double. I then began to impregnate the double flowers with the farina of the single ones. This could not be done with effect in every case; but wherever I found an old flower with a pericarpium, or eye, I gathered a single or semidouble flower, and applied the farina to the eye of the double flower. Soon after this operation I perceived the pericarpium or seedvessel increase in size, until many of them became an inch long, particularly those of the Variat, Arbrisseau, Grand Monarque, Horatio, Rose Incomparable, La Tendresse, and a few others. I kept the seeds separate, at least I preserved them in classes; dark yellow-edged, &c., and others the most strongly marked; and sowed them in separate boxes, and the next year I planted the roots in separate rows. The result has been that they all bear a striking resemblance to the mother plant, as to colour and habit of growth. The seeds sowed from Naxara, Variat, and Viola la vraie noire produced dark flowers. Those sowed from Arbrisseau, Grand Monarque, and Horatio, produced yellow spotted and edged, and several superior to the original plants. Double flowers cannot produce seed, because they contain no anthers, but merely the germ, which must come in contact with the farina from the single flowers before it can be impregnated; for which reason no good seed can be saved from double flowers without a bed of seedlings. I have sowed at all seasons from the 1st of August to the 1st of March. I prefer the middle or latter end of October, and the beginning of January, to other times. I sow in boxes 18 in. by 11 in. and 4 in. deep. I fill them full of loamy earth, and press the surface level. Then I sow the seeds about an eighth of an inch apart, cover them as thinly as possible, and water with a fine rose; then I place the boxes under glass without heat. The plants usually make their appearance in about a month. I give air day and night, except in severe frost; then I cover up with straw mats; with such protection the young plants will endure the severest seasons. Mine were not injured by the severity of last winter. I clean the surface of the boxes from green moss in February, and top-dress them. I put the boxes in the open ground up to the edge the second week in May, and water daily until the grass begins to wither. I then suffer the boxes to become quite dry; and in the middle of July I take them up and preserve the roots in bags until February, when I plant them as I do my general stock. In the following June they flower in great profusion. I am confident if florists would adopt this method that more than half the old flowers under name would soon be thrown into mixtures. Much has been done in raising seed ling tulips, carnations, pinks, auriculas, and polyanthuses, yet nothing has been done to any extent in the culture of the ranunculus, though it excels all other flowers in the symmetry of its shape, and in the brilliancy and variety of its colours. A bed of choice ranunculuses presents one of the most attractive objects Nature can exhibit in her gayest mood. There you behold black, purple, and violet of every shade, mingled with others as white as snow. There you see crimson, red, and rose of various tints; orange, yellow, and straw of every die. Many are striped as distinctly as the carnation, some are red and white, and others scarlet and gold. Numbers are edged like the picotee, having white, buff, or yellow grounds. Others are shaded, spotted, and mottled in endless variety. The sight of such a collection instantly fills the spectator with admiration and delight. I am, Sir, &c. Wallingford, Sept, 1. 1830. JOSEPH TYSO. ART. IX. A simple and effectual Method of killing Wasps. By W. Sir, IN your Magazine, last year, you gave several very good methods for destroying wasps (Vol. V. p. 277. 332. 438.); but the method I by mere accident found out, the other day, is still more simple and effectual than any of those you have mentioned, and the whole operation does not take a minute. My plan is this: -When a wasps' nest is found, I take about half a pint of tar in a pitch-ladle, and run part of it into the hole where the nest is; put the remainder of the tar round about the mouth of the hole, and the job is done. All the wasps that are in the nest are caught in their attempt to come out, and those that are out are caught in their attempt to go in so that none escape. If the nest should be in a place where the tar will soon get dry, it may, perhaps, be better to put a little more tar round the hole the following day; as, in general, there are a great many of the wasps which are out all night, and when the tar is dry it will not catch them. It is not necessary to dig out the nest; and the tar may be applied at any time of the day, even when the wasps are most busy. Within the last week I have destroyed above twenty nests, and the wasps at no time made any attempt to sting. I am, Sir, &c. C, near Winchester, Aug. 24. 1830. W. ART. X. On Insects in Orchards. By Mr. D. Anderson. Sir, It will be admitted that horticulturists are more susceptible of, and more exposed to, the vicissitudes of the atmosphere, and to destruction by insects, in their labours and property, than most other men, and indeed more than even agriculturists in general. Much light has been thrown upon this subject by your various correspondents, and much yet remains for investigation and observation. I have two acres of orchard, of from twenty to thirty years' standing; three fourths apples : I have paid considerable attention to their growth and crops during that time, and I find that apples suffer more from insects than any other sort of orchard fruit. I have not, however, been able to discover any effectual remedy, nor do I think any will be found, as I conceive the evil does not arise from any peculiar state or condition of the trees, or soil, or situation, but from the early or late, wet or dry, state of the season, over which we can have no control. If the months of January and February be mild and temperate, the blossom buds become prominent; and if the month of March be dry and frosty, as is often the case, the buds become stagnant in rather an open state. Just then a certain small fly makes its last change, and coming forth on wing, strikes its egg into the eye of the bud. The egg soon comes to a caterpillar, which, during the months of April and May, eats out the blossom, and, when full grown, preys upon the young foliage, and may be seen hanging by a thread, and resting upon your hat and clothes as you pass under; it leaves the trees, in the latter end of May, as naked as they were in winter. This is a small light green caterpillar, one third of an inch long, which does not lodge itself on the trees, but, like the gooseberry caterpillar, buries itself in the ground till the proper season for coming forth. The years 1817, 1819, 1821, 1824, and 1827 exhibited these appearances in a greater or less degree. On the contrary, when the early months are severe, the buds are kept back till April: if then the season proves mild and wet, the fly is impeded, the bud is encouraged, and in May the blossom opens freely, and seldom fails of a crop, as in the years 1818, 1820, 1822, and 1826; and, if my views on this subject be correct, I calculate upon a full crop of apples this year. Driffield, Yorkshire, April 30. 1829. D. ANDERSON. ART. XI. On the Green Fly in the Blossoms of Peach Trees. By Mr. JAMES CRAIG, Gardener to G. Cholmeley, Esq., Howsham, York. Sir, : LAST year the blossoms of several of the peach trees at this place, both on the walls and in the houses, appeared unhealthy they seemed not to expand freely, which induced me to examine them minutely, when I found, in many cases, three or four green flies in a flower, surrounding the base of the style, which in consequence was discoloured and sickly; and, in short, all such set no fruit. At that time I could not find any of these insects but what were in the flowers; hence I infer that the larvæ had been deposited in the inner folds of the buds during the preceding summer. I tried an experiment to check them on one tree on the open wall as follows: I added clear water to tobacco liquor till I brought it to the colour of pale ale, and in that state applied it freely with a fine syringe to the tree when in full flower. This killed part of the insects; and the remainder were so sickly after it that they were unable to do much harm until the fruit was set, when I considered myself at liberty to give them a much stronger dose. I do not pretend that this is altogether a safe method, although, from the closest observation I could make, I did not discover that the tree thus treated sustained any injury from the treatment; the atmosphere might at that time be in a state to favour it : it was done in the forenoon, and the liquor was probably soon evaporated; otherwise it might, by remaining a long time in the flower-cups, have done as much harm as the flies. The necessity of endeavouring to extirpate this pest to the peach tree cannot be too often pressed on the gardener's attention, as they multiply so very rapidly. Tobacco liquor is the best thing I know of for this purpose, after the fruit is set, until the trees shed their leaves in the autumn. When the major part of the leaves are fallen, I recommend syringing every part of the tree with soap-suds and urine; and this repeated several times between that time and the opening of the buds the following spring. When these insects commence their attacks on peach trees under glass before the fruit is set, no remedy that I know is better or safer than the old one of fumigating with home-grown tobacco; and I take the liberty of attempting to give you a description of a fumigating pot (fig.94.), which, I believe, is not generally known. I never saw but one of the kind; one which my father got made many years ago. It is made of sheet iron, holds about 3 lbs. of tobacco, and acts on the outside of the house: the bellows it is worked with are double blasted. The pot may be made at a trifling expense, and, with care, will last for many years. a, the pot; b, the blow-hole, with a grate at the inner end; c, the lid, on which is fixed a tube (d) to convey the smoke into the house, through an aperture made in a square of tin (e) which is fixed into the upright sashes (one in every third or fourth sash) instead of a square of glass; when there are no upright sashes, the tube will require another angle (ƒ). An apparatus of this sort is very convenient, as any person may work it, and fill the houses to any degree required without suffering a night's sickness by it. Howsham, February 15. 1830. J. CRAIG. ART. XII. On the Destruction of the Black and Green Aphides on Cherry and Plum Trees. By N. T. Sir, In my former communication (p. 403.) upon the subject of insects, I observed that the mixture described would not destroy the black A'phis on the cherry tree, nor the light green A'phis on the plum tree. I have now found that by the addition of another ingredient, viz. one gill only of tobacco water, such as can be procured from any of the tobacconists, both these troublesome insects are readily and effectually destroyed, by applying it in the manner before recommended. About three weeks ago I immersed all the young shoots of my cherry trees, plum trees, and black currant trees, which were infested with the A'phides peculiar to each tree, in this mixture, as warm as the hand could bear without inconvenience, keeping the young shoots and leaves in it a few seconds only. This was done in the evening after the sun was off the tree; and I found the A'phides all dead the next |