452 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
readily increase this Asparagus. To propagate it from either of 
the former ways requires a little time before the plants are suffi¬ 
ciently large to divide, and on the other hand young plants do 
not produce seeds until they are a moderate size. When plants 
have become thoroughly established they flower and produce 
seeds freely, which in time ripen and readily germinate. My 
mode of propagating is very simple, and may be described thus. 
I select the cuttings from what may be termed half-ripened shoots, 
removing the small branchlets with a heel about 3 or 4 inches 
long and insert them in cocoa-nut fibre, which I have at the 
bottom of the propagating frame, sprinkle them with water, and 
keep the frame close till they have produced roots, which should 
be within four or five weeks. When rooted they should be placed 
singly in small 60-size pots, employing rich sandy soil for the 
purpose. They will soon advance, and in a short time the first 
sucker-like shoot will be noticed pushing through the soil, which 
developes into a feathery spray, succeeded as the plant grows older 
by stronger shoots. 
Twelve months after the seed is sown, provided the young 
plants have had liberal treatment, neat specimens should be 
obtained suitable for table decoration. With me it has proved a 
very valuable plant for table and indoor decoration, the graceful 
dark green sprays and elegant habit render it much admired. It 
is even a rival for Adiantum cuneatum, for many as are the good 
qualities of that Fern, one of its great failings is that it will not 
last long in a cut state, whilst Asparagus plumosus lasts for a 
considerable time. I have had sprays of it in water for four or 
five weeks, with gas burning in the room every night, and at the 
expiration of that time the sprays were nearly as fresh as when 
first cut. For bouquets it is charming. 
Asparagus plumosus is a native of the Cape, extending north¬ 
wards to Natal, and may be described as a greenhouse plant. It 
thrives well either in a stove or greenhouse, the higher the 
temperature the more rapid and tender the growth ; plants what 
have been grown in a greenhouse are slightly more sturdy than 
the others. When it becomes more popular no doubt some of our 
experimentalists will give it a fair trial to ascertain what value it 
is for bedding purposes. It appears to me to be a plant of rather 
strong constitution, and in the event of our changeable summers 
suiting, we may expect to see it tried outside at least in sub¬ 
tropical gardening.—W. K. 
QUEEN WASPS. 
I AM sorry to have been so hazy as to be misunderstood by 
“ Duckwing.” I asked for his opinion of wasp economy. I 
meant, Will he kindly tell us what he believes to be the natural 
history of the common wasp? I gave a short sketch of it as I 
understand it, but his ideas and mine will not both fit the “ eco¬ 
nomy ” of the common wasp. I am a seeker after truth, and shall 
be grateful to “ Duckwing ” for enlightening me. 
“ Further, “ Duckwing ” begs me to explain this sentence—“I 
must agree with Mr. Taylor that every wasp appearing in spring 
is a fertilised queen, with the additional proviso that the smaller 
queens are probably unfertilised.” I compared, or thought I 
had, the economy of the hive bee and that of the wasp, and taken 
in that way I apprehend it is perfectly intelligible to all who 
have considered bee economy. The queen bee that lays worker 
eggs is a fertilised queen ; the queen bee that lays only drone 
eggs is a queen bee that has either escaped impregnation alto¬ 
gether or it has been deferred too long. I think I am stating this 
position correctly. 1 then mentioned that the smaller queens 
(wasps) were probably unfertilised queens that would become 
layers of drone eggs only, a point noted by M. Perrot, and that in 
this respect they probably resembled the queen bee that had 
escaped impregnation. As regards the bees I believe this is 
strictly accurate. As regards wasps I do not know that it has 
been proved. These smaller queens (wasps) do appear in spring. 
Later on in the autumn the newly-hatched queen wasps fly about 
and pair—say in September and October. These, or a portion of 
them, pass the winter in a dormant state, to appear in the spring 
as the queens—the future founders, as I believe, of the wasp 
colonies. 
What we want to ascertain is this : Are there, say in the early 
part of May, any wasps at all except the queens that have escaped 
the winter frosts ? I firmly believe there are no others whatsoever. 
If this is correct, then it follows that the spring queens flying about 
in the end of April and May are the parents of the worker wasps 
of July and August. Has “Duckwing” ever taken a wasp’s 
nest in, say, February and found living workers either grub or per¬ 
fect in it? Again, is it probable that the warmth of April which 
is equal to the revivifying influence on the dormant queens, should 
be unequal to the same effect on the workers if there are any ? 
Even granting that this might be so, how is it that the worker 
wasps that appear earliest in the spring are so very small ? There 
are no such small ones in the autumn, and no amount of cold 
or want of food can make the large workers of the autumn into 
the small workers of the spring. Personally, I cannot say that I 
have ever seen queen wasps in great numbers in September and 
October, but it must be remembered that in the autumn it is warm 
and the wasp tribe are in the height of activity ; moreover, the 
reasons for the queens being in the air are altogether different 
from the spring—they are not in search of food, but bent on 
pleasure, and therefore far less likely to attract our attention. 
I stated in my last that many other natural coincidences of 
weather have an influence on the number of nests. Rain, cold, &c., 
tend to kill the queens early in the spring. But according even to 
“Duckwing’s” remarks, he allows that Mr. Taylor’s figures 
prove “ more queens fewer nests,” but in this sentence it seems to 
me there is an important word omitted ; it should read, “ more 
queens killed, fewer nests.” Then it seems to me that the year 
when only 408 queens were killed (the queens being possibly 
extra active that year, or Mr. Taylor’s men more inactive in 
catching them), more escaped, and consequently 169 nests were 
found. 
One word more. From careful watching of the last few years I 
am certain that the queens in spring affect certain localities, and 
that these localities are not necessarily the same in fullowing 
years. Further, I am also quite certain that to see them in the 
spring a certain amount of education is necessary. One evening 
last year my man was at bis hunting ground, a Hawthorn hedge 
extending a hundred yards or so; a friend of mine saw him, and, 
curiosity being excited, asked him what he was about. “Catch¬ 
ing queen wasps,” was his reply. “ Oh 1 ” said my friend, “ I 
have seen no wasps at all this year.” “ There,” replied my 
wasp-catcher ; “ stand aside a moment, and I’ll soon show you 
whether there are no wasps this year ; ” and in a minute two or 
three were captured, much to the astonishment of my friend, 
whose eyes were then opened. I mention this simply to show 
that we must not consider the quantity of wasps seen, it is the 
quantity killed we have to consider.—Y. B. A. Z. 
A WEEK IN BELGIUM. 
[THE FIFTH DAY.] 
The railway system of Belgium is very complete, trains running 
frequently between the principal cities and towns. The speed is 
practically the same in both countries, and the carriage accommoda¬ 
tion generally similar, but the cost of travelling is decidedly less there 
than here. An example will show this, and will show also that 
travelling is not so slow as is somewhat generally imagined. The 
distance from Antwerp to Brussels is about thirty miles, the time by 
express forty-five minutes, and the return first-class fare 6 francs, or 
5s. This, however, is somewhat below the average, and it may be 
stated as a rule that second-class fares there are about equal to third- 
class charges at home. The traveller who, for certain reasons, does 
not desire to parade his linguistic attainments has only to name the 
place to which he is going, hold up one, two, or three fingers indi¬ 
cating the “ class,” and he will find the fare printed on the ticket 
which is promptly handed to him. This is very satisfactory, and if 
he cannot count the change he had better stay at home—not that 
there is the slightest fear that he will not receive his just due, but 
the decimal system is so simple that if it cannot be mastered in a day 
or two there must be something wrong with the calculating powers. 
The mixture of silver and nickel coinage may perplex for a moment, 
but the inexperienced traveller soon perceives the difference be¬ 
tween the silver franc and half francs, and the white metal coins 
of the same size representing 10 and 5 centimes. As, however, the 
question of coinage is an important one for travellers it will be 
useful to allude to the subject with some precision. The same system 
is established in Belgium as in France, Italy, Switzerland, and the 
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg—namely, 1 franc = 100 centimes. 
There are gold pieces of forty, twenty, and ten francs. The Belgium 
gold contains 900 parts pure gold per 1000, while the English 
sovereign contains 917. This is the reason why our sovereign is 
worth a little more than 25 francs. The silver coinage comprises 
a few pieces value 20 centimes, but those most generally used are 
quarter-franc, half-franc, one-franc, two-franc, and five-franc pieces. 
There are also the white metal, nickel, coins above referred to, also 
copper pieces of two and one centime. Further, there is much French 
copper in the form of ten and five centimes, which are somewhat like 
our English penny and halfpenny ; and it may also be noted that all 
the French, Italian, and Swiss coins, having the same value as 
Belgian coins, are all current in Belgium ; but the Dutch coinage is 
not current in Belgium, as it is founded on a quite different system— 
namely, 1 gulden or florin divided in 100 cents is worth 2 francs and 
11 centimes. I have only one more remark to add on this question, 
which is this—that as far as my experience goes, the English sovereign 
is current everywhere; so that notwithstanding the “ depression,” 
our credit as a nation remains good. 
