The Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette . m in theautumn, winter, and spring, full grown, and it isrtraarkable that 1 should never have detected anymuch younger. It was several years before I could rear the this pest, which uihabit«d my garden near Londonas well as in the country, ilig first caterpillars Iremember to have observed were found on the 3d ofApril, 1841, at the root of a Saowdrop, the bulb ofwhich one had gnawed, and likewise the leaf; .-motherhad eaten through the root of the common Bears-ear,and many Auricula plants in pots belonging to a friend,were destroyed
The Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette . m in theautumn, winter, and spring, full grown, and it isrtraarkable that 1 should never have detected anymuch younger. It was several years before I could rear the this pest, which uihabit«d my garden near Londonas well as in the country, ilig first caterpillars Iremember to have observed were found on the 3d ofApril, 1841, at the root of a Saowdrop, the bulb ofwhich one had gnawed, and likewise the leaf; .-motherhad eaten through the root of the common Bears-ear,and many Auricula plants in pots belonging to a friend,were destroyed by them. On the 12th of .May one ofmy caterpillars appeared to be forming a cell under atuft of Grass placed over it, but it eventually died, forwant of moisture I apprehend. It was not long, how-ever, before I had another opportunity of studyingtheir economy, for on the 4th of June, I saw twoLettuce plants drooping, and on pulling them up, Ifound the tap root eaten through just below the crown,but occasionally tliey are divided much lower and thus, every morning, my crop was reduced, bythe most healthy plants having fallen a prey during thenight. I then commenced clearing away the earthround the mutilated roots with a pointed stick, and byeach plant I found a full-grown larva, about 5 or 6 inchesdeep in the soil. In November .ind December, 1844,these caterpillars were equally destructive to my youngCos Lettuces ; they also ate the roots, and on thelast day of the year I dug up one which had forin>ed alongish cell in the earth : the 27th of the followingMarch I detected six in a Lettuce bed, exactly like thefigure 1, only that the dots ,at the base of the hairswere obsolete ; indeed they now appeared to be allunspotted. In April they .again attacked the sameborder, aud many more were found in some stiffsoil where a crop of Lettuces had been grown. On the1st of May I discovered three chrysalids and a few ofthe caterpillars about a foot deep under an old Stra
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, bookidg, booksubjecthorticulture
