THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



37 



m **>• 



~i n t TVhruarv pl» ce tnem l 



to 75 



in a 

 and 



B bcr pn ™ •■— V wth shift tnem mh« « - s- 

 lbfy ^ient, remembering the largerjthe pot, the 



f^berpuorfram^in a^.^^-^ them .^ ag ^ 

 » they bej 



.nd wt* gro*» in a r much heat an , 



in any place approaching to 

 70° to 80°. 1 have grown 



largest °p)aot had 600 blossoms 



LX s'pot. As the spring ad- 



... . . 5:^„ t«r, miir.h heat and 



to gro 



They are very 

 w a fine plant 

 than 



*I kMtl r il, Td«T I" removing out of the pits, 

 *~ 5 '"^t be taken not to alio* the sun to .hue on 



_rt ore mu»' r~~ ,. chMge from a damp close 

 g£ for so°>' <^ s > b ' ' e t0 C ' much for them. By the 

 ** » * ^nt°,l ey" 1 come into flower about the middle 

 JK5K b&fromj^three months. 



X FVTOMOLOGY.— No. LIU. 

 T b eeTm-gu.l AFHis.-The Plant-lice are so familiar 

 XHECtM ua pniaree upon the mischief occa- 



^^^^^^ u %r n i how - 



«5 Trent Memoir laid before the Royal Agri- 

 ^1 iety he serious effects produced bv some of 



The 



* ^ upon the Turnip and Cabbage crops. 

 ^Jbefore us is not one of those which blight the fair 

 pCcts of the cultivator ; it merely disfigures the trees, 

 ET it is doubt ul whether it be an inhabitant of this 

 countrv ; as however it affects an English tree, it may have 

 Seaped observation, and as the gall or nest is very 

 remarkable and has never been noticed in any British 

 work, it will prove ah interesting addition to our know- 

 Itdte'of this family of insects. 



In my rambles about Rome I first observed these ex- 

 crescences (fig. 1), and afterwards in the neighbourhood of 

 TiToii, I saw them abundant in hedges leading to Adrian's 

 Villi;' this was about the middle of June, and they were 

 attached to the long young shoots of the Elms. They 

 varied from the size of a Walnut to that of a large Apple, 

 and were produced at the apex of the short lateral twigs, 

 whose growth was thereby checked, the gall being formed 

 tt the expense of the leaves. These excrescences are very 

 light, the external surface is exceedingly uneven, leathery, 

 grtenisii, and not thick ; being hollow, with a consider- 

 able quantity of fluid inside, and containing at that season 

 multitudes of the Aphides. The fluid, which was per- 

 fectly limpid, flowed in great quantities from the galls of 

 the specimens attached to the branches which I cut off, 

 and when the liquid dried it became gummy. 



The only gall which had previously come under my 

 ■otice bearing any resemblance to this in its formation, was 

 thit of the Aphis Bursaria of Linnaeus, which I shall 

 describe and figure in a future Number ; but the Cabbage- 

 leares become distorted and crumpled in a similar way by 

 the operations of the Aphis Brassiere Linn.f There seems 

 to be three species of Aphides which affect the Elm-trees 

 --one induces the leaves to roll up ; another forms a 

 Itaiked gall beneath the leaf; and a third causes large 

 oweicenas to be developed upon the buds. 



ah tuese 



«L »^\?-T ded b ? Linnfeus and Fabricius under 

 ■A . Jri !r I"".'- "' " may be fair 'y P^sumed that these 



mtSmSi °I ■ 7 aryins so sreat, y from one anotber > 



w t»e produetmns of as many varieties of the Aphides. 



We 



!r?l>ew 



(J.KWrao 



to it - ao » selrfe „?o T n A '" iS Gallarum Ulmi -" 

 SLu ,t,pea " to be sto?,r g aS , m the B cnM Cinara i 

 SSl ,re °eep black » 7 a J the ba9e • tue winged 



^"\^*ttZ«l d with , wh , ite <«* 2 >- the 



■PS « ">e base an,l / mP - Sed ° f 8everaI joints, 



«l£i> «*, s ttDP f l d f«™«»« m length to the 



i*™* 11 ' ft.^""^ P*d», <°"»™S an ovate 



***£ l^' ior " "ings m^r' ne ,7 Ure ; the other two 

 £ fcv^'««" leg, 1 "-'-"' With a Subc ° stal 



i inf«:„. . subcostal ner.nr.. »i,. ... * ' 



•fend, 



■"ante ',i rsl sbort wZ!- , g su ' not very long but 



*> oi z y iSo« t te ' . terminated by t-o 



*»U, f 0r * <e ,t> ,e , s are brownish, the 

 ,'J . n "»g tubercle, "' e , WooI1 y ' *e ducts very 

 • °> »W one. £ «J .J legs and antenna short' 



ore e on ^ ,na ' and Powdered al 

 to fit W " WU , n the rudimentary 

 1 '» a lj"o n °r J at the same tl a I e ,° f tbe abdo "en. To 



"ks. o„ r " de ° f *e h>se« i. r °e make the ob J ec t °i«- 



^T5^55«L2i«K re [ h r r ented ? the cut ; 

 01 - Ul .p.4i ^Blithe crossed lines ex- 



*?i!,'"' ,a Paarem;;;T au °ehind, a 



•are 



hibit the natural size when the wings of the female are 

 expanded, and it is presumed that the males are similar, 

 but 1 have not met with that sex. 



This species is allied to Eriosoma, from which it is 

 readily distinguished by the forked nervure in the superior 

 wings, and forms the transition to the genus Cinara,£ 

 but the oval stigma is a character not to be found in that 

 proup or amongst the Aphides. § From its economy I 

 expected to find it closely allied to E. Bursaria ; but it 

 does not belong to the same group, and it makes the 

 nearest approach to a species with a black stigma, which 

 I find flying about Fir-trees in great abundance, and this 

 may prove to be the A. Pini of Fabricius ; but as I am 

 unable to determine this from his vague description and 

 confused synonyms, I have called it C. stigma. Until the 

 Aphides have been more completely investigated by scien- 

 tific men, we must refer the " Elm-tree gall Aphis" to the 

 genus Cinara, in which, with the C. stigma, it will form 

 a section, having a thickened oval costal spot ; from its 

 structure we may also learn that this group ought natu- 

 rally to follow the Eriosomata of Leach, and that the true 

 Aphides should not intervene, as they do in u Curtis's 

 Guide." || The typical Eriosomata were thus characterised 

 by the late Dr. Leach : — " Abdomen without tubercles or 

 horns ; antennae short and filiform ; body tomentose. ,, 

 He adds — 4< The Eriosomata form what are called impro- 

 perly galls on the stalks of trees near their joints, and 

 knobs, which are in fact excrescences caused by the 

 efforts of nature to repair the damage done to the old trees 

 by the perforation of those insects whose bodies are 

 covered with down." As an example of this genus he 

 gives the E. Mali, which is the Aphis lanigera of authors, 

 and the American blight of gardeners. — Iiuricola, 



from swarming, 

 all systems that 



t U. t 54. 





BEES.— No. III. 



(Continued from page 21 .) 



Though Bees can be easily prevented 

 yet it is not profitable to do so : indeed 

 prevent swarming are bad and uneconomical. The systems 

 of Dr. Bevan and Mr. Nutt ought to be eschewed by all 

 means. Generally speaking, two swarms ought to be 

 taken from almost every stock-hive every year. In an 

 extraordinarily rainy year it may be injudicious to take a 

 swarm at all, particularly from those that were very weak 

 in the spring months. The period of the year at which 

 swarming should be prevented will vary according to the 

 season and locality. In Middlesex, for instance, hives 

 cease to increase in weight about the beginning of Sep- 

 tember. Where this is the case no first swarms (whether 

 virgin or not) should be taken later than the middle of July. 



Swarming is prevented by augmenting the hives, aod 

 the most profitable modes of doing it shall be noticed 

 by and by. At present I would chiefly direct attention to 

 the artificial system of swarming, which supersedes the 

 natural system. It is thus accomplished: — Blow a little 

 smoke from a bit of fustian or corduroy rolled up in the 

 form of a candle (which ought to be used in handling 

 u: — ^ ;„f^ n>A l-,iv«». nlace. it on the cround inverted. » 



few yards from the stool — put an empty hive on it, and 

 fasten a cloth round about the hives to keep in the Bees : 

 the hive prepared to receive the swarm must now be 

 placed on the board whence the stock was taken : then 

 drum or rap with open hands on the bottom hive for the 

 space of 8 or 10 minutes — untie the cloth, take off the 

 upper hive, and put its crown on the ground. Spread 

 the cloth over the combs of the old hive, and now look 

 amongst the Bees which are thus drummed up forthe queen. 

 As soon as you see her, give the hive a violent shake, and 

 tumble the swarm into the struck hive, in the same way 

 in which you would put Peas out of one basket into 

 another. If too many Bees are drummed up, put the 

 queen into the struck hive with a spoon, or your hand, in 

 order that she may not be amongst those that are returned 

 to the stock-hives. So many Bees as will barely cover the 

 combs ought to be left. Place the colony a yard to the 

 right — the stock a yard to the left of the old stool. You 

 need not be afraid that the Bees will not hatch queens, 

 and that it requires a greater degree of practical adroit- 

 ness to accomplish this than you possess. All that is 

 necessary is a willing mind. This system has, for more 

 than 30 years, been adopted in one of the largest and most 

 profitably managed Apiaries in the British Empire. It is 

 impossible to form an adequate conception of the advantage 

 of the artificial over the natural system. When the arti- 

 ficial system is adopted, no swarms are lost ; Bees are 

 prevented from clustering and mispending their time out- 

 side, attendance is rendered unnecessary, more second 

 swarms are obtained, and the honey may be taken from 

 the stock on the 21st day from the time the first swarm was 

 taken off, without either Bees or brood being destroyed. 

 * While I would recommend this system of artificial swarm- 

 ing, I would condemn that system which Dr. Bevan has 

 recommended at p. 157 of M The Honey-Bee." His system 

 is the following : — M Towards noon of a fine day, or almost 

 at any time, if the Bees cluster out much, let a stock-hive 

 be removed to a distance, and a spare hive or box be put 

 in its place, to one bar of which is attached a comb con- 

 taining workers' eggs, or very young larvae of the same sex ; 

 the outliers, or the Bees that are abroad, or both, as the 

 case may be, will then enter the new habitation, cluster 

 round the brood, construct one or more royal cells, inclose 

 one or more eggs, and raise a young sovereign; and thus, 

 if the season be favourable, form a flourishing stock." I 

 doubt very much whether this can be accomplished ; for the 

 Bees, if thus dealt with, would raise two or more sovereigns 

 or princesses, and with one thereof send off a colony on the 

 18th day after the eggs were set — that is, on the 4th day 

 after the princesses are matured. In some cases a swarm 



{ Cuxtis's Brit. Ent., fol. and pi. 57«. S /*•, to\. and pi. 5/7. 



| Vide Genera, 10-.6 and 1047- 



may not issue, but even then it would not " form a flourish- 

 ing stock," for the combs constructed under these circum- 

 stances would consist chiefly of drone-cells, the Bees being 

 apt to construct this sort when they have one or more 

 queens in embryo. In taking off second swarms a little 

 caution is necessary, for if the queens should be matured 

 they will burst out of their cells as soon as you begin to 

 rap, and it may happen that all of them go with the swarm ; 

 but by taking a swarm off as soon as one queen only is 

 matured, attendance becomes unnecessary, and the queens 

 take the drone, and consequently commence to lay two 

 days sooner. 



Some Apiarians think that it is not profitable to take 

 second swarms, but all who keep their Bees in large 

 hives think differently. When you come to know 

 that, if Bees are kept in large hives, every family, in fair 

 weather, before the first swarm is taken off, gathers from 

 two to five pounds of honey every day, you w ill say with 

 me that artificial swarming is, in a pecuniary point of 

 view, the greatest invention that can be found in the 

 annals of Bee-history ; and that it is extreme folly to allow 

 Bees to cluster and squander their time about the door of 

 the hive. Lady Apiarians who are unable to take off swarms 

 would do well to employ some person who is able to do 

 so for them, though he charged half- a-crown for the taking 

 off of every first swarm. 



Second swarms do not leave the hive from want of room ; 

 and fortius reason, augmenting the hives will not prevent 

 their coming off. Cutting out all the princesses but one 

 (when they are in their cells) will prevent a second or 

 third swarm from being thrown, but this cannot be accom- 

 plished in every hive. To be sure, throwing a swarm of 

 this sort back will cause it not to issue again, at least in 

 99 cases out of 100. But about the second or third week 

 of July, which is the time to prevent swarming, there are 

 plenty of queens ready, or nearly ready, to burst out of 

 their cells, either in your own or your neighbour's hives. 

 Well, then, whenever you take off a first swarm, about 

 the middle of July or earlier, if you do not want a second 

 swarm, cut out of another hive a cell that contains a queen, 

 and put it in the hive whence the swarm was taken. If the 

 queen be matured, take off the lid of the cell and let her run 

 into the hive ; but if she is not fully ripe turn up the hive 

 and fix the cell between two combs. This is an item in 

 Bee-management of first-rate importance, for the queen, 

 thus introduced, will soon begin to lay; whereas, if the Bees 

 had been allowed to rear a queen, there could not have been 

 any eggs laid sooner than the 24th day from the time the 

 swarm was taken off. If stock-hives are about 401bs 

 weight when the first swarms are taken off, it is advisable 

 to let the Bees rear queens, in order to obtain the honey 

 before the young queens commence to lay. The Bees of 

 stocks are put into second-swarm size hives, and are 

 termed " turn outs." Sometimes the stocks are kept in 

 a garret, or in some out-of-the-way place without Bees till 

 September, when they are brought to the Apiary and_far- 

 nislieJ TYii.Ii Sees. — A. t-eingreic, trroinam rark, Mid* 



{To be continued.) 



dlesex. 



Home Correspondence. 



Pseud-Acacia. — I saw in the Chronicle, lately, a com- 

 munication from Mr. P. J. Selby, respecting the Pseud- 

 Acacia, and as I was some years ago interested in ship- 

 ping I paid much attention to the qualities of the timber 

 of which vessels were constructed ; it was at that time the 

 highest recommendation of an American vessel to be built 

 of " live Oak, Locust, and Cedar." The late Mr. Cob- 

 belt, who was so energetic in his recommendation of the 

 culture of the above tree, was perhaps not aware of a fact 

 well known to many of the ship-builders of New York, 

 viz., that the durable properties of the timber depend 

 very much on the soil and situation where it is grown; and 

 his experience of it was probably derived from his resi- 

 dence on Long Inland, a great part of which is well adapted 

 to produce the qualifications which he attributes to it. 

 The situation best calculated to give to this timber the 

 property [of durability is the vicinity of the sea, and I 

 believe that Locust timber, grown out of the range of the 

 immediate influence of the sea-breezes, will not have the 

 property of durability in the perfection described by Mr. 

 Cobbett. The size to which it attains, and the rapidity of 

 its growth under favourable circumstances, (probably of a 

 rich alluvial soil), I do not think was more exaggerated 

 than was usual in the writings of the above author, who 

 was noted for taking a sanguine view of every subject and 

 for writing in a strong nervous style; and to its durability 

 I can bear testimony, from experience of the state of tree- 

 nails (wooden bolts) which had been upwards of 20 years 

 in a vessel, and which were so sound as to admit of bein°j 

 backed out by means of an iron drift bolt when tbe vessel 

 was brought under repair. From the straightness of its 

 growth in the lengths" (15 inches to 3 feet) generally used 

 for treenails, and from its property of splitting truer to a 

 size than most other woods, coupled with its durability, it 

 is a favourite fastening for vessels. The Acacia or the 

 Locust is not singular in its fondness for the neighbour- 

 hood of the sea. The Live Oak, it is well known, flourishes 

 best — nay, it is seldom seen of any size elsewhere — on 

 the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, and more espe- 

 cially on the small islands which are so numerous along 

 the coast between certain latitudes ; in fact, wherever the 

 44 Sea Island Cotton" flourishes, the Live Oak is in tbe 

 greatest perfection. — Acacia. 



Orchidaceous Plants.— At p. 7 of the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle M D. B." states in the Calendar of Operations, 

 that Orchidaceous plants " need not be watered or en- 

 ticed to grow for a long time.." I should like to know 

 how long he means. It is not only a duty incumbent on 

 every gardener to study, as it were, the nature of his 

 plants, but also to become -quainted with the changes of 



