July 14, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
43 
gentle bottom heat is essential for young plants, being careful to well 
test the heat before planting. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Greenhouse. —Preparation should be made at once to obtain a stock 
of Zonal Pelargoniums for winter flowering. Plants that were struck 
last autumn or early in spring are the best for thi3 purpose, and 
should at once be placed in 6-inch pots. Employ fibrous loam with a 
sixth of well-decayed manure and a sprinkling of sand, potting firmly, 
and plunge outdoors in ashes in the sun. Pinch out all flower trusses 
as soon as formed, stopping the plants to keep them in form, allowing 
them abundance of water, and be careful not to allow them to root 
into the plunging material. Vesuvius is still one of the best scarlets, 
Charles Smith being also good, with Alonzo, David Thomson, Lizzie 
Brooks, Mrs. Whiteley, Burns, H. M. Pollett, Commander-in-Chief, 
Kleon, Polyphemus, Mrs. Chandler, and John Gibbons, which are all 
shades of scarlet or crimson. Titania, salmon ; Aida, white, suffused 
rosy pink ; Miss Gladstone, Remus, both white with pink centres ; 
Marguerite Ponton, salmon, white margin ; Louisa, Lady Sheffield, 
Sybil Holden, pink or rose shaded purples ; Mrs. Leavers and 
Madonna, rose ; White Vesuvius and White Clipper; and in doubles 
Wonderful, Mr. H. Cannell, Souvenir de Carpeux, General de Galliffet, 
Duchess of Connaught, Guillon Mangilli, and Alba Perfecta are good. 
Encourage Chrysanthemums as soon as the roots have taken to the 
soil with liquid manure at every alternate watering. If the pots are 
three parts plunged it will save watering, but on no account must 
they be allowed to root into the plunging material, and afford the 
plants plenty of room. 
Attend well to Salvias, potting them in good loam with a sixth of 
decayed manure. Plunge in ashes in a sunny sheltered position out 
of doors, and never allow them to want for water, or they will lose 
their lower leaves. Stop the growths to ensure a branched habit. 
Roses in pots for winter forcing may be encouraged to make all the 
growth possible, keeping them plunged in ashes, and with plenty of 
room, mulching the surface of the soil with short manure, and afford 
liquid manure twice a week. They will make much better growth 
on a north border than in the full sun, but they must be moved to a 
sunny position in September to harden the growth. Keep aphides 
under by the application of tobacco water, subduing red spider by 
syringing or promptly applying an insecticide, and dust with flowers 
of sulphur upon the first appearance of mildew, as upon the healthi¬ 
ness of the plants depends their flowering well. Echeveria retusa 
and E. fulgens for winter flowering should be treated liberally for 
the next two months, affording them weak liquid manure. They 
will thrive much better outdoors than under glass. 
Heaths of the early-flowering section that have made good growth 
should be placed outside to thoroughly ripen the wood, and it is 
necessary to observe that those with the softest growth will need a 
longer time outdoors than with shorter and harder growth. In 
removing the general collection of Heaths outdoors it is necessary in 
bright weather to place them at the north side of a wall for a few 
days, for if suddenly exposed to the sun the leaves turn brown. 
When in position out of doors a piece of canvas should be placed on 
the sunny side to prevent the pots becoming hot and destroying the 
roots. Pay strict attention to watering them, as they will need more 
than under glass. Young Heaths making free growth must receive 
attention in stopping and training, keeping the strongest tied out 
horizontally, leaving the weaker upright. The general stock of 
young hardwooded plants will need similar attention. 
Orchids .—Cattleya Mossise and Lselia purpurata starting into 
growth should be repotted, being careful not to damage the eyes. 
Cattleyas that are growing require plenty of moisture to enable them 
to make plump good pseudo-bulbs. Many early-growing plants have 
completed their growth for the season, and must be removed to a 
cooler house where an average temperature of 60° is maintained 
without sun heat. Dendrobiums will frequently make a second 
growth when kept in warm quarters, but the new growth seldom 
becomes properly matured, therefore place the plants when the growth 
is completed in a house less charged with heat and moisture, and 
afford a greater supply of air. They will need to be inured to the 
change before being returned to their former quarters at the end of 
summer. Give weak liquid manure to Calanthes, and keep the 
foliage free from insects by frequent sponging. Thunia alba and 
T. Bensonise come into flower at a time when they are very useful, 
and should be in every collection. They are of easy culture, and require 
when growing the treatment of Calanthe vestita. Syringe plants on 
blocks frequently, especially after hot days. Ventilate the houses about 
seven in the morning, and close about four o’clock. Anoectochili 
when growing and in good health should have plenty of water; those 
grown under handglasses must have the glasses tilted on one side to 
admit air as a safeguard against the plants damping off, and the 
glasses should be removed for a couple of hours every morning. 
Many Odontoglossums and Masdevallias now require potting, par¬ 
ticularly those growing strongly and having filled their pots with 
roots. Keep the temperature in the Odontoglossum house cool, 
syringing and ventilating freely, the bottom ventilators being left 
open all night. 
-A - • "I- Vw-T" ' 
n 
~ r r 1 • I . 1 • 1 • 1 V 1 • i • f • t* 1 • 1 • 1 T 1 * 1 - 1 - 1 »T 9 I • l v! • l -* 1 • r* 1 ' V 1 
HE BEE-KEEPER-1 
ALTERATION OF SEX IN EGGS. 
What more unlikely and wonderful than this 1 What harder 
to believe than the statement of fact that all the eggs of queen 
bees are naturally and originally male, many of which are changed 
and become female in character in passing down the bodies of 
queens? In the history of bees many wonderful points strike 
thoughtful students. One of these is the well-established fact that 
all eggs in their origin are male and convertible into the opposite 
sex. For nearly forty years I believed that all eggs laid by queen 
bees were alike, and convertible by after treatment into queens, 
drones, or workers. By a fair and satisfactory experiment made 
in my own garden I found that this was a mistake ; that the 
notion was altogether wrong ; and that eggs as they fall from 
queens are either male or female and remain unchangeable in that 
respect, but that the eggs which are femalised in character before 
they are laid are convertible into either queens or workers by 
after treatment in their cells. It has been long known that eggs 
meant for workers are twenty-one days in hatching, and which 
may be placed in royal cells by the bees and hatched as queens in 
fourteen days. Though the mystery of this change or transfor¬ 
mation in the cells is great it is not a change of sex, for both 
queens and workers are female, the one perfect or fully developed, 
the other imperfect; but whether the special after treatment is 
applied to eggs in royal cells or to those in worker cells is an 
unsettled question. If the special treatment be given solely to 
royal cells, if the inmates are royally fed, we have some reason 
to believe that the treatment is meant to develope and perfect 
young queens in every respect. If the special treatment is applied 
to the eggs in worker cells it will go so far to prove that it tends 
to dwarf the insects and interferes with their development. The 
whole of this interesting subject is clouded in mystery. Every¬ 
where we have evidence of design and wise arrangement, and see 
cells provided for the cradling of young queens, bees and drones, 
and suitable, too, for acting as reservoirs for honey. In consider¬ 
ing the subject of treatment that the three kinds of bees receive 
in their cells, it should not be forgotten that queens are only 
fourteen days in their cells, bees twenty-one, and drones twenty- 
four. The subject, beset as it is with difficulties, presents a wide 
and interesting field for future investigation, and it is to be hoped 
that some apiarian students will turn their attention to it. 
That “ all eggs in the ovaries of queen bees are naturally and 
originally male, and develope as males when laid without being 
impregnated, but are changed to female if impregnated before 
being laid,” is a statement of Baron Berlepsch, the truth of which 
has been illustrated .and confirmed by extensive experiments and 
well-established facts. Notice first that unmated queens are not 
unfertile, they lay male eggs. Some queens are hatched with defec¬ 
tive wings and cannot fly, and, as queens are mated outside their 
hives, those that cannot fly remain virgin. _ Many queens perfect 
and able to fly remain so by reason of misfortune or inclement 
weather. Many of these queens lay eggs which are capable of 
hatching into drones only. Such queens are drone-breeders. 
Now notice that queens mated in early life are capable of 
laying both male and female eggs. Those who have investigated 
this subject say that in the bodies of queens there are small sacs, 
by name spermatheca, which receive and retain for use the sperm, 
that queens have the power of using it at will, and that all eggs 
touched by it in passing are changed from male to female. This 
