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1843.] 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
909 
ES 
of great thickness, one of which I measured. The lower 
part below the excrescence js about two-thirds less in 
circumference than the part above, which is all of a piece 
round the stem of the tree; in the others the excrescences 
are in detached parts. Now, it appears that the timber in 
all such trees is shaky, or beginning to decay, and conse- 
quently of little value. From all the information I can 
ebtain from those who have worked up such timber, the 
rain, before the excrescences begin to form is straight in 
the usual way, but after that it is curled ; owing, I be- 
lieve, to the young shoots growing apparently on the dead 
or decaying timber, which curliness of the wood must be 
produced by the matter from the annual buds of the young 
shoots being obstructed in its descent. A specimen of the 
excrescence with the annual shoots on, showing the cause 
of the curliness in thé after-formed wood, I send with this 
paper. It appears that these excrescences seldom, if ever, 
appear, until the heart begins to decay, or till decay has been 
produced from some cause or other, as by wounds from inju- 
ries previously received. I never observed so many infested 
trees together as in Porkington Park. The disease is, 
however, frequent in old Pollards, or decapitated trees, in 
hedgerows and fields. There were scarcely any of this 
kind in the forest of Dean; query, can it be the soil? 
Can any of the numerous readers of the Gardeners’ Chro- 
nicle throw more light on this subject ?— W. Billington. 
——I may state, in addition, that many of the above-men- 
tioned trees are almost covered with excrescences, both on 
the stem and the larger branches ; they appear of great 
age, are from two to three feet in diameter, and are grow- 
ing on two mounds in the centre of the park. There are 
few trees of like appearance in the vicinity. Their Welch 
name signifies ‘‘ Scabby Coppice.’’ Many of them have 
no external appearance of being hollow. Mr. Ormsby 
Gore has had a few cut into veneers, the grain of which is 
most beautiful. I should attribute the appearance to 
something connected with the soil.—B. B. Billington. 
[These excrescences are produced by the growth of myriads 
of what are called ‘embryo buds,’”’ which are generated 
in the inside of the bark. The cause of their formation 
is unknown. The knobs on Cedars of Lebanon, Elms, 
Beech-trees, &c., have a similar origin. Birdseye Maple 
is said to be the timber cut from Maple-trees thus affected. 
The Bruscum of the Romans, so much prized by their 
cabinet-makers, was the wood of the common Maple, 
twisted into singular forms in consequence of the appear- 
ance of such excrescences. 
Bees.—I beg to thank Mr. Buckland for noticing my 
remarks on Ventilation of Hives, and for his advice. I 
believe that Mr. B. is quite right in his remarks, both on 
the ventilation and on the position of the brood. Still I 
attribute the empty state of my comb to the fact, that the 
season did not allow the Bees to fill the combs they had 
made with honey. I added these few remarks to show 
that Mr. Jeston’s plan will answer, and that it is well 
suited for cottagers, on account of its cheapness and sim- 
plicity ; the great object being to enable a greater number 
of persons to manage their Bees profitably. After all that 
has been written on the subject for the last 150 years, it 
is remarkable that all the great improvements were con- 
fined to a very few persons, who have a fondness for Bees 
and the requisite patience and leisure. They are not 
practised by cottagers. Writers on the subject of Bees 
have refined too much. When the great principle of con- 
servation of the Bees is admitted (which may be prac- 
tised by any one) the shapes and positions of hives and 
boxes are of secondary importance. The keeping of Bees 
cannot be reduced to a system, at least, not in this coun- 
try ; the seasons will control us. In my humble opinion, 
the less Bees are interfered with the better, when proper 
space has been allowed to them. It should be borne in 
mind, that no purely agricultural country is suited for 
Bees, for the Clover, &c. are cut before they blossom 
fully ; in one word, this is the worst country in Europe, 
always excepting the north, for the production of honey. 
—Este. 
Bees.—I, in answer to “ R.’s”” inquiries, in a late 
Chronicle, whether in Sydney the Bees are British, beg 
to inform him that in the autumn of the year 1830, Dr. 
T. B. Wilson, M.D., who was about to leave England in 
charge of a convict-ship to Sydney, wished to take out a 
hive of Bees, and consulted me where he could procure 
them, and as to the most efficient manner of effecting the 
same, as several persons had tried and failed. In the 
early part of the year one of my hives swarming, the 
gardener, not being provided with a new hive, cut a cir- 
cular piece out of the centre of the top of the hive, and 
placed an old one over it, into which the Bees swarmed, 
and in the autumn it was particularly well furnished. I 
informed him I would, with pleasure, present the colony 
with the Bees, and directed a circular hive-covering to be 
made, which encircled the two hives, leaving about five or 
six inches in all parts for the Bees to take the air, with 
conveniences for feeding and removing the dead, and I saw 
them safely fixed on board the ship at Woolwich. I had 
the pleasure of learning they arrived safe and in a healthy 
state, and were placed in the Government gardens, at 
Sydney, where, for a season, they constituted the general 
attraction, and were the lion of the day. Their fecundity 
was so great that I am afraid I should not be credited if 
T stated how many tines they swarmed the first year.— 
Robert Gunter, Old Brompton. : 
Bees.—Although “ Este” adopted the plan of letting 
his Bees descend into empty butter firkins, as suggested 
by Mr. Jeston, (page 821,) still, he was not so success- 
fal as that gentleman, whose Bees were, prosperous even 
in a bad season. That might be owing to “ Fiste’s 
stocks being weakened by swarming. He observes, ‘ 
H 
had seven swarms from three old stocks, 
“Este” have the goodness to let us know in what way 
he neglected ventilation, also the quantity of combs in the 
tubs at the time the swarms issued, and the age of his 
stocks? Mr, Jeston seems to prefer old stocks ; he says, 
“the older the hives, the less chance there will be of 
swarming, but the greater chance of a larger deposit of 
honey.”? At present I will not comment on that strange 
statement, bnt merely observe, that the plan of putting 
common hives upon empty firkins is very simple, and 
similar to the common way of eking, or nadir hiving. 
Honey may be obtained by boring a hole in the floor of 
a hive, and placing an inverted bell-glass close to it, co- 
vered with an empty hive. Mr. Hatt, of Billingford, 
Norfolk, who is not only a good apiarian, but takes much 
interest in rural affairs in general, showed me a glass of 
honey he obtained in that way. The Bees descended into 
the glass rather late in the season, I mean after the drones 
were slaughtered, and strange to say, it contained a brood 
of them. Perhaps some one acquainted with the natural 
history of the Honey Bee will explain this strange pheno- 
menon. I believe there is something connected with it 
unfavourable to Mr. Newport's opinion, viz., “ That the 
Honey-Bee, like the Bombus terrestris (Humble-Bee), has 
bags of fat, or nutriment, stored up within its own 
systems, which alone enables it to pass some portion 
of the winter ina state of repose.” This, of course, is 
founded on'the fact, that some kinds of quadrupeds are en- 
abled to do so ; bears, for instance, are said to live on their 
own fat while in a torpid state. How far the analogy is 
correct I cannot determine, but I doubt Mr. Newport’s 
opinion in this respect regarding the Humble-Bee and the 
Honey-Bee, for the latter was not originally destined to 
pass the winter in repose.—J. Wighton. 
Wasps and Rats.—Several correspondents have told you 
of the absence of wasps—in some places total, in others com- 
parative—in their respective localities during the last 
wasp season. I beg to state that in the region between 
Ipswich and Woodbridge, in Suffolk, on my farm of two 
or three hundred acres, I scarcely saw five wasps last 
season, and not one nest was found. Last year I was 
pestered, and caused upwards of thirty nests to be de- 
stroyed. On my farm a rat was seldom seen until this 
year. Since harvest, more than a hundred rats have been 
destroyed, old and young, &c. The neighbouring farmers 
have likewise been much annoyed by these vermin. I do 
not presume to say, nor do I think that there is any 
direct connexion between wasps and rats in any way, but 
it may still be curious if in future years the rarity of wasps 
should be found by observers to be the precursor of an 
abundance of rats. It will be a curious coincidence, and 
may lead to useful precautions.—A. B. 
Rats.—Having seen in the Chronicle correspondence 
on the best method of destroying Rats, I venture to recom- 
mend a very simple plan, which, though it may sound 
absurd, I have tried with much success. It is this:— 
Fasten a red-herring firmly by a string to any place where 
the Rats usually maketheir run; and either from their great 
dislike to the smell, or from some cause I do not profess 
to understand, they will soon disappear. This may sound 
improbable, but it is worth trying. The herring must be 
fastened very strongly, or the Rats will run away with its 
and the experiment will fail.— O. 
Gardeners’ Associations.—It is gratifying to learn that 
Gardeners around the metropolis are instituting Mutual 
Instruction Societies, in order to promote their own im- 
provement and the progress of Horticulture; and it is 
surprising that those around Edinburgh are doing so little 
towards improving themselves or those under their care. 
Perhaps a word or two on the subject may have a bene- 
ficial effect. There is one evil which head-gardeners on 
the north side of the Tweed ought seriously to consider. 
I allude to apprenticeships. Numbers of apprentices that 
have only half acquired the elements of their profession 
are every year ushered into the gardening world. Som 
of them are sent out as journeymen, even before they can 
erform the ordinary operations of the garden with any 
sort of neatness; and these would-be gardeners fill situa- 
tions to the exclusion of those that have been regularly 
trained to the business ;) but’ gardeners have themselves, 
in a great measure, to blame; for if they would form 
themselves into societies, (and I am sure they would get 
the support of their employers, for ultimately they alone 
would receive the benefit,) and see that none should pass 
but those that had served a proper time to the trade, 
and paid a proper premium, I have no doubt a complete 
alteration for the better would speedily follow.—Peier. 
Cocoa-Nuts.—Your remarks at p. 862, upon the diffi- 
culty of getting the flesh of a Cocoa-nut_out of its shell, 
makes me suspect that you are ignorant of a simple 
method of cracking one. Perhaps the subject is hardly 
worth a notice, but as I have enlightened at least a dozen 
dealers, besides other persons on the matter, some of your 
readers may not object to sce this account in your pages. 
Instead of the common laborious and clumsy method of 
sawing the nut, let it lie horizontally on the palm of your left 
hand, and then with a hammer ora poker, hit it smartly in 
any direction in which you wish it to open. Continue turn- 
ing the nut round in the hand, and striking with the ham- 
mer along the line you have chosen, and when it has been 
completely round two or three times, it will crack along 
this line, and may then be separated with ease. Every 
one is aware that the milk may be drawn off by tapping 
one of the three eye-like scars at the large end; but com- 
paratively few are acquainted with the fact, that the 
embryo lies beneath that particular scar which can be 
pierced; and if a penknife is used carefully to scoop out 
the flesh, by passing it round the scar as close to the 
shell as possible, this body will be found in the centre of 
the plug thus extracted. If the shell should be split lon- 
gitudinally, by hammering along a line which crosses the 
® 
because I did 
ient, will 
not ventilate as 1 ought to do.’? When 
soft scar, the embryo will then be displayed tling i 
little cavity in the flesh. It is an itorereinasoWjebe a 
its detection well worth the price of a Cocoa-nut 3 ihc 
moreover, eats none the worse for having: previously dae 
hibition of a good example of des octet uae 
ibition xample of a monoco} 
a aerate Pp! yledonous embryo. 
Eranthemum pulchellum.—For the encouragement of 
those who are desirous of having this beautiful stove- plant 
jn bloom in their sitting-rooms at this season, but who 
are deceived by the idea that it requires the heat common 
to other stove-plants, I can assure them that it requires 
to be only protected from frost till it is wished that it 
should bloom. Throughout the summer before last I kept 
a plant of it inmy greenhouse, where it grew vigorously, 
and it was treated precisely the same as my greenhouse 
plants when they were housed for the winter, the tempera- 
ture being on no occasion raised above 40° by fire-heat, 
and that but seldom applied. In the last week of Decem- 
ber following it was removed to the window of my sitting- 
room, where it developed its flowers in abundance for 
several weeks. Ihave no doubt that a common frame and 
light, with external coverings, would afford all the protec. 
tion required. In an early Number of this year’s Chron- 
icle, Mr. Beaton mentioned a few other plants equally 
beautiful, that would bloom freely in a temperature of 45°, 
viz., Aphelandra cristata, Ardisia crenulata, Euphorbia jac 
quiniflora and splendens, Justicia speciosa and coccinea 
Poinciana pulcherrima, &c. It is not improbable that 
these, if subjected to similar treatment, would repay the 
trouble of the experiment.—A Subscriber, Southampton. 
The Clover Dodder.—When in London last week, [ 
examined the specimens of Cuscuta sulcata in Wallich’s 
Herbarium, at the Linnean Society (No. 1320. 2.3 of his 
Catalogue,) and found that they all have capitate stigmas, 
and do not grow upon Leguminous plants. Since my 
return, I have looked at my own specimens of C. trifolii 
from Essex, Suffolk, and Devon, and find that they all 
have filiform stigmas. Is not this sufficient to show that 
the pest in our fields is not the C. sulcata of Roxburgh ? 
I suppose that the plant which you last received is 
different from that of the Eastern Counties, where, (near 
Bungay) I have the authority of a competent botanist, 
Mr. D. Stock, for saying that it has occurred for at least 
16 years.—Charles C. Babington, St. John’s College 
Cambridge. [Khelat Lucern was introduced for the first 
time about the year 1824.] 
Large Potato.—A Potato weighing} seven pounds was 
dug up lately in ground belonging to S. L. Behrens, Esq.. 
of Catterall, near Garstang.—Facile. 2 i 
Hydrangeas.—In an early Number of “ Harrison’s 
Cabinet ’’ was a paper on altering the colour of Hydran- 
geas by sulphuric acid. Two plants were turned out of 
pots, and an ounce of oil of vitriol procured, in which a fea- 
ther was dipped, and the balls of the root touched over with 
jt; afterwards the remainder of the acid was mixed in the 
proper quantity of soil for repotting,—this caused them 
to bloom lue. The writer held a respectable situation 
Tf this be correct, could it apply to the China Rose, or ‘, 
the Carnation?—O. [We should think not.] : 
Late-flowering Carnations.—Can any reason be given 
why some sorts flower so much later than others, and 
chant’s Don John, Walmsley’s William IV., Hoyle’s 
Duke of Leeds. Rose Flake —Chadwick’s Lucetta 
Dobbing’s Mountaineer, Plant’s Lady Hood. Purple 
Flake — "udson’s Miss Thornton, Brabbin’s Squire 
Meynell, Leighton’s Bellerophon. Seedlings from 
Walmsley’s William IV. seem generally to resemble the 
parent, as out of seven plants five were Scarlet Bizarre 
—but two of them single. Four of five seedlings from 
Duke of Leeds were run Bizarres.—O., Leeds. 
Orchidacee.—the ‘' Spread-eagle,” a plant which Mr. 
Bateman mentions as being in the collection of Mr. Hors- 
fall, of Liverpool, is, I regret to say, defunct. It is said 
to have had much of the appearance of a Lelia.—J. W. 
Jones, Knowsley. 
Extraordinary Cabbage.—Under this head in a late 
Chronicle is the following statement taken frora the 
Exeter Flying Post, viz.: that John Lee, a mason, at 
Pound, near Moretonhampstead, had grown a Cabbage to 
the great weight of 42lbs. I should like to know what 
sort of a Cabbage it was ; if an early one it was very good 
but if a late Cabbage I think it nothing extraordinary, 4 
T have repeatedly grown the common Drumhead Cabbage 
to the weight of 80lbs., when cut off level with the ground, 
including all the leaves; and in October, 1842, I cut tie 
weighing 47lbs., when stripped of every loose leaf— A 
Perthshire Subscriber. 
Gourds.—As the Courge courcelle was recommended I 
grew it from seeds obtained from Paris; but although the 
plants were raised in a hotbed, and were planted out in a 
small bed of dung and mould, ,it grew so vigorously that 
very [few fruit were obtained, and those very late. It 
proved excellent ; the flavour very delicate, and somewhat 
like a Jerusalem Artichoke. What is the experience of 
your Correspondents as to the growing this plant ? Those 
who are acquainted with the merits of Potage a la Cressi 
will grow a good stock of the true Potiron jaune. How 
is it that in the northern parts of France they grow this to 
such a large size and so much better ripened than those 
grown in England?. Is there a sufficient difference in the 
climate to account [for this? [Yes.] At Versailles i 
the kitchien-garden, I found that the Potiron gris Hol- 
lande was’ grownin preference to the Potiron jaune for 
the Royal table, as being much the best.— Titty. 
