162 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ August 18, 1881. 
necessary to provide a large quantity of Ageratums, Alternantkeras, 
Alyssums, Mesembryantheinums, Lobelias, Petunias, or Verbenas, 
nor of Coleuses, Iresines, Ac., as these are best propagated in spring, 
so that a few pots or pans of these for stock are all that are required. 
Roses promise to be abundant and fine this autumn, and the trees 
should be well syringed if dry weather prevail, also supplying liquid 
manure. If aphides attack them a prompt application of tobacco 
water will be needed, and if mildew appear dust whilst damp with 
sulphur and wash it off in a few days. Climbing Roses, such as 
Mardchal Niel, Cloth of Gold, and others, should have all the old 
flower-bearing wood cut out, and sufficient medium-size young 
shoots laid in to replace them for next season. All climbing Roses 
flower much better treated in this way than when spurred or pruned 
closely in, which only induces strong growth. Phloxes continue fine j 
especially where planted in deep moist rich soil, which with liberal 
watering induces large heads of bloom. Choice varieties may now 
be increased by cuttings or division, and the propagation of such 
Primroses, Polyanthuses, border Auriculas, Daisies, Myosotises, and 
Gentians may readily be effected in the same way. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
White Roman Hyacinth .—In order to have this useful plant in 
flower by early November the bulbs should be potted at once, three 
or four in a 5-inch pot, and five or seven in a 6-inch pan, leaving a 
space of about an inch between the bulbs. Employ good loam with 
a fourth of well-decayed manure or leaf soil and a little sand, firming 
the soil well around and over the bulbs, just leaving their necks clear. 
Stand the pots on ashes in a cold frame, and cover the pots with the 
same material. The lights need only be used for throwing off heavy 
rains. By the beginning of October the bulbs will be well rooted, 
and should be removed from the ashes and placed on shelves in a 
house with a temperature of 50° artificially, and when the spikes are 
appearing they may be further accelerated by placing them near the 
glass in a house where a temperature of 55° to 65° by artificial means 
is secured. Double Roman and Paper White Narcissuses require 
similar treatment, and are equally desirable where fragrant flowers 
are required for cutting or conservatory decoration. 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HONEY BEE NOT 
EXCEPTIONAL. 
We bee-keepers as we watch and study the little insect that has 
given to so many of us so much delight, are in no little danger of 
coming to believe that we are contemplating the very master¬ 
piece of Nature, and that we have before us a concentration of 
wisdom and of wonder for which we should look elsewhere in 
vain. It has by example almost become a fashion to tell us, as a 
modern manual does in reference to the production of queens, 
that we have here a fact “ which has no parallel in natural 
history,” but a broader view will show 7 that not only is this untrue, 
but that quite as surprising and unlooked-for methods of sexual 
differentiation not unfrequently occur. And should not the fact 
that the things which at first we think little we afterwards discover 
to be great, and that the more we study the more w 7 e find there is 
to learn, rather prove to us the unwisdom of supposing we had 
unfolded the greatest of all wonders, teaching us that as yet we 
only discern few marvels where there are many, and that did we 
know Nature as she is we should see neither less nor greater, but 
fulness of beauty everywhere, the exponent of a wisdom past 
finding out ? Already, indeed, we get glimmerings that this will 
be the goal of science, for she has been lately opening up to us 
that not only have animals and plants their wonders, but that the 
very atoms of the universe are miracles of form and force alike. 
It is now well known by all observant bee-keepers that the 
eggs which produce drones are unimpregnated, and in these days 
of the microscope an explanation of the manner in which this 
fact can be ocularly verified may be interesting to many of the 
readers of the Journal of Horticulture. I am induced to look at 
this matter in consequence of some remarks made by Mr. Petti¬ 
grew in drawing attention to the theories of Berlepsch and 
Dzierzon, which in their main lines are too well established to be 
questioned. 
Although there are strong physiological grounds for supposing 
that the capacity for pain in insects is at most exceedingly small, 
I would be the last to suggest any experiment which could offend 
the sensibilities of any, and so state that our surplus queen to be 
examined is at once put to the quickest death—at which all sensi¬ 
bility must cease—by cutting off the head with a pair of fine 
scissors. The subsequent and unconscious movements of the legs 
and bendiDg of the abdomen are but reflex, depending upon the 
nerve irritation which the section has promulgated along the 
nerve track, first to the large thoracic ganglia and then onwards 
to the extremities. We have previously prepared for the dis¬ 
section now to be made thus : We take two very wide and shallow 
but perfectly similar pill boxes and place these and their lids, 
the latter removed, in a saucer in an oven along with some bee’s 
wax in order that they may by soaking be waterproofed. We 
now fix one of the lids upside down upon a slip of thin wood or 
glass, 3 inches by 1 inch, to go upon the microscope stage, and 
similarly fix the other lid upon a piece of wood large and heavy 
enough to keep all steady as we work. Let the pill boxes be now 
filled with melted wax to within a good quarter of an inch of 
the top, and place one mouth upwards in the lid already fixed upon 
the heavy wood in order that our work may be firmly held when 
cemented upon the wax, which is now left to cool. The abdomen 
is next separated by scissors from the thorax. A piece of wire is 
made hot, and a little bed of wax in the centre of the box just 
referred to is by its means melted. Upon this the abdomen is 
placed back downwards, and the wire being reheated completes 
the operation of fixing, if necessary, by touching the points of 
contact between the wax and the abdominal plates. Of course 
the heat must be kept from the abdomen itself as much as possible. 
Water now is added to cover the abdomen, and we are ready for 
the operation. The scissors cut through the plates at the sides, 
and by degrees we teaze them off with a pair of needles. We 
find at the part of the abdomen next the thorax two relatively 
large almost pear-shaped bodies, consisting of a multitude of 
parallel tubes (theovigian tubes) in which the eggs are constantly 
undergoing maturation. These pear-shaped bodies (the ovaries) 
each end in a single tube, which by joining its fellow constitutes 
the oviduct, which opens outside the body just under, but as 
we have the abdomen inverted, over the sting. By the side of 
this oviduct and in contact with it is a small pearly white body 
about the size of a millet seed—the spermatheca, the contents of 
which can in minute quantities be discharged into the oviduct 
through a tiny channel (the sperm duct). This should now be 
separated carefully (those who use properly made dissecting 
instruments will have a great advantage) and placed upon a glass 
slip with a drop of water, a cover-glass is added, and it is ex¬ 
amined by the microscope (of course every microscopist will 
understand that the live-box or compressorium will be best). If 
very slight pressure be put upon the glass cover a quarter-inch 
objective (even a good inch) will show countless myriads of sper¬ 
matozoa issuing from the injured sperm duct and covering every¬ 
where the field of view. They are all in rapid twisting dancing 
movement, and cannot be seen for the first time without exciting 
extreme astonishment. Each one in form can be compared to a 
minute eel with a disproportionately large head, while the tail 
(flagellum) lashes from side to side with extraordinary quickness. 
These spermatozoa have been received by the queen from the 
drone, and during the whole of her life they are nourished and 
aerated, and maintain the vitality and power of movement which 
they originally possessed. These last statements admit of ready 
proof, for if a virgin queen be anatomised, as already explained, 
the spermatheca is found of small size, and but partially filled 
with a fluid which has no trace of structure. If, on the other 
hand, the drone be similarly treated the testes upon being crushed 
yield spermatozoa, the fac-similes of those found in the queen 
and in numbers which must reach millions. Let me remark in 
passing that it has been questioned whether drones, the produce 
of fertile workers, are virile, but there can scarcely be a reasonable 
doubt here. I have examined these frequently, and found sper¬ 
matozoa in no distinguishably less numbers in their case than in 
normal drones. 
If a virgin queen lays eggs they are of one kind, producing 
drones only, but a mated queen deposits eggs that may become 
drones or workers or queens. The reason is fully proved. The 
eggs to form drones are not brought into contact with the sperm 
duct. They have mothers but not fathers, and the creature result¬ 
ing is said to be produced parthenogenetically (by or as by a 
virgin). There should be no difficulty in receiving this doctrine, 
of which examples in nature are even common, but of which we 
must speak more presently. The eggs destined to produce workers 
are, however, on the contrary, in the act of deposition brought into 
contact with the sperm duct, spermatozoa are then received, and 
