852 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER . 
[ May 1,1884. 
be placed in a cold frame, and in the course of a few days be potted off 
singly into 4-inch pots and kept growing in a cold frame till near the end 
of May, when they should be hardened prior to planting out. 
Salvia patens .—This good old Salvia is perhaps the most effective 
tall-growing and blue-flowered plant we have. The cuttings may yet be 
taken and struck similarly to other softwooded plants. If the stools 
were started late in boxes of soil, they may be divided and treated as 
advised in the case of the Dahlias. The rooted cuttings are most readily 
transplanted from small pots. 
Tuberous-rooted Begonias .—There are few better summer-bedding 
plants than these, and they are gradually becoming popular. Those who 
may wish to give them a trial are advised to purchase a number of dry 
bulbs at once from some respectable nurseryman who makes a speciality 
of them. Dry bulbs just received, or any not started already in the 
possession of our readers, should at once be taken in hand. Pill ordinary 
flat Pelargonium boxes with good soil, nothing being better than sifted 
leaf soil and loam in equal proportions, with a little sand added, and 
dispose the bulbs about 4 inches apart each way and just below the 
surface of the soil. Place them in a cold frame and allow them to grow 
slowly, gradually hardening them off by the end of May. In this manner 
sturdy well-rooted plants can be transplanted with a trowel into a 
necessarily rich border or bed without any check being experienced, and 
will eventually prove superior in every respect to any that may be started 
in small pots, and which are almost certain to become rootbound and 
starved. This year’s seedlings, if transferred from the pans in which they 
were pricked out into boxes of good soil, kept in gentle heat till the 
middle of May, and then gradually hardened off, may prove serviceable ; 
but as a rule they are much stronger and most effective the second year. 
The tops of strong plants started early may yet be rooted in heat, and 
these will form good bulbs for next year’s display. 
Hardening Bedding Plants .—Much of the space in the houses and 
pits will now be wanted for the more tender and quicker-growing kinds ; 
consequently the more hardy, such as Zonal Pelargoniums, Pyrethrums, 
Lobelias, Calceolarias, Gazanias, Violas, and early-struck Verbenas, if 
still in a warm house, should at once be placed in cold frames or pits 
and hardened off. If they have been already partially exposed they 
may be shifted outside, but the change should not be too sudden, and 
some provision in the shape of a temporary framework and mats or 
curtains must be made for protecting the plants both from frosts and 
cold rains and wind. Such delicate plants as Iresines, Coleuses, Alter- 
nantheras, and Heliotropes must still be kept in rather warm quarters, as 
heavy rains and cold weaiher quickly damage them almost beyond 
recovery. Less water should at first be given when any of the above are 
transferred from warm to cooler quarters. 
VARIOUS PHENOMENA CONNECTED WITH 
BEES. 
The present time is perhaps the most interesting to the student 
and thoughtful bee-keeper, especially if his careful attention be 
directed towards the internal economy of the hive and the various 
phenomena found therein, to the activity and energy displayed by 
the bees outside in collecting honey, pollen, water, and propolis, and 
to the equal distribution of bees over honey and pollen-producing 
shrubs and trees. Any person of a reflective turn of mind watching 
this equal distribution of bees over flowers must be surprised. This 
phenomenon I have often tested when the bees were taken to the 
moors. When the first bees were let loose a clump of Thyme would 
immediately attract a certain number, working and gathering with 
a will from its numerous flowers, but it never became "more crowded 
with bees even after the bees of other thirty hives were liberated. 
Nor is this all, a flower that one bee can rob of its nectar and pollen 
is seldom assailed at the same time by more than one bee. On the 
other hand, if flowers yield more than sufficient for one bee, two and 
more are frequently found working together. On the French Poppy, 
for example, which affords an ample morning’s supply of pollen, I 
have observed a dozen bees in one flower at a time ; on the Crocus, 
too, a profuse bearer of pollen, several bees may be observed at 
some time collecting and packing the golden-coloured pollen in large 
pellets. It is worth remarking that it is not at all times when the 
Crocus is in flower that it yields its pollen ; the weather must be 
suitable ere its sheathed anthers containing the pollen open. There 
is another fact in relation to bees working on flowers that do not 
yield their pollen but at particular times. 1 have watched bees work¬ 
ing on flowers for upwards of an hour without getting the slightest 
particle of pollen or honey. When this occurs bees are very liable to 
be lost, and is a warning to bee-keepers not to encourage them to seek 
during gloomy weather. 
. A very common occurrence at this season is finding queen cells 
being advanced, or it may be a premature swarm, which some people 
mistake for a natural one ; or perhaps the old queen is found dead 
outside, and sometimes accompanied by young supernumerary ones. 
The causes of this phenomenon are, the old queen may be effete (but 
often a perfectly healthy young fertile queen is so treated), interven¬ 
ing drone, and ragged combs are the cause ; in short anything that 
interrupts the queen in the regular deposition of her eggs incites the 
young bees to raise queen cells. When such hives produce swarms it 
is seldom they become profitable the current season ; so the better 
plan is to kill the young queens, return the swarm, and join a fertile 
queen to it or a weak stock. If the season and hives are so far 
advanced that drones are likely to be in abundance, a small nucleus 
or two ma 3 T be formed, then these held in reserve may be utilised by 
joining to stocks after the issue of the first swarm. In fact one of the 
most important matters in connection with profitable bee-keeping is 
to have always on hand plenty of young fertilised queens from May 
until September, and the bee-keeper will find it much to his advantage 
if a young queen be placed at the head of every stock yearly. 
My hives are made so that I can have either one or four nuclei in 
each. After the hive swarms and the young queens are piping I 
divide my frames into as many nuclei as is desirable, sometimes as 
many as twelve. If purity of breed or a particular cross is wanted 
they must be removed from the influence of objectionable drones, 
which ought to be at least five miles distant. I think that bee-keepers 
would be looking to their interests if they would study what are the 
best crosses. The best I have found are, first, a pure Cyprian queen 
crossed with an Italian drone, then the two in the next generation 
crossed with Carniolian drones. This year these crosses are far ahead 
of all the other, and last year both stocks and swarms exceeded in 
weight those that did not swarm. This present spring they worked 
at as low a temperature as 42°, of course not on flowers but on peameal. 
While the foregoing notes point to the cause of premature swarm¬ 
ing, I will now explain other phenomena with unsettled swarms and 
queen-encasements which occur, often giving trouble and anxiety to 
the bee-keeper, and very often resulting in the loss of the swarm. 
Unsettled swarms, or swarms that leave the hive after being hived, are 
caused first by a scarcity of meat at swarming time. To prevent this 
is to put the bees into a hive containing a little comb and feed liber¬ 
ally ; a second cause is when the bees have fixed on a place te 
swarm beforehand, such as in a roof, tree, rack, or other crevice, or 
in an empty hive carelessly or wilfully left as a trap. Artificial 
swarming then is the best preventive. A third cause of leaving the 
hive is when stronger bees or an ejected queen from some other hive 
joins the swarm. In either case the bees will not settle, the queens are 
encased, and sometimes both are injured or killed, but often both are 
protected for some days, swarming several times daily during the 
delay and excitement. In such cases both queens should be searched 
for, caged, and the bees well sprinkled with very thin syrup scented 
with a little peppermint, then the desired queen may be joined to 
them. Such accidents occurring to swarms is sufficient for the bee¬ 
keeper to adopt artificial swarming, notwithstanding that what may 
be said in favour of natural swarming. 
In making artificial swarms care should be taken that the old 
queen has not been superseded by a young unfertilised one (as de¬ 
scribed above), because, if so, both stock and swarm are likely to be 
ruined. In all cases of artificial swarming make sure that there are 
plenty of eggs and larvae, and always leave as many bees as will rear 
and hatch these. If honey is scarce feed swarms liberally ; and keep 
in mind, that though flowers are profuse at present, the yield of honey 
may be scanty—in fact, is seldom otherwise at this season. It is 
better to give each stock a few pounds of sugar to keep them ad¬ 
vancing than to allow them to suffer. A little profit must be expected 
this season.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
SYRIAN BEES, LIGURIANS, &c. 
“ K. B. K.,” (page 293), while saying “By all means let us face the 
truth,” takes no pains whatever to do so, but bases his arguments on 
misquotations, and, what is worse, misrepresentations. Let us see. 
He quotes an article on page 132, vol. xx., of the American Bee Journal , 
and in it he would see a certain article is referred to page 38 by Mr. 
Benton, and one on page 500 for 1883 by the same writer. Anyone 
carefully reading these three articles will see that there are three 
distinct races of bees in question—namely, Syrian, Palestine, and 
Cyprian ; and this “ able bee-master ” (Mr. Doolittle) calls the first 
two indiscriminately “ Holy Land,” and cannot tell one race from 
another, or by appearances from Italians ; in fact there is no clear 
evidence that he has ever seen any Syrians or pure bees of either of 
the three races. In his letter on page 500 he gives reasons for doubt¬ 
ing their purity as “ Holy Lands.” Then, “ K. B. K.,” to make matters 
worse, tries to show that some questionable Cyprians are Syrians, and 
talks about their stinging under the influence of smoke. In my letter 
on page 253 I said Syrians must not be smoked. I may say I have tried 
the Palestines, and do not want any more of them, because I cannot 
handle them with any comfort, as they are so fierce. 
I do not care to notice “ K. B. K.” further for trying to face the 
truth is such a truthful way ; but while I am on the subject I will say 
they are very much “ befogged ” in America regarding the pure races 
of bees, editors of bee journals being as bad as anyone. They call 
