July 1, 1870.] 



HARDWICKB'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



107 



these toads to a wasp's nest, thinking they might 

 prove a useful auxiliary in destroying some of them, 

 which I take to be about the very worst enemy which 

 the honey-bee has; however, the toad would have 

 nothing whatever to do with them (the wasps), 

 and seemed to turn from them with fear or disgust. 



Bees. — Here (in North Wales) the cottager when 

 hiving his swarms of bees sings to them. Ringing 

 of the new swarm is scarcely known and very little 

 practised here, though in South Wales it is, as in 

 England, commonly practised. The Welsh are par- 

 ticularly clever in adapting means to any emergency. 

 Now, it will occasionally happen that no such thing 

 as an empty hive is to be bought, begged, or bor- 

 rowed of all the neighbours round. Well, what is to 

 be done ? The following I have seen used on such 

 occasions — one of the small tea-chests, and the 

 bees took to it very well ; also a small gunpowder 

 barrel comes in on such occasions very useful. There 

 are some of them in this village, and thriving un- 

 commonly well, too. I have also heard of, though 

 I have never seen, a large sugar hogshead being 

 used for one, in whicli the stock has continued and 

 extended, but without casting off a swarm for several 

 years. — W. P., Llandderfel. 



Bees (p. 151).— In reply to "E. S." there can be 

 no doubt but that, the syrup with which he fed his 

 bees became acidified, and acting on his zinc trough 

 produced acetate of zinc, a powerful poison. I am 

 no bee keeper, but if I were, and fed them from 

 food in zinc troughs, I should be especially particular 

 that they be made thoroughly clean daily, and that 

 the syrup (which could be prepared about once a 

 week) be kept from air and light until used.— 

 W. D. H. 



Bees.— In answer to "E. S.'s" query about zinc 

 feeders, I would say that that had nothing to do 

 with the fate of his bees, as I have always used 

 them with no evil result, and I know many others 

 who have done the same. The cause of the death 

 of his bees was possibly the old age of the queens, 

 or it has been lately supposed that evil effects arise 

 from feeding bees with loaf sugar ; and should such, 

 have been the case, I beg to refer "E. S." to the 

 Journal of Horticulture for Thursday, Apiil 2Sth, 

 the paragraph entitled "Bee Epidemics," p. 315. 

 With regard to the bees having been robbed and 

 murdered, there is no accounting for it for certain, 

 and could only have been prevented (if noticed quite 

 in the commencement) by shutting up the entrance 

 so as only to admit one bee at a time ; however, 

 this does not always succeed. About this time bees 

 often lose their queen, and when she has dwindled 

 away, leaving no brood in the hive, as, for some 

 time before her death, she ceases to lay eggs 

 (although plenty of honey), the bees do not miss 

 her in the way they would were she taken from 

 them under ordinary circumstances ; but they will 

 not work and may be seen idly clustering about the 

 entrance, but their position is soon founds out by 

 other bees, to whom (sometimes) they join them- 

 selves, but will often defend then- own to the end. 

 W hen bees lose their queen in' this way, they will 

 soon rear another if a piece of comb containing 

 eggs and brood be supplied to them from another 

 hive. This is a calamity whicli is seldom noticed, 

 though it often happens, as will be seen from the 

 fact of old queens leading off first swarms ; there- 

 fore one queen may lead off three, perhaps four 

 swarms in her life, but will in all probability die the 

 following spring. — G. C. G. 



HOW TO SEPARATE FORAMINIFERA FROM CHALK 



and Sea-sand.— Will any correspondent kindly 

 give full and plain directions for the thorough sepa- 

 ration and cleaning of Foraminifera from chalk, and 

 also for removing the minuter ones from sea-sand, 

 without the trouble of picking them out. It has 

 been written that, if the sand be dried and thrown 

 into water the shells will float, and the siliceous 

 particles sink to the bottom, but I have not found 

 this effectual in practice. — Henry Lee. 



Washing Chalk Foraminifera. — I have 

 adopted the following method, with, I think, toler- 

 able success. Take about one ounce of chalk — that 

 which lies in powder at the base of a chalk cutting 

 is preferable, — place it in a quart bottle with about 

 a pint of water, shake it, and after a few moments 

 pour off the milky fluid down to about one fourth; 

 add more fresh water and continue the shaking and 

 the pouring off, waiting longer each time for the 

 debris to settle. If this washing is continued 

 through ten or twelve times in one day, and after- 

 wards repeated two or three times a day for a day 

 or two, the final result will be a sediment entirely 

 composed of Foraminifera. By this means I have 

 obtained slides in which nothing can be detected as 

 mixed with the Foraminifera. If small fragments 

 of chalk remain mixed with the Foraminifera, that 

 will give evidence of insufficient shaking. Plenty of 

 water and plenty of shaking is sure to produce 

 satisfactory results. — 31. C. C. 



Horsetail Sports. — It may be worth while to 

 note two curious sports of the common Horsetail 

 found by me on the warren. Each has developed 

 a fertile head halfway up a barren frond, and one of 

 the tw r o has a second fertile head at the top of the 

 barren frond. In both, the whorl below the fertile 

 head, in the middle of the stem, is undeveloped, and 

 only the sheath is present, but this is not the case 

 with the second fertile head at the head of number 

 two. I found a third in which this year's barren 

 frond had shot up through the dead stem of last 

 year's, carrying up a ring of the old stem with it, 

 which had confined the tips of the branches of one 

 whorl, so that they appeared to have been all turned 

 down, and the ends tied round the stem. I do not 

 know if these are curiosities, but they were new to 

 me.— C. L. Acland. 



Phacelia tenacetifolia. — This year I have 

 grown for the first time the new bee-flower P. te- 

 nacetifolia. For the information of those readers of 

 Science-Gossip who have not seen it, I may state 

 that it is an annual, growing about eighteen inches 

 high, with leaves almost resembling the frond of a 

 fern, and bearing a pale blue flower, which is most 

 delightfully scented; but the plant is chiefly remark- 

 able for the eagerness with which bees visit the 

 bloom for the purpose of extracting its hidden 

 sweets ; to-day I saw a bed of it literally alive with 

 those industrious little insects; certainly it is worthy 

 of being more extensively cultivated, both for its 

 beauty and fragrance ; moreover, it is very easily 

 reared. Can any of the correspondents of Science- 

 Gossip tell me something more about it ? Where 

 did it come from ? Are there any varieties of it? — 

 D. D. Bennett, Cantab. 



Mosquitoes.— What is the best preventive of 

 stinging by gnats and mosquitoes ; and what is the 

 best remedy after being stung — ammonia, soda, 

 lime juice, alcohol, vinegar, and Elder juice having 

 failed ?— 1). B. 



