1843.] 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
501 
‘* Betimes in the spring, before this Spanish kind begins 
to bud, you must every year prune them close down to the 
stocks, leaving only one eye above it, unless it bee a branch 
of a finger long of new sprouting fora graft;—and, by the 
Way, note, that these come better of grafts than enocula- ; 
tion, or any other way of insition. If they bee not yearly 
pruned thus low to force out new branches, they will be 
but short lived. : 
“The Arabian or Alexandrian Jasmyn prospereth well in 
diverse parts of Italy, where they have had it long. Ttcame 
first from Egypt, and is called by the Arabians Sambach.’ 
(Zo be continued.) 
AMATEUR’S GARDEN.—No. XXIX. 
Amone the plants which now require attention pre- 
Paratory to another season, Pelargoniums, by almost 
Universal consent, claim the first place, for there are few 
Persons who do not admire them, and not many plants 
which are more worthy of admiration. It may be said 
there is little skill required in growing a Pelargonium, 
and this may be true ; but there is some little art required 
to produce them in that style of excellence which is cha- 
racteristic of the plants exhibited at Chiswick and other 
orticultural fétes in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, 
¢W persons in the country can form ‘any idea of the 
Magnificence of the specimens grown by Messrs, Cock, 
Catleugh, Gaines, and others ; and many gardeners of the 
old school would pronounce it impossible to produce them 
atall. Tt must be admitted, also, that although there 
are plenty of gardeners who can produce luxuriant speci- 
mens, we have but few cultivators who can jprocure a 
head of bloom commensurate with the size of the plants. 
" 
The reason of this is, that in our desire to grow large 
and hence prize cultivators never allow their plants to 
become what they term ‘‘ autumn proud,”’ that is, gross 
and luxuriant at that season, but keep them by potting 
them in 
a in a healthy but by no means duauriant growing 
ate. 
8 great quantity of active roots, and the storing up of sap 
m a highly elaborated State, which, being brought into 
#ction by the increased light and heat of spring, is expended 
in the production of flowers instead of branches. For 
this reason it may be laid down as a rule of culture, that 
To apply it to practice— the plants that have done flower- 
ing must be turned out of the house and placed in the fall 
Sun, under a south wall, to ripen their wood previously to 
eing cut down, and it will be well at the same time, if 
Seed is not desired, to remove the whole of the flower 
Stems, but retaining as much of the foliage as possible, 
pee to be, with the branches depending over the side, ang 
nding the greater part of the pot. 
extent, 
isi eek 
Case of 
shoplseed in a shady place until the forwardest young 
Shaken 
and f 
wae} Until they begin to grow again ; after which the 
wh Tost 
ma Subject will be again noticed towards October,—. 
octce Ayres, 
R HOME CORRESPONDENCE. 
endle’s Tanh System.—Prejudice on the part of those 
en, 4 . 4 : 
88ged in Horticultural pursuits respecting new modes of 
h 
onl Provision of artificial climate; but it is not the 
; Y One, 
tlmost eve i for th : 
‘Ty new method have claimed for them far more 
Instead of demonstrating 
have Peculiar adaptation to particular purposes, they 
’ -Y contending against nature’s laws and man’s com- 
ank i! 
gentigdstem, will, I think, feel disposed to include that 
doubt aM in the above number; neither can there be any 
Materia, he superiority of hot water over every other 
Bue im at present employed for maintaining bottom-heat, 
Shoulg Bee beg to state, that lam not quite satisfied that ] 
heat at = as by adopting Mr. R.’s plan, to keep a steady 
ie of the wots of Pine plants, unless aud so itrespec. 
ts ~ , perature of the super ath y 
houge -¥ eVident, in the first place, that the air in a Pine- 
8 e P , 
ie 
When ould receive but very little heat from the tank, 
body of water is once heated, it continues so for a consi- 
derable time.” It is true that Mr. R. proposes to carry 
the flue round the interior of the house, and says that, 
“In cases where the heat from the flue is not sufficient 
to warm the atmosphere of the house, it is better, although 
not absolutely indispensable, to have carried round the 
tank, close by its sides, a two-inch cast-iron pipe, which 
could be joined to the tank with white lead, and caulked 
in the same manner as the flue-pipe.’’ Admitting that by 
such contrivances a given degree of heat might be pro- 
duced around both the roots and leaves of the plants, the 
question arises—how is the heat within the house to be 
varied to meet the changes of the weather, without dis- 
turbing the regularity of the bottom-heat ; seeing that the 
heat of the flue cannot be raised without first raising the 
heat of the water, and the hot-water pipe can, of course, 
receive additional heat only through the tank? And let 
it be remembered, that the time when the roots will be 
subjected to an increase of temperature—namely, the 
middle of winter—is exactly the time when any change 
should, if possible, be avoided. I certainly do think that, 
unless‘an horticulturist can obtain a thorough command 
of heat for the two purposes to which reference has been 
made, independent of each other in their application, Mr. 
R.’s plan can never be made available for horticultural 
purposes to the extent that he anticipates, or anything 
like it. I scarcely need to say that the alteration made 
in it by the Rev. Mr. Huyshe is more objectionable still ; 
and it is, to me, a marvellous thing that Mr. H. should so 
‘‘strongly urge all to adopt it, even if it be for economy’s 
sake alone,’ when that gentleman finds it necessary to 
raise 22 hogsheads of water to a temperature of 115 deg., 
‘‘to keep the house ata temperature of 70 deg. at night,”’ 
in the middle of summer. If the; experiment had been 
made in January instead of June, I question if we should 
have heard of economy as being its chief characteristic, 
Unless, therefore, I have misunderstood Mr. Rendle’s 
treatise, I would still prefer such a plan as Mr. J. Weeks’s, 
by which I could have, from the use of one boiler, any 
amount of top or bottom-heat which I might want—vapour 
in any quantity—a circulation of warm air if required, and 
a perfect control over all.—W”. Sherwood, Gardener to J. 
R. Mills, Esq., Stamford Hill. 
Bees.—Instead of answering my question, ‘“ Apis’’ says, 
—‘ What I gathered from both is little more than is 
related by Huber.”” I do not know what Huber or any 
other author says on the subject, for I have not yet 
perused a book either on the history or management of 
Bees. If Huber makes the thing as plain as we have 
done, why not believe him? Mr. Wighton and ‘* Apis’’ 
find fault with me for mentioning ‘‘a change of the gen- 
der—a thing foreign to the subject, for Working-Bees 
are considered to be Queens in an undeveloped state.’’ It 
is not foreign to the subject, for Working-Bees are evi- 
dently of the neuter gender, and are as fully developed 
(i. e. as perfect) as Queens or Drones. Would your cor- 
respondents be astonished were I to prove that Queens 
lay only one sort of eggs, and that either Queens, Drones, 
or Bees, may be obtained from them at the option of the 
Bee-keeper? Certainly this would astonish them. How 
startling soever it may seem, how doubtful soever my 
friends may be, I, were I worth a thousand pounds, and 
given to betting, would wager it all that I would cause 
the Bees to metamorphose all the eggs that a Queen may 
lay into Drones, exclusively; nay, I would cause them to 
be metamorphosed into Bees in March, and into Drones 
in April, and so on alternately ; and a few into Queens at 
any given time. Mr. W. and « Apis’? must bathe 
their minds in the stream of oblivion, and forget the 
theories of the undeveloped schools. Bee-keepers seem 
to know less of the management than of the history of 
Bees. I shall prove this with two quotations from the 
letters of Mr. W. and ‘ Apis,” who have read many 
authors. The former says, ‘‘ Queens generally perish in 
the virgin swarms.’’ Supposing, but not admitting that 
this is true, I ask, can it not be prevented? Yes, and 
is by all who know the first principles or A B C of Bee 
management. But“ Apis” says, ‘the fact of the 
Queen’s removing repeatedly renders it difficult to find 
out her age.’? When our Apiaries contained 160 hives, 
we knew the age of every Queen. “ Apis’’ says, ‘some 
Queen Bees appear in May ;’’ this is true, but take one 
year with another, one part 6f the island with another, 
we shall find that the greater part of Queens are hatched 
in June and July ; but this is a trifling matter, 
that ‘‘run and squeezed honey are not the same. Per- 
haps ‘ P.’ will explain-this; also how to make Bees fill a 
large hive as soon as a small one.” In Lanarkshire, 
where the 110 lbs were gathered, all honey out of the 
comb is called by the peasantry, run-honey. 
ence is in the act of taking. According to ‘ Apis,”’ 
squeezed honey is that which is made to ran out of the 
comb by the pressure of the hand, previous to its being 
put into a bag; and run-honey is put into the bag without 
being squeezed. The squeezing system is by far the more 
speedy and profitable. On the 3d of May the gardener 
here put a small hive into tmy hand, and requested me to 
go to acertain field and bring a swarm which was hanging 
onatree. In order to prove that large hives are as soon 
filled as small ones, I shall first tell « Apis’’ what I have 
done with this swarm, which was about the size of a tom- 
cat; and secondly, what would have been done had it 
been a large swarm. This small swarm filled a small hive, 
and was ready to throw a swarm on the 19th of June. I 
took off a swarm on the evening of that day, and a second 
swarm on the 30th of the same month, On the 10th 
July, I will drum all the Bees out of the old hive, and obtain 
from it about a pound’s worth of honey. On that day the 
three swarms will be worth 30s. Well, if such hives as I 
recommend were kept by the person who lost the swarm, 
it would have been as large as a shepherd’s dog. This 
large swarm would have filled a hive three-fourths larger, 
and thrown two swarms in the same space of time, and 
about 32 This, then, is plain matter. Some of the 
Apiarians in this vicinity are in ecstacy with artificial 
swarming. I have taken off three swarms lately ; one in 
the space of thirteen, another in fifteen, and another in 
eighteen minutes. An Apiarian from St, Albans, who 
had heard the gardener here describe the utility and sim= 
plicity of the system, exclaimed, as I was going in at the 
garden-door, ‘* Well, I have kept Bees for thirty years, 
and thought I knew something about Bees, but really I 
know nothing. However, a man is never too old to 
learn.”’— 4. Pettigrew, Wrotham Park. 
Wasps.—I have adopted a plan recommended in your 
Wasps to me. 
57 of the above destructive insects.—.4 Subscriber. 
Chronicle, I beg leave to state that there is no exaggera- 
tion in saying that “ the produce of one swarm was 
110 Ibs. of honey, and that the best of our top-swarms 
gathered in the month of August alone 50 lbs. each.’? 
I dare say that they are not more astonished at the 
quantity produced by our Bees, than I would be on seeing 
the small hives that are stuck on posts 18 inches high in 
the environs of London. If attention be paid to. what 
Mr. A. Pettigrew says on artificial swarming, and the 
folly of keeping small hives, it is probable that some of 
your readers wiil make more of their Bees than we'do of 
ours ; for this locality is, I think, sometimes overstocked 
with them. On the 11th of July, I sold for 17s.:a box of 
honey, which I got from one of our top-swarms of this 
year. This swarm weighs now above 50 lbs Onur top- 
swarms are gathering 2 lbs. every day.— William Pet- 
tigrew, Carluke, Lanarkshire-——Y our columns contain 
so much information connected with the habits of Bees that 
I feel induced to ask whether you, or any of your Corres- 
pondents versed in this subject, have ever observed any 
wide diversity in the temper and disposition of these little 
animals. I put the question, being quite a novice myself, 
because my gardener has several times remarked how Spite= 
ful the Bees were in my hives, compared with others which 
he had met with, adding not long ago an assurance that 
we had got a swarm which did not proceed from our own 
Bees, because they were so much better tempered. The 
fact of a swarm from the hive of one of my neighbours 
having settled and been hived in my garden close to the 
other. Bees, I believe to be placed almost beyond doubt ; 
but I own I was somewhat incredulous.as to the alleged 
diversity of temper, so perceptible to others. Painfal 
experience, however, stepped in, to shake my. doubts, and 
perhaps punish my former scepticism, for while convers- 
Ing with my gardener on the very subject, and standing 
quietly at a distance of at least half-a-dozen yards from 
the hives, I was furiously attacked and stung by one of the 
Bees, and nothing but a hasty retreat saved me from un- 
dergoing the same treatment from others of the hive, who 
came buzzing around me. If this difference of temper be 
a Common phenomenon among Bees, itis a most iniport- 
ant point to attend to in the selection and propagation of 
@ stock, to see that they are of a kindly disposition, and 
not like the poets, a ‘ genus irritabile.””— Omicron. 
Cats.—I witnessed an unusual sight a few days sincein 
my garden. A favourite cat of mine was playing with 
what I took to be a mouse; but on a closer inspection, 
Proved to be a Cockchafer, and after amusing himself 
with it for some little time, he devoured the whole of it— 
A Subscriber, 
Wrens.—The principal point of discussion seems to be 
the nature and use of the “ cocks’? or ‘ bachelors’? 
nests, as they are familiarly termed: I have examined 
many, and can discover little or no difference in. the 
external appearance, except, perhaps, a little coarser 
workmanship, the material being the same both in those 
destined to receive the young family and those which are 
not. But look at the interior, and all similitude vanishes ; 
not one particle of anything approaching to the nature of 
a lining can be observed in the ‘ cocks’ nests,” being 
formed of the same materials throughout—moss and the 
finer portions of the dry fronds of the common Fern, if 
the nest be in a bush or affixed to the trunk of a tree; 
and if in the eaves of un outhouse or haystack—straw, 
hay, or a similar material, corresponding as much as pos- 
sible bot in colour and substance with the locality in 
which the nest is placed, with the view, I should suppose, 
of avoiding detection as much as possible. With reference 
to the uses of the ‘cocks’ nests,’”’ I should think, as they 
are generally built in more exposed situations than the 
others, their only object is to draw attention fiom the 
real habitation. The same peculiarity is observablein the 
habits of the Squirrel; for every nest or ‘* trail”? as the 
are sometimes called in which young are deposited, you 
will find them answering pretty much to the nature of the 
“* cocks’ nests’’ of the Wren, the form of the nest, except 
when built in the hollow of ‘a tree, being precisely the 
same, and probably built with the same view. Now, the 
nest in which the eggs of the Wren are deposited con- 
tains a very thick lining of hair, feathers, down, &e., 
leaving only sufficient room for the mother and her tiny 
offspring, and rarely during the time the eggs are being 
deposited do the old birds enter without carrying somes 
thing to add to the warmth of the interior, so that they 
can hardly be said to finish building till the whole of the 
eggs are deposited.—Tyro, 
Botanical. Destruction.—It appears to me that. those 
