A Hedge of Furze and young Privet is recommended as a close fence, as being evergreen, and as flowering beautifully in early spring, by-G. G. Edgebaston, Dec. 13. 1836. Fletcher's Mode of training and managing the Black Hamburg Grape. (Vol. XII. p. 712.) After a good deal of trouble taken by Mr. Turner, curator of the Bury Botanic Garden, and Mr. Wild, fruiterer, Tavern Street, Bury, for which we hereby acknowledge our obligations, the result is, that Mr. Fletcher would be happy to make the public acquainted with his system of management, provided, to use his own words, "I thought I had reached the summit of perfection; but, as I flatter myself something more yet remains to be accomplished, I must decline making anything public at present. After another year or two's trial, it is very probable that I shall make known every particular." - John Fletcher, Miller at Eyke, in a Letter to Mr. Wild, dated Dec. 12. 1836. White Purple Legumes. Tubers and Roots. 'The Cabbage Tribe. ART. VII. Covent Garden Market. Cabbage Plants, or Coleworts Brussels Sprouts, per sieve 0 3 6 Thyme, per dozen bunches Kidneybeans (forced), per hun. 0 3 60 4 0 Rosemary, green, per doz. bun. Lavender, dried, per dozen Potatoes per cwt. 046 060 per bushel 0 2 3 Kidney, per bushel 0 3 0 Stalks and Fruits for Tarts, 026 0 3 0 Scotch, per bushel Jerusalem Artichokes, Turnips, White, per bunch - The Onion Tribe. Onions, old, per bushel For pickling, per sieve 0 20 Leeks, per dozen bunches Garlic, per pound Shallots, per pound Asparaginous Plants, Salads, &c. Asparagus, per hundred : 0 3 040 030 0 0 2 0 0 3 009 01 3 006 008 Pickling, &c. sieve 006 0 10 Mushrooms, per pottle 016 0 3 6 Truffles, English, dried, per 010 016 1.0 0 14 0 pound Fruits. Apples, Dessert, per bushel: Nonpareils Ribston Pippins American Jersey Pears, Dessert, per half sieve Passe-Colmar Beurré de Pentecôte Ne plus Meuris dozen Bitter, per hundred : 026 0 3 0 Pine-apples, per pound 016 0 2 6 Grapes, Lisbon, per pound 006 09 Oranges{per hundred 6 009 0 008 0 1 6 0 1 0 Sweet Almonds, per pound 026 Tarragon, dried, per doz. bun. 0 3 0 0 0 of Nuts, per bushel: Observations. - Since my report in October, the market has been steadily supplied with all articles usually furnished during this season of the year. Prices have been moderate, and the demand having been limited to the supply, there has, consequently, been but little variation in prices. Since the frost, which interrupted the supplies materially for a week or ten days, we have received everything as before; but, as the demand has been much lessened by the prevailing illness, and the general absence, up to this time, of all the principal families, a slight reduction in price has been effected in all the leading articles. But, after all, it is only in the London markets that, at this season of the year, the different varieties of broccoli are to be observed in such perfection, and in such abundance. Already, also, are asparagus and seakale in good supply, and certainly very reasonable in price. Forced rhubarb is also plentiful; and some French beans have been offered. Of savoys, the market is deficient; but coleworts, cabbage plants, Brussels sprouts, and borecole are liberally furnished. Turnips, although not plentiful, are moderately supplied; carrots, very generally; potatoes, as yet, come to hand freely; onions, also, with all the minor articles, as usual. Of fruits, generally, the supply is quite equal to the demand, which suffers, with the vegetables, from the previously quoted causes. Some singularly handsome specimens of pineapples have been recently furnished, but could not be disposed of at the very low prices quoted in the list. There are but few pears now on hand; those mentioned constitute materially the supply. Of apples, we have abundance, of excellent quality; but few importations, those principally from Jersey, of the common varieties. Until within the last week, oranges have been scarce, and much dearer than at present quoted: lemons, also, have been scarce, but are now more plentiful. Foreign grapes have come to hand in great quantities, and of excellent quality: many of them have been forwarded by steam. Nuts and chestnuts are not so abundant as usual at this season; but several cargoes are immediately expected, which may reduce the present prices. G. C. Jan. 21. 1837. ART. VIII. The London Horticultural Society and Garden. MEETING, Jan. 17. 1837.- Exhibited. Primula sinensis, with double flowers, from Mr. J. Henderson, of the Wellington Nursery. Varieties of Prímula, from Mr. J. A. Henderson. Renanthèra coccínea, from S. F. Phelps, Esq. Oncidium papílio, Euphorbia splendens, Lechenaúltia formosa, Epacris campanulata, and E. impréssa, from Mrs. Lawrence. West's St. Peter's grapes, from Mr. J. Paxton. From the Garden of the Society. Plants. Echevèria gibbiflòra, Calanthe veratrifolia, Rhodochiton volubilis, Lithospermum rosmarinifolium, Gárrya elliptica, Chimonanthus fràgrans, and C. f. grandiflorus. - Fruits. Apples: Royal reinette, London pippin, Court pendu plat, Baxter's pearmain, Dutch mignonne, Herefordshire pearmain, Pile's russet, Haggerston pippin, and northern greening. This last sort keeps long, and never shrivels. — Pears: Easter beurré, Beurré rance, Dowler's seedling, Bezi de Cassoy, Rouse lench, Bellissime d'hiver. The first three were from standards, and had been kept in white sand, a method that has been long practised by some; but it may be proper to state that the flavour is not so good if the fruit be packed immediately when gathered. This is probably owing to the fruit containing at that time much watery substance; which may be evaporated by laying the fruit some weeks on the shelves. The sand should be well dried and cool, when the fruit is packed in it. ART. IX. Obituary. M. PERSOON, the learned botanist, author of Synopsis Plantarum, and other works, died lately in Paris, at an advanced age. He had enjoyed for some years a small pension from the French government, to whom he had sold his magnificent herbarium, the result of 50 years of research, and which was more especially rich in cryptogamic plants. (Hermès, Nov. 19. 1836.) C. M. Fischer, the curator of the Botanic Garden of Göttingen, died on Dec. 19. last, after an illness of several months. He was a scientific botanist, an intelligent cultivator, and an amiable and much respected man. — E. L. 47. Eaton Square, Pimlico, Jan. 4. 1837. Died at Edinburgh, on Nov. 2. 1836, Mr. John Hay, garden-architect, aged 78 years. (Edin. Weekly Journal, Nov. 23.) We should be glad of a biographical notice of this worthy man. THE GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, MARCH, 1837. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. ART. I. A Series of Articles on the Insects most injurious to Cultivators. By J. O. WESTWOOD, Secretary to the Entomological Society. No. 1. THE TURNIP FLEA-BEETLE, commonly called the Turnip Fly. IN commencing a series of articles upon those particular species of insects which are especially obnoxious to the horticulturist and agriculturist, a few introductory general observations will not be deemed inappropriate. It was a doctrine maintained and supported by a celebrated naturalist and political economist, whom I am proud to name as my friend, W. Spence, Esq., F.R.S. (one of the authors of the invaluable Introduction to Entomology), that our country was capable of maintaining its distinguished rank among nations independently of commerce, by a reliance upon its agricultural sources alone. Without, however, either admitting or denying the truth of this doctrine, one proposition is evidently deducible therefrom, namely, that the cultivation of the soil in this country is a subject of such vital importance to the general economy of the state, that every thing immediately or remotely connected therewith must necessarily possess a degree of importance, of course varying in amount according to the amount of influence which it exercises upon the productions of the soil, either in advancing the successes of the agriculturist, or defeating his long and arduous exertions. Chemistry, whereby the nature of soils and manures is obtained; mineralogy and geology, whereby the nature of the various strata of any particular district of the country, and its fitness for particular crops, may be ascertained; meteorology, in its most extended sense, whereby the changes of the weather and their causes may be learned; and botany, whereby the distinctions of vegetables, and the comparative advantages resulting from the culture of each, are shown; are all so completely part and parcel of the knowledge required by VOL. XIII. - No. 84. every cultivator, that it would be deemed mere waste of words to enter into any argument in proof of the assertion. But there are other branches of natural science in the knowledge of which the cultivator ought not to be deficient. To say that an acquaintance with the leading principles of zoology and of comparative anatomy, at least so far as regards the animals which are more especially the objects of his care, is not almost, if not quite, as requisite as a knowledge of any other of the branches of natural science mentioned above, would be an assertion capable of the easiest disproof. But it is not alone as connected with the horse, ox, or sheep, that a knowledge of the structure and habits of animals is required. There are many creatures, and especially birds, which are greatly serviceable to the farmer, by whom, through ignorance of their habits and good qualities, they are too often destroyed, being mistaken for the authors of mischief. I need not enter into the details of many instances in support of this assertion; but there is an anecdote so characteristically told by Mr. Spence in the work above alluded to, and which so forcibly illustrates this view of the subject, that I am sure it will not be deemed out of place here. The grubs of the cockchafer (Melolontha vulgàris) are very destructive in pastures, eating the roots of the grass, and causing it to die. Of these grubs rooks are very fond, and they are too well aware of the dainty treat which awaits them to be far behind the plough: they will also even pull up the dead roots of grass where the larvæ harbour, and hence they are mistaken by ignorant persons for the real cause of the mischief, and scarecrows are placed to drive these useful auxiliaries away. To the remonstrances of Mr. Spence against this mode of proceeding, one of these selfwilled gentlemen replied that "he could'nt beer to see d'nasty craws pull up all d'gress, and sae he'd set d'bairns to hing up some auld clauts to flay em awey. Gin he'd letten em alean, they'd sean hev reated up all d'close." Let us hope, however, that this state of ignorance is fast dying away. The publication of numerous excellent works, at low prices, has, within a very few years, done wonders in distributing knowledge; but this is not the only, nor even the chief, good which has resulted from the diffusion of cheap literature. An ardent thirst for knowledge has been produced, which can be allayed only by good and substantial information; and now, perhaps, more than ever, is the time arrived that the character of the rising generation (may we not even say, the future prosperity of our country?) depends entirely upon the nature of the materials with which this thirst for knowledge is appeased. Amongst the benefits resulting from the desire of obtaining useful knowledge, not the least is the uprooting of many, if not all, of those absurd notions respecting the nature of numerous, and especially the smaller, animals, of which one can but wonder how they could ever have been entertained by reasonable men, and the planting in their stead of facts deduced from strict observation. Still, however, much remains to be learned repecting the proceedings of many of the smaller animals, and especially insects, even of those which are detrimental to mankind. The reader need not be told that, until within the last five or ten years, the entomologist was almost universally deemed little better than a fool; and yet, at the very same time, hundreds of persons who joined in the cry were suffering from the devastations of insects from ignorance of their habits, which it was the especial province of the entomologist to make known. The public have now, however, learned not only that entomology is capable of affording the highest gratification from the contemplation of the beautiful structure of the creatures themselves, as well as from the observation of their curious habits and singular transformations, but, also, that it is only by a precise acquaintance with the economy of the various obnoxious species, founded upon a minute series of observations, that we shall be enabled to obtain a clue to the more effectually checking their devastating career. It is impossible that this can be done in any other manner. We may generalise till doomsday; but, in practical, as well as theoretical, science, it is only by careful examination of details, either of habits or structure, that any ultimate benefit can be obtained. Books have been written professing to give the natural history of subjects injurious to the agriculturist and horticulturist; but these have been written by persons who, although very good gardeners or farmers, knew scarcely anything of the real natural history of insects*, and who have consequently failed in giving us any new facts upon the subjects upon which they have professed to treat. In the series of articles of which this is the first, I hope, after nearly twenty years' investigation of insects and their habits, to be able to lay before the reader facts, old and new, which may tend to the beneficial result which is so much to be desired. Let us not, however, be too sanguine: the facts of the entomologist, as I have elsewhere observed (British Cyclopædia of Natural History, vol. ii. p. 829.), are but a step towards the fulfilment of our wishes. The cultivator must take his share in the labour; the discovery of serviceable remedies being to be ascertained only by persons perfectly conversant with the chemical nature of soils, as well as the action of various ingredients which may be employed as remedies, not only upon the insects themselves, but also upon the plants which may be attacked. Such persons, too, are alone * I here more especially allude to a thick octavo volume, by Mr. Major, upon the insects destructive to fruit trees, which, as regards the details of insect life, is completely deficient. |