NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 195 



September, as a rule the great heather-honey harvest month, 

 was this year like its predecessors, bleak, cold, and wet. The 

 heather never burst into bloom at all, and the hills around 

 the Holy Loch, generally clad at this season with brilliant purple, 

 presented a gloomy brown appearance. On the 20th I examined 

 the apiary, and decided to bring home the eleven stocks taken 

 away in June with the view of reaping a rich harvest of clover 

 and heather honey, for, in the quaint words of the gardener, 

 " with the exception of thae Italian boys, the rest have naething 

 ava but the skeps and the brods." On the 23rd I sent 280 lbs. 

 of sugar to be made into syrup for winter feeding. 



On the 4th of October I weighed all the hives, and found the 

 gross weights range from 57 lbs. to 27 lbs., the two Italian ones, 

 formerly mentioned, being respectively 57 lbs. and 53 J lbs. The 

 best black stock was 45 lbs., and I at once decided to Italianize 

 my whole apiary, and sent off for a dozen Ligurian queens, six of 

 which duly arrived on the 20th. I found, on the 22nd, they were 

 not a moment too soon, as in two cases princesses were reigning 

 in the hives; and as they were, from too late hatching, not in a 

 condition to reproduce their kind, not having been impregnated, 

 nothing but destruction to the hives could have been the out- 

 come. Unless the practical bee-keeper makes a minute exami- 

 nation of his hives, some such calamity as this may from time 

 to time happen. Having satisfied myself of the fertility of the 

 remaining queens, I weighed all hives, leaving nothing to chance. 

 Although, no doubt, this has been an exceptionally bad season for 

 bees, let us take courage and hope for better times to come. 



November 25th, 1879. 



Professor John Young, M.D., F.G.S., President, in the chair. 

 Mr. James Eggleton, jun., was elected an ordinary member. 



SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 



Messrs. Thomas King and Peter Ewing exhibited a variety of 

 mounted specimens of Fungi, which had been collected in the 

 neighbourhood on the previous Saturday. This department of 

 botany has of recent years been receiving more attention than 

 formerly, and the number of species known and described has been 



VOL. IV. o 



