38 



llARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The surface of the fragment is covered with the 

 Polythoa, identically the same as that found invest- 

 ing the " rope." The other two'spccimeiis are still 



Fig. 28. 



more remarkable : the Polythoa covers the rope, but 

 beneath it may be seen in one specimen a piece of 

 fine twine, and in the other a piece of blue paper or 

 cloth. The twine and paper had evidently been 

 wound round the rope in order to keep the filaments 



Fig. 29. 



Fig. 3\ 



Fig. 31. 



together, and the Polythoa (apparently atl ached to 

 some riband-like alga about tiiree-quarlers of rai 

 inch in width), wound round afterwards. This was 

 probably done by some of the Japanese fishermen 

 who dredged up the specimen.* 



"Among earth's 'things of loveliness' we recog- 

 nize two as perfect and peerless : ia the Lake of 

 Geneva, the Beautiful— a noble and exalted liar- 

 mony; in the Lake of Lucerne, the Sublime." — 

 " The Mountahiy from the French of Michelet. 



* Specimens of figs. 24 and 28 may be obtained from Mr. 

 Chas. Baker, 2+4, Higli Holboni. 



THE POOD OP BEES. 



Tl'AYING only recently returned to England, 

 ■*--•- after a residence of some years in Prance, 

 and wisliing to make myself up to the mark in 

 British Katural History, I have borrowed Science- 

 Gossip for 1S70, in which I observe there is a 

 controversy as to the food of bees in their separate 

 journeys. Not being a bee-keeper, I cannot con- 

 tribute any information on this point, but I think 

 it may be interesting to the curious on the subject 

 of the food of bees to learn that in Prance there are 

 no greater pests to the fruit-garden, especially to 

 the grapes, than the common honey-bees. They 

 are not content with levying a very handsome tithe, 

 but two successive years they devoured four-fifths 

 of my crop, besides attacking all the best of my 

 pears and apples. In short, they are much worse 

 than the wasps, as these are not abundant and 

 troublesome every year as the bees are. 



Now, as under the Prench paternal government 

 bees are not allowed to be kept in towns for fear of 

 their stings, it seemed to me to be hard lines for us 

 townspeople to be obliged to keep bees for the 

 peasants without any safeguard for our fingers from 

 these poaching insects ; raid therefore, tiiinkiug 

 that paternal government did not go quite far 

 enough in this matter, I ventured to propose at one 

 of the m-eetings of the Linusean Socdety of Nor- 

 mandy, at Caen, that we should petition the proper 

 minister for a decree that every bee-master should 

 be obliged to have a flower-garden for his bees, it 

 being the fact that, as a rule, no flowers are growu 

 except in or near towns — not any in the villages — 

 and that the bees, having no food after the seed- 

 clover is cut, flock to the towns to feed upon the 

 grapes and other fruits then ripening. 



My proposition, as you may suppose, only created 

 a general smile at my greenness in supposing that 

 a body like the Linnaan Society of Normandy, high 

 as it stands in science, could have the slightest 

 influence with an Imperial minister. While upon 

 the subject of Prench societies, I may mention that, 

 having lost my crop of potatoes by the cockchafer 

 grub, and knowing that the paternal government 

 had offered rewards for the best mode of preventing 

 their ravages, I proposed, in another society of 

 which I was a member, that a committee should bo 

 formed to consider the subject. This was done in 

 the montli of November, and a report was made in 

 July of the sccor:d year following, when I had again 

 lost my crop each season, the main recommendation 

 of the report being that during the season of the 

 perfect insects tliey should be caught and thrown 

 into boiling water I Advice very similar in kind to 

 the celebrated method of destroying fleas ; only tliis 

 was in the dry, while the former was in the wet form.* 



* It isafactthat maiiy Frenclivillagersliave never seen boil- 

 ing water, t'.eir only vessel being the sonp-kettle; and if you 

 want an aiif a la cuque it is simine.-cd, not boiled, iu tlie souii. 



