36 General Notices. 



The Companion to the Almannclc ; or Year Book of general Information for 1840. 



Sm. 8vo, pp. 263. London, 1839. 



These volumes possess their usual value as almanacks, though the Com- 

 panion contains rather less than it did last year of matter which can be 

 rendered directly available to the gardener as such. There is, as usual, an 

 excellent article on metropolitan improvements, and on the churches and other 

 public buildings erecting in different parts of the country. Next year, we hope 

 this article will contain some account of the public gardens or arboretums 

 forming in different parts of the country, as at Leeds, Bath, Newcastle, Edin- 

 burgh, Derby, &c. ; and by that time, also, we hope the garden in the Inner 

 Circle, Regent's Park, will have made some progress. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



. Art. L General Notices. 



The Peach and tlie Nectarine the same Species. — Dec. 1. 1835. Planted 

 twenty stones of peaches, which had been kept in sand since August last. 

 Sept. 1839. These stones came up the following summer ; one of the trees 

 bore fruit in 1838, and proved to be a nectarine of excellent flavour; another 

 tree fruited this year (1839), and is also a nectarine (free stone) of excellent 

 quality; proving the correctness of your opinion, " that the peach and nec- 

 tarine are essentially the same species." Query ? As far as this goes, is it not 

 evidence that the smooth-skinned peach, or nectarine, is the more original ? — 

 T, C. Broiun. Farther Barton, near Cirencester, July, 1838. 



Superiority of Mr. Hoare's System of pruning the Vine. — Three years since, 

 I transplanted a vine of several years' growth, preserving the roots as long and 

 uninjured as possible, against the wall of a barn in a southern aspect. The 

 ground was previously trenched to the depth of 2 ft., the bottom being dry, 

 and the soil calcareous. This vine was managed according to the plan recom- 

 mended by Mr. Hoare ; two shoots being left last autumn for bearers, and two 

 cut down for new wood. This spring, the two shoots, each having twelve 

 buds, with the buds on the stools, and one or two pushed from the old stem, 

 produced 152 bunches, most of them very large. Six other vines, managed 

 on tlie same plan, were full of promise, and no instance of failure occurred. 

 This success, coupled with the simplicity of Mr. Hoare's system of pruning, 

 strongly recommend it for adoption. If generally followed, grapes would be 

 as common in England as gooseberries and currants; would that we were 

 equally sure of ripening them ! — Id. 



A Device for serving the Bees of any Hive with Food luhen they need it. — 

 Let the crown of the hive be perforated with a circular opening 2\ in. across. 

 Provide an instrument of the following structure, which can only be made in 

 a finished manner by a turner : — A circular wooden dish, 7| in. across, 2iin. 

 in external height, and If in. in internal depth; its floor perforated in the 

 centre by a cyUndrical funnel l^in. in height, as measured from the floor of 

 the basin, and about 2 in. over. The interval between the wall of the dish 

 and the wall of the funnel is to contain the food designed for the bees. A 

 circular board, 6i in. across, not quite f of an inch thick, perforated with 

 numerous holes, arranged in four concentric circles, and with a large hole in 

 its centre, 2| in. across, which admits the funnel through it, is provided to 

 float on this food. A lid, 6f in. across, f or more of an inch in thickness, and 

 furnished in its central part with a circular pane of glass, about 3^ in. across, 

 covers the funnel, float, and food, and is received into a ledge, made about 

 ■I of an inch deep on the inner edge of the top of the wall of the dish. In 

 applying the instrument, the base of the funnel is placed over the opening in 

 the top of the hive. The bees pass up the funnel, whose height allows them 

 free passage between the top of it and the lid : they descend to the surface of 

 the floating board, and take their food through the holes perforated in it. The 

 glass in the lid allows the person who has the care of the bees to see when 



