Letter Writing. From a Foreman to a Head-Gardener. DEAR SIR, Rumbolt Hall Gardens, March 6, 186 When I left Cornhill Hall gardens to take the situation as foreman at Rumbolt Hall gardens, you were kind enough to promise, that should it be in your power to forward my interests at any future time, you would feel a pleasure in so doing. As I am now leaving my present situation on account of a reduction of hands (the place being let), if you should hear of another situation likely to suit me, I beg you will bear me in mind. My address will be Shrubbery Nursery, near Brigg. With many thanks for past favours, MY DEAR THOMAS, Cornhill Hall Gardens, March 10, 186 I was duly favoured with yours, and in reply beg to assure you, should anything come within my knowledge, I will not fail to do what I can in your favour. I regret you have not met with a more permanent situation, as changing is neither satisfactory or profitable, but hope the next will prove more permanent. SIR, I am, Yours, most sincerely, From a Gardener to a Man of Influence. 4, Crawford Place, Chelsea, May 7, 186 As I have not the honour of being personally known to you, I solicited the favour of a few testimonials, which I enclose, from my gardening friends, with whom you are acquainted, and which, I trust, will obtain for me the honour of your kind consideration, and appointment to any vacant situation that you may think me qualified to fill. I beg to inform you that I have lived for four years as head-gardener with the Earl of S, Pitbury Hall, Andover; for three years and nine months with Sir William Granger, Bart., Sudbury Hill, Chepstone; and for the last six years and three months with Jeremiah Whimsical, Esq., at Hotwater Park, near Boxted-cum-Hurtest. I have satisfactory testimonials of abilities and of good moral conduct from the Noblemen and Gentlemen with whom I have lived, and, if favoured with an interview, shall have much pleasure in giving satisfactory reasons for leaving each situation, and any other particulars that you may desire to know. Such recommendations as you have sent me-from such excellent men-would insure any interest I may have to the greatest stranger ;—but in your case they were unnecessary, for I am quite aware of your excellence as a gardener, and your great respectability as a man. To men like you my services are always rendered eagerly, and I will do the best I can for you-upon that rely. But you must tell me what wages you want. That is very important. I shall be glad to see you on the 19th. Pray believe me, Yours truly, KENNEDY, Gentleman to his Gardener. The Hall gardens will be let at Michaelmas ; therefore, you had better prepare to leave. I am, Jeremiah Whimsical. 4, Victoria Place, Dover, 30th Sept., 186-. Answer. Hotwater Park Gardens, October, 2, 186— SIR, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 30th ultimo, and, from previous instructions, will be prepared at the end of the month to deliver up all things under my charge, to whomsoever you may appoint to receive them. As it is usual for a gardener to seek and get employment in a nursery until he obtains another situation, it is also necessary that he has some voucher from his late employer to show that he has left in a proper manner. For that reason I beg the favour of a testimonial of abilities, &c., that I may be able to get employment at Messrs. Flinthart's nursery, as without some such credential of my honesty, sobriety, &c, I will be deprived of even the trifling assistance afforded by nursery wages. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, Answer. 6, Victoria Place, Dover, October 28, 186 J. Whimsical considered Kennedy, his late gardener, a particularly steady man and of sober habits, and believes him to understand his business perfectly. J. W. had a high recommendation of him from the late Earl of Z-, in whose service Kennedy's father was head-gardener. J. W. being from home the last two years from ill health cannot say how Kennedy may have been going on during his absence; but he has not parted with him for any fault, but on account of the gardens being about to be let. Application on behalf of the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Institution. MY DEAR SIR, The Firs, Spring Town, I am at all times averse to troubling my friends on my own behalf, but there are occasions on which I venture to trespass upon their kindness when other people are concerned. Knowing your kind feeling towards the old and deserving, I venture to hope that a few remarks on the utility of the Gardener's Royal Benevolent Institution will induce you to become a member of that useful society. Picture to yourself agardener who had been respectable until overtaken by disappointments and misfortune, and had wielded, for nearly half a century, his hammer and his knife, under many a bleak wall, until his hair was blanched by wind and time, and his legs, by debility, refused to scale the ladder, or his hand to grasp the knife anymore. How comfortable is it for such a man to sit down in his chair and say to himself, "I have been a contributor to the Gardener's Royal Benevolent Institution while in health and strength, and now that I can enter into the labours of the garden no more, this society has guaranteed to me a comfortable subsistence while I live." Nor does the benefit end with him. It extends to her who had been the comfort of his life, and the solace of his declining days, and, perhaps, whose comforts were more dear to him than his own. He has the consolation to know that after she has seen his eyes closed in death, that she will not be dragged from her little cottage to the interior of a workhouse. By becoming a member you will consult the interests of the Institution, as well as your own future comfort, if ever you should want it (as present affluence is no security against future poverty), and if you never need it, so much the better, you will have the consolation of knowing that you have contributed to the relief of some of your less fortunate brethren. My personal acquaintance with the general good management of the society will, I trust, plead my excuse for troubling you with this application. With kindest compliments to Mrs. Braddon, observed something like froth on the leaves of plants: this is no other than the covering in which the larva of the Cicada spumaria, or Cuckoo-spittle, hides itself from danger, serving the double purpose of a shelter from enemies and the heat of the sun. This froth exudes from the body of the larva, which is provided with a trunk or sucker, that enables it to extract the juices of plants which are its food. There is scarcely any difference between the larva and the pupa, both are of a light green; but the perfect insect, popularly called Frog-hopper, is brown, with whitish bands across the upper wings. Journeyman. When reading last evening some instructions about the culture of the Dahlia, the writer, W. Gregory, towards the conclusion, advised to put oil round the pots or wool round the stems, to protect them from earwigs. If I had read such instructions before I heard your last lesson, I should most certainly believe that they would be a protection, but as I now know that earwigs are flying insects, how ridiculous and useless it would be to attempt to prevent an insect from climbing that could fly. Mr. B. No doubt you have experienced some little profit from our lessons, and the enjoyment, last evening, of laughing at the blunder of such a public writer as W. G., who, to judge from such instructions, must be but very slightly, if at all, acquainted with entomology. The next genus worthy of our notice is Cimex, Bug, of which the species are numerous, and all of them have wings, except that most disgusting, nauseous insect, the Bed bug. The larvæ of this genus differ from the perfect state, in the circumstance of having only the rudiments of wings previously to their final change, and they are of a voracious disposition. Although you may shrink from the sight of the Cimex domesticus or common Bug, a nearer inspection will afford you, by the assistance of the microscope, the gratification of seeing the circulation of the blood even through the legs, and an extraordinary vibration of the vessels, besides the motion of the internal parts; all which are well calculated to excite wonder and admiration. The next genus comprises the different species of the Aphis or Plant-louse. Of the many insects found in gardens, the Aphides, from their numbers, and from the great variety of plants on which they live, are, perhaps the greatest enemy of the gardener, though no one is more easily extirpated, provided timely and proper measures be taken to kill or banish them. The Aphides are produced by what some naturalists term animalcular generation; that is, as they explain it, not only is a mother insect impregnated by the male, but all her progeny also for nine or ten generations; hence their astonishing fecundity and increase in a very short space of time. In the autumn they are oviperous, laying their eggs |