubs as long as the weather continues mild and 
open, and keep a sharp eye upon rotten or broken 
branches from the larger trees, which should be 
removed as soon as seen. Any extensive operations 
in the flower garden should be forwarded without 
delay, but if much wheeling has to be done it should 
be performed upon planks laid down for the purpose 
or the walks will suffer, except, of course, in the 
case of very frosty weather prevailing. 
Roses. —These may be pruned as soon as time 
can be found, unless the winters in the locality 
usually prove severe, as is often the case in the 
North of England and in Scotland, in which instance 
it is advisable to defer the use of the pruning knife 
until spring. In districts in the South of England 
it will, however, be found that plants pruned in late 
autumn usually start away more vigorously in spring 
than when pruning is put off until the later season. 
Steps should be taken to ensure the security of 
ornamental flower vases that are standing in exposed 
situations. Indeed, in many cases where their 
weight does not render it inadvisable to shift them, 
they should be brought indoors out of the way of 
the frost, which often does them a deal of harm. 
Before being returned to their original situations, 
they should be washed, and this of course will 
afford a "job in the dry ” during bad weather when 
outside work is impossible. 
Continue the planting and shifting of all kinds of 
fruit trees, as advised in the last calendar if the 
state of the weather permit, and the soil is in proper 
condition. Planting during wet or frosty weather is 
not to be recommended, as to bury masses of wet or 
frozen soil in close proximity to the roots of the 
young trees is very likely to cause them to sustain 
serious damage. 
The pruning knife and the saw must also be kept 
vigorously at work, commencing of course with 
those trees in which the wood is the best ripened and 
coloured, which will naturally, all things being 
equal, be those trees which have enjoyed the greater 
amount of direct sunlight. 
Old trees, which it is intended to regraft, may be 
headed back in readiness for the performance of that 
operation. During wet weather shreds should be 
cut up, so as to be in readiness. All nails, too, be¬ 
fore being used may with advantage be heated and 
dropped whilst hot into linseed oil. Preparations 
thus made serve the great purpose of economising 
valuable time, and enable the gardener to take 
advantage of every favourable opportunity to 
vigorously prosecute the nailing of wall trees, an 
operation that is usually accountable for a great deal 
of time during the winter months, and which always 
forms a more or less serious item in the winter's 
work. 
* 
The late fruit houses should be kept as cool as 
possible, so as to allow their occupants to enjoy the 
perfect rest so beneficial to them. Ventilate freely 
during the day and apply fire-heat by night only to a 
sufficient extent to exclude frost. 
The Early Peach House. —This should receive 
a thorough cleansing, glass and woodwork being 
washed, and the back wall (if it is a lean-to house), 
whitewashed. This done, the trees should be pruned 
without delay, and the shoots neatly tied in. If 
thought advisable, the stem and the main branches 
of the trees may be painted with the mixture as 
recommended for Vines on page 151 of a previous 
issue. The loose surface soil upon the borders 
should be raked off, carted away, and a top dressing 
of rich loam given. A temperature of 45S Fahr. by 
night, rising to 50° or 55 0 by day will be amply 
sufficient at first, for if too hard forcing is practised, 
the blossoms will very likely drop to a considerable 
extent. The trees may be syringed twice daily with 
tepid water until the flowers begin to open when it 
must be discontinued. 
Vines. —The temperature of the houses that were 
shut up for forcing at the beginning of the past 
month, should be kept slightly on the increase. The 
minimum night temperature should now be about 
55 0 Fahr. with a proportionate rise during the day. 
Continue the regular syringings as previously 
advised, and thus insure a moist and growing atmos¬ 
phere. 
Figs. —When early crops of this favourite fruit 
are looked for, a few trees in pots are well nigh 
indispensable. These may be plunged to the rims 
of the pots in the same fermenting materials as are 
the pot Vines, for the same treatment that is 
accorded these latter will suit Figs admirably.— 
A. S.G. 
©leanings fount flit} IDurlh 
uf Science 
The Carnation Maggot. — While Carnation 
growers dread this pest, they may still have patience 
to read and think of its remarkable structure, even 
if they do not examine and study the actual speci¬ 
mens for themselves. The eggs are said by some to 
be laid upon the leaves towards the base or some¬ 
times near the upper end, and that the newly- 
hatched maggot penetrates the tissue and works its 
way down the interior of the tissue of the same. 
However that may be, it is contrary to my observa¬ 
tions upon a large number of specimens. The 
examinations were made too late in the season to 
find the eggs, but they seem to be laid upon the 
unopened leaves forming the long central bud of 
layers put down in August last. The entrance hole 
is made in this bud, and when the leaves expand, it 
is seen that a number of them have been bored 
through, and the holes are either round or oval. 
The grub seems to eat its way out by mistake some¬ 
times when trying to find its way into the pith of the 
shoot, and probably tries again or goes on to another 
to repeat the experiment. When once in the pith it 
often turns aside and goes up the leaf from the 
base, eating away the soft tissues and separating 
the two skins, which die. I found a specimen nearly 
full grown, about 3 in. from the base of the leaf, and 
still boring its way up, lifting the skin in the form of 
a ridge. When a number of the top leaves have 
been destroyed in this way, the grub may and does 
often go down the centre of the pith of slender 
shoots, and should it come to a thick portion, it 
gnaws its way round the outside of the pith close to 
the wood, where food is probably more plentiful. 
When disturbed or taken out of a burrow it will 
commence to gnaw its way down the soft part of the 
stem again as if nothing had happened. It is there¬ 
fore very hardy, and probably destroys more than 
one layer or shoot if so inclined in order to get better 
food. Finally it gnaws its ways out and evidently 
pupates in the soil. 
The exterior of the Maggot.— In struc¬ 
ture this is very similar to various other larvae 
or grubs of other root-eating and stem boring 
diptera or two-winged flies whose operations 
the gardener and market grower have often 
to deplore, because they cannot apply whole¬ 
sale remedies to stop the mischief of the maggots. 
The latter in this case are cylindrical, tapering to 
the head, cut short at the tail, legless, and yellowish. 
Round the edge of the truncate tail are numerous, 
blunt, tooth-like processes with which the maggot 
keeps itself pushed up to its work when excavating. 
On the flattened end of the tail are two colourless 
protuberances tipped with brown. On the front of 
the head are two others, each furnished with three 
little elevations tipped with brown and resembling 
so many facets or lenses of imperfect eyes. What 
corresponds to the jaws consists of a black process, 
forked at either end. The whole, or nearly the whole, 
of the head is capable of being drawn into the body, 
leaving only a small funnel-shaped opening. The outer 
ends of both forks are hooked at the end and fur¬ 
nished with a large tooth-like process at the base of 
each. The opening of the small mouth is between 
them. This horny black process is the structure 
with which the creature effects all the mischief. 
The interior of the Maggot. —While alive, the 
whole creature is fairly transparent, so that much of 
the interior can be examined under the compound 
microscope. The intestines and their movements 
can be seen when the maggot moves or contracts its 
body. The muscles and their arrangements are 
singularly curious and interesting. What seems a 
strong bundle of cords firmly united into one, runs 
along each side of the body towards the dorsal aspect, 
from the shoulders to the tail. From these two 
strong cords numerous smaller ones are given off to 
various parts of the body, and their arrangement is 
peculiar. Between or inside of these again are other, 
finer threads, spirally twisted and both curious, 
beautiful and extremely interesting, looking as they 
do like loose coils of electric wires. The strong 
bundles already mentioned doubtless enable the 
creature to bring up the hinder part of its body when 
the fore end is stretched out, or vice versa. The ends 
of these bundles protrude outside the body. The 
ends on each shoulder become spread out into eight, 
clubbed and radiating finger-like processes, which 
are capable of movement and possibly serve some 
useful function in the economy of the animal when 
moving its body along. At the tail end the thick 
cords end in a flat-topped circle of short, blunt 
knots. 
Eel Worms and the Maggot.—The injury 
caused by these is generally discussed separately, 
but the two plant enemies would seem to have some 
connection with one another. I have found eel- 
worms in the same leaves that have been destroyed 
by the maggot and apparently living upon the decay¬ 
ing matter in the interior. They taper slightly 
towards the head, and become suddenly narrowed 
and then elongated at the tail end ; or, in other 
words, the tail is slender. About a dozen eggs may 
be seen in the interior of the creature by the aid of 
the microscope. The eel-worms are so large, how¬ 
ever, that they can be detected by the aid of a simple 
lens only. In another case I have found them in the 
stems of Phloxes in company with the maggots of 
another dipterous fly.— J. F. 
