i 
‘ 
646 
THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. 
(Serr. 16, 
formed will do so. The doubleness of flowers usually 
arises from a change of stamens into petals, as in the 
Rose, Ranunculus, Anemone, and Cherry; but it often 
happens that in such cases the pistil is not transformed, 
and when that is the case the assistance of flowers either 
wholly or partially single is required, and will produce the 
effect. As to Stocks, we should like to hear the 
opinion of Stock-seed growers on that point.] 
Hydrangea.—A fact has come to my knowledge which 
may be useful to the lovers of blue Hydrangea. A lady, 
a friend of mine, removed some plants that had always 
showed pink blossoms from a former place of residence, 
and planted them in a bed of bog-earth. They imme- 
diately began to blow blue, and have continued to do so 
for the last three or four years,—as fine a blue as the 
plant is capable of. On examining the bog-earth, I find 
that it is very fully charged with a yellow ochraceous 
matter, which I suppose to be an oxide or a carbonate of 
jron (sand, a little clay, and peat, forming the bulk of the 
mass). The springs which feed the peat-bog from whence 
the earth was taken are strongly impregnated with sul- 
phuret of iron, from the pyritical iron ore of the country ; 
a smell o! pt d hydrogen is i to be per- 
ceived about them ; and I have seen sulphur sublimed 
amongst the peat-turf fires of the cottagers, who burn it. 
In the chemical changes which take place also amongst 
the bog where the water throws down its iron, I think it 
not improbable that the sulphuric acid unites itself with 
a portion of the aluminous matter of the clay, and the 
lants may thus get alum in its nascent state. But, 
whether it be the superabundant oxide of iron, the sul- 
phur, or the sulphuric acid, or the aluminous compound, 
the fact of ferruginous peat-bog being favourable to the 
blueing of Hydrangeas may be relied on. Perhaps it 
may be right to mention, that the subsoil of the above. 
mentioned Hydrangea-beds is of a chalky nature.—P. P. 
On the Profitable Management of Bees.—The object 
of the writer is more particularly to address the Bee 
master, who may have for years past kept Bees, on what 
is now called the old system,—and if I can induce such 
persons, at present averse to any change, to advance just 
one step, it will, I feel confident, be the means of their 
advancing many paces by another season, for their own 
profit. It is not to be expected that the cottager can 
purchase one of Nutt’s hives; even if he has seen and 
understands the system, he could not make one complete 
under 40s. He must be shewn a cheap way to arrive at 
nearly the same end, and if he does not procure within a 
few pounds weight what might be gained with a collateral 
hive, still he will perceive that an improvement is to be 
made, and that on a very simple plan. I commenced 
“keeping Bees when I found it practicable to procure honey 
without destroying the Bees. From experience of nine 
years, | have been able,.owing to a daily observation of their 
habits, to gain some little knowledge of the subject ; having 
kept Bees on several plans, and in differently formed hives. 
I will begin with the most simple, and try and tempt the 
owner of a stock to prepare a hive for his swarm next 
season. Let him get a straw hive made the same size as 
usual, say 16 in, diameter, left with a flat top, about 12in, 
diameter, into the centre of which make a hole 2in.—take 
the edge off in the inner side to allow more room for the 
Bees to ascend—fit a bung in moderately tight, and it will 
then be ready for use; have a smaller hive made to fit on 
the top without any aperture to allow the Bees to go in 
and out. Let a swarm be procured in the usual way, which 
must remain the first season with the bung in, and some 
covering to protect it from the weather, on a pedestal, 
but not too near a wall. Should the swarm be a very early 
one, symp such asa B ter is acquainted with 
appear ; dress the top hive and withdraw the covering to 
the 2in. hole; this will most likely not be required till 
the following year; when the top hive has been on—say 
from the Ist of June or middle of May, according to the 
season, about the first weekin August, in order to pro- 
eure the honey made in the two previous months, take a 
thin wire, place it round between the two hives, and sepa- 
rate the fastening the Bees have made—draw the top hive 
upon a clean board or sheet of tin, and carry it 10 yards 
off ; haye ready a large garden-pot to stand the hive in, 
and should the operator have sufficient nerve he may 
shake nearly all the Bees out into a large dish and replace 
the hive in the pot, and in 20 minutes all will have left—. 
T have done this frequently without a sting. If when the 
hive was new it had been weighed and also thestand, and 
the weight had been on the side of the stand, so as not to be 
lost—it would enable the owner to ascertain sufficiently 
correct the amount of honey left for the stock for the 
winter. A strong stock is always the cheapest to main- 
tain, and less liable to intrusion from other Bees or Wasps. 
I have known many willing to try the above plan during 
the winter. When Bees are torpid, cut off the top of the 
hive and introduce a one-inch deal top, with hole ready 
prepared, and unite it to the hive with long brads. The 
owner will perceive he has still his Bees, and those Bees 
sufficiently provided for the winter, and himself sufficiently 
repaid for all the trouble he has had. No trouble in 
saving or looking after a swarm ;—no going off again, and 
days’ time lost, and not so numerous a collection of hives, 
because each stock will be so much stronger than an 
ordinary cottage hive. This must be the first step, and 
should success attend it, books on the subject will be 
read, new plans talked over, in order to find a more 
improved way beyond this our first step in improved 
Bee-keeping.—G, C. 
Aromatics.—As ‘ Oriental,’’ at p. 609, seems to doubt 
the power of aromatics—as stated at p. 559, I would 
beg leave to inform him, that a friend writing to me from 
Ceylon states, that when four miles off the shore of 
Columbo,the odour of the Cinnamon was perceived by all 
on board; the wind at the time blowing off the land.—4. G. 
Magnolia fuscata.—I shall be glad to know if any of 
your correspondents have ever observed if the scent of 
the flowers of the Magnolia fuscata possesses any 
attraction for blackbirds and thrushes. We have hada 
fie plant in bloom all the summer in our conservatory, 
and some time ago I was much surprised, upon going to 
shut the house up, to find several very large panes of glass 
broken, and could find no means of accounting for it. 
They were repaired, and, to my chagrin, I found the same 
repeated a few days afterwards; but in this instance the 
cause was apparent, for a blackbird, which had been killed 
by the violence of the concussion, lay dead amongst the 
fragments of glass. In order to prevent such an occur- 
rence in future, “I fastened a net over the windows 
necessary to be opened, and this proved sufficient for some 
time, but yesterday I found that a thrush had effected an 
entrance, and it could only have been through a broken 
mesh in one corner of the net, as that was the onl: 
aperture I could find, through which a bird of its size 
could enter. Until then, the thought did not strike me 
that it might possibly be the scent of the above plant 
(smelling, as it does, like a very rich 
between a Melon and Pine Apple,) that caused their 
pertinacity in entering, and that they had mistaken it 
for that of fruit. Ido not like to discard the plant on 
such a supposition, which, after all, may be only thought 
a ridiculous one; therefore I shall feel obliged by 
information thereon.—Jno. Cow, Thame Park. 
Disease in Pansies.—I agree with ‘‘R. L.’’ that the 
rotting of Pansies is not occasioned by any 
many growers are of opinion that the Millipedes (Juli) are 
the cause, I shallendeavour to prove that such is not the 
fact. Let a large plant, just beginning to flag, be 
carefully taken up, and the roots washed ; on examina- 
tion, the disease will be found to have commenced in one 
of the principal roots, and to have extended thence 
upwards to the main stem. The affected part will be 
brown and decayed, particularly where it was first diseased, 
and if it has been some time in that condition, the small 
fibres will have quite rotted away. If this root be traced 
to the main stem, those roots proceeding from the stem 
nearest to it will be found to be infected, the disease in 
this case extending downwards. In no instance in which I 
have taken up a plant which has just begun to droop 
have I ever found one of the Millipedes, although, on the 
contrary, there will be numbers if the plant has been long 
affected. These insects, as I believe, only attack decayed 
matter, and never, to my knowledge, undecayed. In this 
opinion I am borne out by your correspondent, 
‘Ruricola,” see vol i., p. and i 
would be interesting to many of the readers of the 
Chronicle, and would oblige your humble servant,—Peter 
Mackenzie. 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
DO 
sent month. The 
opinion, and judged according to the subjoined forms :— 
96, 
of what he there states, I lately saw Julus 
with a small in its mouth, am 
assign the cause of this sudden decay, but as some soils 
and localities are more subject to it than others, I will 
give my observations upon it. TI have always found 
Pansies grown in soil which has been longest in cultiva- 
tion, and therefore containing the greater quantity of 
humus, to be most liable to it; while, on the contrary, 
fresh loam, rather stiff than otherwise, is the best suited 
to them. The real secret, however, I think, for the 
healthy growth of Pansies, is good air, as smoke and the 
vicinity of a town are most prejudicial to them. This is 
the conclusion at which I have arrived, from an examina- 
tion of most of the metropolitan nurseries, as well as those 
in the country. In tion with what ded 
in vol. i., p. 147, I beg to state that I now much prefer a 
dry airy situation to a moist one ; and instead of shading 
plants, whether for exhibition or not, I think it more 
advisable to keep them as open to the light as possible, from 
their tendency to draw. When seed is sown, the sowing 
should never be delayed beyond the autumn, as it makes 
agreat difference in the quality of the seedlings, and 
these should always be transplanted, to check their too 
luxuriant growth.—An Amateur. 
Hydraulic Cement.—Y our correspondent, ‘J. B. dalaee 
in last week’s Chronicle, asks if Asphalte will answer 
better than Roman Cement for Tanks, &c.,—I reply, the 
former material is wholly unsuitable for upright walls or 
any description of water-work. Roman cement, if pro- 
perly used, will uniformly succeed; it is applied to a 
great extent in the reservoirs of water and of gas com- 
panies, as well as in docks, &c. The material should not 
be used too late in the year; the frost will never affect it 
if the work has had time to dry. In the formation of a 
tank, the walls should be built with cement and sand, 
but the inside stuccoed with cement alone, the bricks 
being first well wetted. If ‘J. B. H.” will adopt these 
precautions, he will not incur further failure.— Wine Elms. 
W heat-sowing.—In the review of Davis’s tract on the 
“Injury and Waste of Corn from the present practice of 
too thick Sowing,”’ it is stated that different opinions are 
held respecting the tillering of Wheat, some maintaining 
that it should be allowed to tiller, others that it should 
not. Without entering at all upon the question, I would 
simply ask if the cause of the tillering of Wheat is 
ascertained by Agriculturists of the present day? for I 
find that various opinions were entertained respecting it 
by farmers forty or fifty years ago. According to 
Naismith, in his “ Elements of Agriculture,” published in 
1807, ‘‘ Tillering depends much on the expansion of the 
soil properly repressed.” Dr. Cullen, again, in 1768, gives 
it as his opinion, that tillering is promoted by resisting 
the progress of vegetation in the roots, by the {adhesion 
of the soil, and by cropping the leaves. In more recent 
times, it appears to be the opinion of others that it 
proceeds from a certain property belonging to the plant. 
In the description of the variety of Wheat called “‘ Mongas- 
wells’? we are informed that it tillers well, and again, in 
the Gregarian variety we are told that it tillers sparingly. 
Perhaps the opinion of Vegetable Physiologists of the 
present day respecting the cause of the tillering of Wheat 
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Zealand Horticultural Society. — This was the first 
Society. 
thronged 
could not 
J 
lities of the district of Port Nicholson will amply reward the ex- 
ertions of the Colonists. Where all was so good i 
almost invidious to particularize; and, in many instances, the 
disappointed competitor could scarcely regret failure in a contes' 
with so many opponents, when the claims were so nearly 
balanced. We cused, however, in referring to the 
merits e oO successful competitors were vel nearly 
balanced. In the class of Flowers many interesting specimens 
i hich extra 
petitors, 
i t be lost sight of. Some of Ut 
gratifying circumstance must not be ig! Lol eon aot 
best specimens of flowers and ‘yegetables were 
