210 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[Apri 1, 
Bees of either swarm when the old queen is not taken 
from them. J may state that the Bees cannot produce a 
queen sooner from a grub three days old than from an egg 
one day old. Both are 14 days in the cell after the 
gelatinous substance is added ; and that if the substance 
is not added on or before the fourth day, before the grubs 
are four days old, no queens are produced ; which proves 
that the common or neuter Bees do not—cannot lay eggs. 
I will hereafter point out the great advantages that Bee- 
keepers may derive from a knowledge of the transmut- 
ability of eggs.—A. Pettigrew, Wrotham Park, Barnet. 
——As “Agger” has answered my question, as to 
what is the primary cause of Bees storing up honey, I 
shall, according to promise, make a few remarks on his 
previous communication at p. 129 respecting them. He 
says, “It appears to me that Bee-keepers do not make 
sufficient allowance for their own bad management, when 
the system which they adopt fails of success.” It is true 
that no one has a right to exclaim against a system until he 
has given ita fair trial, but afterwards he is free to do so. 
Iwas, perbaps, amongst the first to find fault with Nutt’s 
system of Bee-keeping ; since then, many other persons 
have done so, and though we occasionally hear and see 
accounts of great produce by this system, how can we al- 
ways put faith in them? For aught we know, such state- 
ments may be made by those interested in the sale of 
Bee-hives. It may be said that lam: suspicious; but when 
doubtful statements appear under fictitious signatures, 
there is room for suspicion. Again, “A.” states, ‘‘ that he 
is not so well pleased with his old straw-hives,’’ because he 
lost a swarm from one of them, “ after his servant and him- 
self hadarunofawmile.”’ This might also haye happened 
with his collateral boxes, although he seems to think 
otherwise, The next and most important part to notice, is 
where ‘A.’’ says, “I think that the Bees, in closing the 
ventilators, really display great sagacity ; they know that 
if the hive is very hot, the Queen-Bee will deposit her 
eggs in the cells, and thus the species will be increased. 
But the propagation of the species is not the object for 
which we keep Bees.” Respecting the “sagacity” of 
Bees, I have, at present, nothing to say. Itis enough to 
mention that they cannot construct their cells, nor rear 
their brood without heat; and experience tells me that 
pretty nearly the same temperature is requisite for both. 
ut supposing that the highest temperature were required 
for the brood, and that the hive were kept cool to prevent 
increase, would more Bees be abroad in consequence of 
it? assuredly not. On the contrary, more would remain 
at home to increase the heat, instead of being amongst 
the flowers collecting honey. As regards ‘‘ the propa- 
gation of the species,” if Bees were long-lived, there 
might be truth in ‘*A.’s” statement; but as they are 
not, if it were not for the great increase which sup- 
plies the places of the dying Bees, a strong hive 
would soon become weak, The increase of Bees adds, 
moreover, to the number collecting honey. 1 wish what 
Ihave said on the last extract to be clearly understood ; 
for upon it Nutt has founded his theory of Bee-keeping. 
I may mention that I differ in opinion from “ Agger,’’ 
respecting the primary cause of Bees storing up honey ; 
ie conceives that it is solely “ to support them in bad or 
cold weather :” though this is the common belief, still 
it may be asked, if we had perpetual summer, would Bees 
neglect to store up honey? it is almost useless to say they 
would not. As Bees in hot climates collect honey during 
the whole year, so they would with us if we had no win- 
ter. Hence I conclude that they have no real instinct, 
or foreknowledge of winter, and that the primary cause 
why Bees store up honey is to enable them to increase 
their species. Iam sorry to say that their increase is 
often weakened by the Bees breaking off (swarming) into 
small communities, at certain times, when there is no 
chance of collecting store for winter. Though this pro- 
pensity does not show much “sagacity’’ in Bees, still it 
favours what I have just stated, viz., that they have no 
instinct, or forethought of winter. I may add, that it isa 
great obstacle to keeping them. Although so much has 
been said about cooling Bee-hives, I may safely state, that 
more injury is done’ to Bees by damp and cold than by 
heat. As the breeding season is arrived, their hives, 
especially weak ones, ought to he kept watm by extra 
covering and feeding. Since the above was written, a 
gentleman who has kept Bees for twenty years informs 
me that he has ‘set Nutt’s boxes aside, and laughs at 
the immense quantity of honey which Nutt says that he 
obtains.”—J. Wighton. 
Bees.—Dr. Bevan begs to inform ‘ M. A. P.” that the 
dislodgment of a family of Bees from a common cottage 
hive, at this season of the year, is an operation which 
would be attended with considerable hazard. He there- 
fore recommends “‘ M. A, P.’’ to postpone it till the 
latter end of summer, when, if the family be populous and 
the hive well filled with combs, it may be readily accom- 
plished by driving, a full description of which is given at 
page 185, of the “ Honey-bee.” Whether a family be 
supered or nadired, the entrance should always be in the 
inferior box or in the floor-board.—Llanferry. 
Toads.—1 am Surprised that Mr. Beaton has never 
seen toads destroying woodlice. That they do kill them, 
when confined in a Cucumber frame, I am certain, be- 
cause I have repeatedly seen them do so in the heat of 
summer.—J, Smee. 
On the Education of Gardeners, No, [In the earlier 
Periods of our history, when extensive combinations of 
individuals were necessary to maintain’ common ‘or pro-~ 
fessional rights, the bond by which large bodies of youth 
particular class; and the apprentices of various kinds con- 
stituted a powerful engine in ‘the hands of enterprising 
Jeaders. Ata later era, the more legitimate object of the 
system was adhered to, and modern exigencies have ex- 
tended it beyond mere mechanical trades to the learned 
professions, and to those engaged in gardening. It is 
difficult to ascertain at what precise period the plan 
of apprenticing gardeners was commenced. ‘The trades- 
men of London are known to have employed appren- 
tices so early as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries ; 
but gardening must have been greatly raised in import- 
ance above the position it occupied at that time, before 
apprenticeship could have been adopted as a mode of in- 
structing its agents : and it is only since horticulture has 
become so widely spread, that the influence of apprentice- 
ships on gardeners has been thought worthy of considera- 
tion. To determine the evils or benefits of any system, it is 
necessary to acquaint ourselves with the ends it is intended 
to answer, and its efficiency in producing the results con- 
templated by its establishment. Horticulture, both as 
a science and an art, is one of the most intricate professions 
which at present exists, and involves a knowledge of a 
greater variety of subjects than almost any other isolated 
occupation. The numerous details of some of these are 
continually chenging, and others cannot be mastered in a 
whole life-time: but the general rudiments on which all 
are based, and to which every minute particular may be 
referred, may, with the ordinary operations needful to be 
understood, be successfully acquired in rather less than 10 
years. A desultory mode of studying any subject is uni- 
versally admitted to be highly injudicious, and caleulated to 
cause failure. Gardening is not exempted from this rule. 
By working in several places, according to circumstances, 
and pursuingthe same ora very remote branch of inquiry in 
each, without passing through the regular routine of labour 
and investigation, the young beginner is completely un- 
fitted for methodical researches, and will never rise to that 
eminence in his profession which he might otherwise have 
attained. Hence will be seen the value of apprenticeships. 
They secure, in the first instance, a qualified teacher, who 
binds himself to use his best endeayours to instruct the 
young man committed to his charge. They next afford a 
guarantee that the moral conduct of the pupil will be 
strictly watched, and that, at a season when he is most 
exposed to danger, and especially susceptible of injurious 
influences, his employer will be attentive to the removal 
of these, and the maintenance of moral habits. An addi- 
tional advantage is gained by the fact that the apprentice 
is placed in each department in the proper order, and that 
he thus has every facility for increasing improvement. 
, Anxious to anticipate all that may be urged against ap- 
prenticeships, we will first deal with the vulgar notion 
that they render the profession too exclusive, and, if gene- 
rally regarded as a passport to distinction, shut out those 
who have not gone through this preliminary stage. We 
entirely disagree with such an opinion. Nothing is more 
to be desired than a clearance from the ranks of gardeners 
of those usually ignorant pretenders who have entered it 
late in life, either from misconduct or vacillation of pur- 
pose, and who very rarely bring anything but discredit and 
disgrace on the majority of the profession. We should be 
sorry to insinuate that there are not some respectable in- 
dividuals of this class; but it is not to be doubted that 
those only who have begun to gather information on its 
different heads at their first starting into the world, when 
the mind is most vigorous and apt to receive impressions, 
can ever hope to excel in an art which requires such long 
and assiduous study. And we ‘are of opinion that both 
the period at which apprenticeship commences, and the 
means of obtaining knowledge to which it leads, are pro- 
ductive of benefits which no other conditions can supply. 
It will perhaps be objected that ‘gardeners seldom per- 
sonally concern themselves with their apprentices’ wel- 
fare, either morally or professionally. On the former of 
these points, it is in the power of every parent to ascer- 
tain beforehand the character of the gatdener’to’'whom he 
confides so serious a trust as the management of his son ; 
and if he neglect this, it is easy to decide where the respon- 
sibility rests. Of the culpability of gardeners in neglecting 
their apprentices we may hereafter have to speak. 
present, we shall observe that too much is sometimes €X- 
pected from them, by considering the youth a passive 
rather than an active agent in his own tuition.— K. 
The Names of Flowers and their Pronunciation.— 
The introduction of many new plants, and the production 
of many varieties by hybridization, have called forth 
much ingenuity in the invention of names. | Even to learn 
all these requires some attention and a retentive memory. 
Moreover, the old-fashioned names, by which, in my 
younger days, I was accustomed to call my flowers, have 
been compelled to give place to more recent appellations. 
Lam quite aw fait at calling my ancient Heartsease Pan- 
sies, and I never think of applying to a Princes” Feather 
a name less than Amaranthus. I have also discovered 
that my Geraniums are no longer such, but Pelargoniums, 
and my Convolvulus major has become an Ipomea. _ 
offer no complaint either against the more correct classi- 
fication of plants or the application of their specific names 5 
but I do wish that they who invent new names, or require 
the use of old ones, would teach our gardeners how to 
pronounce them. Unfortunately, when I was a boy I 
acquired some knowledge of the classics, which I have 
not altogether forgotten. I say unfortunately, because 
my ears are sorely grieved by hearing these names 80 
sadly mangled. ‘Nothing will do but, when’ the accent 
should be on the last syllable but two, (the antepenulti- 
mate,) to place it on the last but one (penultimate) 5 thus, 
your gardener has Tropwdlum, Arbutus, Eutéca, Peri- 
pléca, &c., all wrong ; ‘and when, on the other. hand, the 
accent should be on the penultimate, he Jays it on the 
antepenultimate, giving us E’rica, Cindéthera, likewise 
oe 
wrong, Our fair friends trust for their mode of pronun- 
. 
ciation to the gardener and nurseryman, on the principle 
that he who knows most concerning the flower should 
know best what it is called and how to call it. I once 
advised a lady that, when there were two ways of pro- 
nouncing a name, and her gardener chose one, she should 
choose the other: this, I grant, is rather too sweeping. 
When we see what complications of Greek and Latin are 
called into existence, and how they are forthwith mis- 
spelt, we cannot wonder at their perversion in pronuncia- 
tion. ifad Sheridan survived to this day, Mrs. Malaprop 
would have transferred her “allegory from the banks of the 
Nile” to “ oracular’’ pronunciation in a garden.— Agger. 
[This is far too sweeping a charge. It isvery unfair to 
blame gardeners for not having a classical education ; and 
those who have had that advantage should put them right 
when they are wrong. We will answer for it, gardeners 
would be very glad to be instructed in such matters. 
Besides, it must be recollected that gentlemen themselves 
often make a pretty hash of quantities. Did our corres- 
pondent never hear Arbitus or Anemine in good society ; 
or has he forgotten the magnwm est vectigal parsimonia 
of Burke ?] 
Forcing Roses.—With this you will receive a small box 
of Rose-blooms, which I send to show you in what perfec~ 
tion they may be grown by the cheapest and simplest 
means. They were cut from low standards, worked on the 
Dog Rose (Beaton says, never use the Dog Rose stock for 
forcing,! !), and forced in a pit 20 feet long, by 10 feet 
wide, kept quite close ; under which treatment the foliage 
is well developed. ‘* Prince Albert” is the very best ani 
earliest forcing Rose I know ; plants placed in the forcing- 
pit on the 12th of December were in full bloom on the 
24th of January ; and, as you will observe, the flowers are 
highly fragrant. The pit in which these were grown is 
just high enough to allow one to walk along the centre, 
It is heated by an Arnott stove placed inside ; the fire is 
lighted about seven in the morning, and except in cases of 
sharp frost, is suffered to burn out towards the evening. 
Before being lighted in the morning, water is poured in 
through the rose of a watering-pot, so as to saturate the 
ashes, by which means not a particle of dust escapes. IT 
believe the extreme vigour of my Roses is owing to their 
being kept cool at night. The lighting of the stove in the 
morning is like sun-rise to the plants ; they are syringed 
every morning at nine, and in the evening at four. An 
iron pan of water fits on the top of the stove, and creates 
a genial moisture.—T7. Rivers, jun., Sawbridgeworth, 
March 16. [The blooms received from Mr. Rivers, were 
extremely beautiful, and consisted of the’following kinds’: 
—Princesse Heléne, pale cream colour, very sweet; Pac- 
tolus, like the last, but less sweet, and not so fine a flower. 
Duchesse de Mecklenburg, like Jaune Desprez, and smell~ 
ing more like a Provins Rose ; General Allard, a fine semi- 
double, deep rose colour, very sweet ; Prince Albert, a dark 
rose, resembling the Tuscany, and sweeter than any ; 
Elize Sauvage, a fine white flower, but rather coarse, and 
not sweet; Charles Reybaud, like a pale China, pretty, 
but not very sweet : a nice flower ; Moiré, somewhat flesh- 
coloured, a fine large flower, not very sweet; Bougéri, a 
good flower, of a French pink colour; Nina, something 
like the last, but not so fine a flower. 
Euphorbia jacquinifiora.—The treatment of Euphorbia 
jacquiniflora recommended by Mr. Beaton at p. 160, is, 
Thave no doubt, a good one, where large specimens are 
desired ; but where the houses are small, as in my case, 
Ihave been obliged to adopt the following plan, which 
has answered remarkably well. As soon as the plants 
have done flowering I cut them down to within six or 
eight eyes of the bottom, and keep them rather dry until 
they have made shoots about an inch long, when | shake 
the mould from them and repot them into 32s, the same 
size as they were previously in; I then let them grow 
until they are about two feet high, when I bend down all 
the newly-formed shoots, and tie them to the original 
stem, which causes them to break forth again at the prin- 
cipal bends: not a naked stem is to be seen, but the 
plant is covered with foliage and flower from top to. 
bottom.—H. H. 
Trope'olum tube .—If your correspondent “A. K.” 
is desirous of flowering Tropx’olum tuberosum, he ma 
be tolerably sure of succeeding if he plants the tubers in 
arich, deep, retentive soil, not too much exposed to the 
sun. In my last place, I tried it in every variety of soil 
and situation, in doors and out, and I could only succeed 
in flowering it by the above means. It was planted in 
the border of a south wall, but owing to the proximity of 
shrubberies, backed by a number of Oaks two hundred 
years old, notwithstanding the confined situation, and the 
dampness of the soil, a row of them grew luxuriantly and 
flowered profusely, till cut off by frost. At the same 
time I had others planted in beds, clumps, and isolated 
patches, some more or less exposed, as well as against a 
g00d south wall; all of which plants became only an in~ 
cumbrance, as the whole of them did not show more than 
a-dozen flowers ; while a third lot, in trellis pots in the 
greenhouse, showed no symptoms of flowering at all. 
They should be planted about this time, and provided with 
g0od strong branchy supports, which they will soon cover 
when they begin to grow. Before planting, the ground 
Ought to be well broken to the depth of 18 inches or two 
feet ; from want of this precaution the beauty of many a 
800d flower is lost.—J. Halliday, Lee's Nursery. 
Thawing Plants.—Although agreeing with Mr. Ayres 
a8 to the injury produced on frost-bitten plants by a too 
sudden transition from cold to heat, I doubt whether 
what he recommends has half the virtue ascribed to it; 
and I should be glad to learn whether any of your readers 
have ‘actually determined it by pursuing the system as 
described at p. 84, on a portion of their’ plants, while 
others in ‘similar circumstances were left to themselves. 
