Roots of terrestrial Orchidecc. 425 



for destroying bees, and have tried several schemes to unite 

 them with other hives, but with very little success. 



I am aware that this is at variance with the humane plan of 

 which Mr. Nutt has said so much : but, supposing that he 

 could prevent the swarming, and that his side boxes were filled 

 with honey in the autumn, how does his plan escape the ob- 

 jection of inhumanity ? His hive consists of three boxes standing 

 in a line. If the two outside boxes be taken, and the centre box 

 left to contain all the bees, the boxes taken must be smoked, to 

 enable him to remove the bees. If they are not fed, they will 

 probably be starved to death. So that if the old plan was cruel, 

 it produced, at least, instant death ; whereas Mr. Nutt's system 

 only causes protracted suffering. 



Much objection has been raised against destroying bees, to 

 take their honey ; and various plans have been suggested for 

 taking a part of it without injuring them. The safest way must 

 be to place glasses on the top of the hive ; for the bees will not 

 work in them until the hive is full. The honey in the glasses, 

 too, is always pure. Whatever method is adopted, much honey 

 cannot be obtained in this county (Norfolk), a few places ex- 

 cepted, without injury to the bees ; for, on an average perhaps of 

 four years, they make no more than would suffice to keep them 

 in a healthy condition. On the humane plan, as it is called, a 

 little pure honey may be had, and it is pleasing to watch the 

 bees at work ; but the common straw hive is, after all, the most 

 profitable, with the old plan of destroying the bees. Honey is, 

 however, so little used, and foreign honey is so cheap, that the 

 cottager has, of late years, found little inducement to keep bees. 



Mr. Nutt says that the bees can be got out of the boxes 

 without smoking them. This may be the case, provided they 

 be taken off early in the season, in a warm day, when most of 

 the bees are out. I have effected it under such circumstances, 

 but never when the boxes were full of honey^ and left on till 

 the autumn. 



Cossey HaU Gardens^ Feb. 16. 1838. 



Art. VII. RemarJcs on the Roots of some of the terrestrial Orchidets 

 of Australia, found in the Neighbourhood of the Swan River. By 

 .Tames Drummond, A.L.S., Superintendent of the Government 

 Botanic Garden, Swan River. 



Through the notice which you were kind enough to insert in 

 your Magazine some time ago, I received orders for some seeds 

 and birds, &c., which I shall have ready to send by the first oppor- 

 tunity which offers after Christinas next ; and I purpose sending 

 with them some bulbs of the most beautiful and curious of our 



