Retrospective Criticism, 181 



orange is nothing more than a variety of the common orange, derived from 

 a tree accidentally planted in earth abounding in oxide of iron, which in a 

 part of the island is not uncommon ; and the same being afterwards propa- 

 gated by grafting, served to preserve the variety of the species, while it has 

 not the power to change its nature." It would be well to publish this. 



The general prevalence of the error into which I was led, may be known 

 from a fact mentioned to me by my correspondent, the American consul, 

 Wm. Winthrop Andrews ; " that, in three publications which recently came 

 under his observation, two in Italian and one in English, the authors have 

 entertained the same opinion on the subject in question, the origin of which 

 is now cleai'ly ascertained." 



Sir James E. Smith says, in a note in the Linncean Correspondence, vol. ii. 

 p. 454., that " Chionanthus virglnicus is successfully grafted upon the com- 

 mon ash, a tree of the same natural order, but not of the same genus; and 

 in the Courier Agricole, Paris, 1839,. I find the following facts: — " M. 

 Gabriel Simon, nurseryman at Metz, is said to have succeeded in grafting the 

 chestnut on the oak. M. D'Hombre Tiermas, Member of the Acad^iiy of 

 Gardening, publishes in the Bulletin of the Free Society of Nivies, that he, 

 some years since, grafted the chestnut on the cork-oak tree; and that, more than 

 100 years ago, his maternal great-grandfather grafted upon a number of oaks 

 a variety of chestnuts on his property of Lauvage. Three of these oaks still 

 remain, which he shows to visiters ; and, what is more remarkable, the grafts 

 having been inserted high up the tree, the trunks push out branches of the 

 oak, whilst the higher branches of the tree yield chestnuts of the kind called 

 Pellegrines. The address of the Courier Agticole is, M. Cassin, Rue Tar- 

 rane, No. 12. Post paid. — J. M, Philadelphia, Aug. 19. 1839. 



Large Trees. — Two pine trees were recently cut down in the state of Maine. 

 The Portland Advertiser says that one of them, at Liberty, measured 7 ft. 

 diameter at the stump ; it had three branches, and 10,610 ft. of square-edged 

 boards were made from it. The other was cut for a canal at Norrigewock, 

 and was 154 ft. long, and measured 4^ ft. diameter. (^Gazette of the United 

 States of Philadelphia, Oct. 30. 1839.) 



The Calling of the Queen Bee. — I am gratified to find j'our correspondent, 

 Mr. Wighton, satisfied with my explanation respecting the calling of the bee 

 queen during the swarming season. And, as I take it for granted that he is 

 really desirous of profiting by the experience of others, I readily offer him the 

 benefit of mine in respect to his remaining doubts and opinions in other points 

 of bee science; and, when I take the liberty of putting him right where my 

 experience leads me to think him in error, I hope he will do me the justice to 

 believe that I do so from no wish to disparage what he calls his " scanty 

 apiarian knowledge," or make an unseemly boast of my " more learned ex- 

 perience ; " but simply to contribute my mite in " establishing a clearer under- 

 standing of the points" under discussion. 



The first sentence which 1 have to notice is one in which Mr. Wighton takes 

 credit to himself for the discovery of a fact which even Huber had overlooked. 

 '* In an article," he says, " on the calling of queea bees, I stated my inability 

 to account for their silence before the first swarm, except upon the supposition 

 that the old queen went off with it eight or ten minutes (? days) before her 

 successors left their cells. This having been ascertained to be the case, the 

 silence is so easily accounted for, that it appears strttnge the inference should 

 have been overlooked by the most able apiarians, especially Huber," &c. My 

 explanation may probably satisfy him that the prince of bee-masters is charge- 

 able with no such oversight. Huber knew too well how the fact stood, to 

 express any surprise or doubt at the silence of the old queen. He knew that 

 a queen mother is never prevented by the bees from destroying the virgin 

 queens, if she is so disposed. Now, as the cause of piping, or calling, as I 

 have already shown, is the rage of the virgin successor of the old queen on 

 being prevented from destroying her juniors, Mr. Wighton will at once see 

 that the silence is satisfactorily accounted for. The old queen meets with 



