July 6, 1882. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
13 
queens in spring, but probably when we have done all we can in 
that respect enough nests will exist in June to admit of their 
becoming pests if circumstances are favourable. A very simple 
plan for destroying their nests is to pour coal tar in from an old 
watering pot, using a piece of turf to prevent the tar running out 
and being wasted. Many nests may thus be destroyed by one 
man in one evening at a nominal cost.—A n Old Subscriber. 
Like Mr. John Easter, I have no wish to enter into the wasp 
controversy, but the difficulty in my mind was how to keep out of 
it, so much interested have I been in the discussion. I have made 
at least half a dozen attempts to reply to the points raised, but 
the fact is the subject requires so much space and time that I have 
dropped it repeatedly, and a sense of duty only now compels me 
to give a few facts from my own observations. 
I must say that when I read “ Duckwing’S ” article on page 
260 on the “ Popular Fallacy ” about wasps I remarked, “ Then 
according to this theory, if our parents had never existed, we too 
should have been here, and more of us.” 
To my mind it was evident from “ DuCKWING’s ” first letter 
that he knew little about the subject, and every subsequent letter 
has proved it by the confusion of his reasoning, notwithstanding 
his reference to not “ keeping our eyes open.” For one thing, 
however, “ Duckwing ” deserves the thanks of all readers of our 
Journal; he has been the means of bringing out some interesting 
letters from Mr. W. Taylor and “ Y. B. A. Z.” 
Now for a few facts. Jn the spring of 1880 I ventured to call 
attention to the quantity of queen wasps I had killed, and advised 
others to do so if they wished to save their fruit crops. It is 
difficult to calculate the loss in money value of fruit destroyed 
annually by wasps, but it would in all probability amount to 
many thousands of pounds, which is a national loss ; and every 
one of us knows of the individual losses, besides the vexatious dis¬ 
appointment, when we find our fruit, labours, and hopes destroyed 
by these pests. Therefore I hope the reminder before mentioned 
was not inopportune. I followed the wasps up so vigorously 
that very few escaped in this neighbourhood. Nearly every queen 
wasp, I believe, comes to my garden hedge in May for the same 
distance as the ordinary wasp would in case of the queens being 
left alone to breed, therefore I conclude that every queen destroyed 
in spring destroys a nest within a radius of a wasp’s foraging 
flight. My plan of destroying them is to look out for them in the 
evening about sunset, when they appear to be most eager for their 
suppers, and consequently are easier of approach. They, apparently 
by smelling, find out where there is a particle of honeydew on 
the Hawthorn leaves. I have repeatedly seen them suck it off, 
and as they rise to fly away they fire knocked down with a piece 
of wood shaped like a small cricket-bat for the purpose. On two 
occasions this spring I counted the proceeds of an hour’s work, 
and destroyed over twenty each time, which at 2 d. each would be 
good wages. 
The result of killing the queens in the spring of 1880 before 
mentioned was that in the fruit season I never was so free from 
wasps. Two nests only in the district came under my notice, 
which were traced by the wasps’ flight and destroyed, as every 
nest may be by people “keeping their eyes open” and noticing 
the direction they fly to their nests when they have had their fill 
from what they are feeding on. 
What was the result of not killing the queens in other places ? 
If my memory is correct one writer in the Journal wrote of the 
immense quantity in some place, stating he had a “ million to 
spare.” I well remember asking a nobleman’s head gardener five 
or six miles away how he fared, and he said he never was plagued 
with so many wasps, adding, “ I know of a score nests within a 
hundred yards of the lodge gates.” I recollect being in a gentle¬ 
man’s gardens a few miles in another direction that year, and the 
gardens were alive with wasps, and I well remember seeing a 
Plum tree against a wall the fruit of which was being fast 
devoured. 
To follow the correspondence with remarks would take too 
much space and time. My belief is, that every queen wasp seen 
in spring, if not destroyed in some way, will be the mother of a 
colony. I have killed hundreds and dissected many, examining 
them with magnifying glasses, and believe every one to be im¬ 
pregnated, and that the difference in size is chiefly in the different 
species of ordinary wasps. I enclose three specimens which are 
different in their markings, and which, I believe, are three different 
kinds, differing in size, and in some respects in their nature. 
It is always a treat to me to dig out a wasp’s nest intact, to 
mark their ingenuity in construction, even excelling our bees, in 
constructing their pillars and passages, and excavating large holes 
in the earth, carrying in their mouths particles of soil long 
distances before they are dropped. Last October I was aware of 
four nests some distance away which I determined to destroy 
before the autumnal flight of the queens, and taking a man with 
me at night, I destroyed them all. One nest I dug out very 
carefully and put every wasp in a bucket, and counting them at 
my leisure I found 345 queens out of the combs, besides probably 
half as many more in partially developed stages, many of which 
would have come out if left alone. This, I believe, was the 
weakest nest of the four, and I have no doubt that 1500 queens 
were destroyed in those four nests. It is people’s own fault if 
they are troubled with wasps if they have the chance to follow 
them and destroy the nests ; too few take the trouble to look them 
up, and so they are allowed to spread.—J. Hiam. 
[The three queens received differ in size and colour, and the 
characters of each would have been maintained in their progeny 
if our correspondent and the weather had been favourable for 
their increase.] 
RAMONDIA PYRENAICA. 
A very close-growing Pyrenean plant, with the leaves arranged 
in flattish rosettes. Leaves oblong ovate, coarsely bi-serrate, very 
hairy, with the suiface deep green and much puckered. Racemes 
Fig. 3.—Ramonc ii pyrenaica. 
axillary, one-sided, 3 to 6 inches high, two to five-flowered. 
Flowers not more than an inch across ; corolla rotate, with five 
lobes, violet purple ; anthers yellow ; there are also a few yellow 
spots at the throat of the corolla. This is a very attractive alpine 
and remarkably distinct, growing freely in pans or on the rockery, 
preferring a damp partially shaded position in rich light soil. It 
