580 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 9, lfc86. 
(b b ). Before fixing the board either way it is well to wrap some 
listing, or strips of anything soft and warm round the top of the hive, so 
that there will he no opening to cause a draught between the hive and 
board. 
The usual form of straw stock hives have a rim of straw round the 
top within which the straw cap fits when upon the hive. To adapt box 
supers to these hives it is necessary to cut those rims off. These hives are 
m ire flat on the top, and there is less trouble in fixing the boards to them. 
When once fixed the boards ought to remain permanently on the hives. 
The hole in the boards and the corresponding hole in the hive (c) 
should not be less than 3 inches in diameter. As will be seen, the centre 
bar of the super when placed on the hive comes across the centre of the 
opening, having a semicircular space on each side for the bees to enter 
the sections. 
To those who use large hives of either straw or wood, a 10 lbs. super 
will be looked upon as too small to be worth bothering with. Supers 
must, however, be kept in proportion with the hives. It is a great mis¬ 
take to make supers larger either way than the body of the hive, both on 
account of economy of heat and keeping the bees in their natural cluster 
form. Rather let small supers be piled one on the top ot the other, as so 
well discussed in last week’s Journal by “ Felix.” With two 10-lb. boxes 
for each hive the cottager will be satisfied if he gets them filled, and it 
may be some encouragement when I say that this summer I have had 
better results in proportion from small straw hives than from good-sized 
bar-frame hives. The little boxes should be covered up with old bags, 
and kept dry by similar means to that applied to the ordinary caps. 
When the supers are removed place a thin piece of board over the open¬ 
ing, a half brick placed on it will keep it in its place, and if a little dry 
graes is packed round it, and an old sack tied over, with some waterproof 
covering over all, the hive will be snug for the winter.—A Cottage 
Bee-keeper. 
THE WEATHER AND BEES. 
December opened with keen frost and snow. Up till the 5th all insect 
life had disappeared. On that day the thermometer rose from 15° ; the 
lowest temperature we have had, to 50°. Many of the bees were roused 
from their short winter’s repose, and from their appearance I believe 
many of them will have commenced breeding, being about two weeks 
earlier than the average of years, while some hives have continued breed¬ 
ing the whole season.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUE RECEIVED. 
G. Stevens, St. John’s Nursery, Putney .—Catalogue of Chrysanthemums 
* 0 ® All correspondence should be directed either to “The Editor” 
or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to Dr. Hogg or 
members of the staff often remain unopened unavoidably. We 
request that no one will write privately to any of our correspon¬ 
dents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions relat¬ 
ing to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should never 
send more than two or three questions at once. All articles in¬ 
tended for insertion should be written on one side of the paper 
only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, and we 
do not undertake to return rejected communications. 
Creepers for West Side of House (B. C .).—Bignonia radicans major, 
Lonicera belgicum, Jasminum officinale, Wistaria sinensis, Cydonia japonica 
Berberis stenophylla, Crataegus Pyracantha, Clematis Jackmani and 
C. Henryi, with Roses Gloire de DijoD and Cheshunt Hybrid are good. 
Aquatics (IF. G. X).—The water is much too deep for the generality of 
aquatics, which should not be more for the varieties following than 2 to 
3 feet :—Aponogeton distachyon, Nuphar advena, N. lutea, Nymphtea 
odorata, N. odorata, Pontederia cordata, Stratiotes aloides, Sagittaria, 
sagittifolia, and Villarsia nymphseoides. Nymphasa alba will succeed in 
deeper water than most aquatics. Kinds that succeed in shallow water are 
Butomus umbellatus, Alisma Plantago, Ranunculus Lingua. Bullrushes are 
fine, especially Tjpha minima. 
Late Peaches (C. S.). —Salwey is the latest of Peaches, and ripens 
with certainty under glass with tire heat. Late Peaches, however, ripen 
earlier when fire heat is used, and should only be used in case of an un¬ 
favourable autumn. Late Peaches meet a ready sale. Perhaps the best are 
Sea Eagle, Gladstone, and Comet. They are large, bright in colour, and 
highly flavoured. Ail, even Comet, ripen before Salwey, which is not 
large, and we do not advise its being grown for market. The most esteemed 
is Sea Eagle, which is simply sup rb. Comet is later, ripening a week to 
ten days in advance of Salwey, and Gladstone ripens with Sea Eagle. 
Conifers (IF.). —For a mixed chalk and loam soil Taxus baccata 
(common Yew), 30 feet; T. baccata erecta, 15 f et; T. baccata fastigiata, 
15 feet; T. baccata elegantissima, 20 feet ; Pinus Cembra, 15 feet; P. Ben- 
thamiana, 30 feet; P. austriaca, 30 feet; Picea nobihs, 30 feet; Juniperus 
chinensis, 15 feet; Cupressus Lawsoniana, 25 feet; C. Lawsoniana argentea, 
18 feet ; C. Lawsoniana aurea, 25 feet ; C. Lawsoniana erecta viridis, 18 feet; 
C. nutkaersis, 25 feet; Thuia Lobbi erecta, 18 feet; T. occidentalis Yervsene- 
ana, 24 feet; Thuia (Biota) orientalis, 18 feet; T. elegantissima, 12 feet; 
T. aurea, 9 feet; Abies Engelmanni glauca, 30 feet; A. polita, 30 fe t; Picea 
Pinsapo, 24 feet; Cedrus atlantica, 45 feet to GO feet; or C. Libani, same 
distance. 
Rose Cutting Failing Grafting Roses (Auricula). —You would have 
succeeded far better if you had adopted a simpler methol of propagation. 
The great majority of Roses strike freely in sandy soil iu the open air, in¬ 
serting them in November or even now, in the manner described at the foot 
of page 505 last week and continued to the next page. They may be in¬ 
serted now in prepared soil in cold frames, or in pots in those frames, to 
remain there till callused, or longer if you wish ; but when the cuttings are 
callused the pots may be plunged in gentle heat, say about February or 
March, and the roots will extend the more rapidly. Unless you have suit¬ 
able houses for growing RoBes you will not succeed so well by grafting now 
as you would in February. Nor are you likely to make much progress by 
giafting on bits of Briar roots much smaller than the scions. They should 
be at least as large as the scions, with fibres attached to them. No clay 
required if the scion is secured with worsted or matting, and the junction 
quite covered with soil. W e prefer young well rooted Briar plants raised 
from seed or cuttings, as stocks whereon to attach Roses that we desire to 
increase by that method. You are attempting too much, and expecting too 
much from a paucity of materials. We have not answer-d your question as 
to why your Rose cuttings did not callus in heat: it was because the sap 
could not descend to foim the ca'lus, but was forced upwards by the heat, 
and the cuttings n cessarily collapsed under the unnatural strain to which 
they were subjected. 
Propagating Indiarubber Plants (A Young Grower ).—The following 
methods, successfully practised by an old grower, will answer with you if 
carefully carried outThe present time is suitable for propagating this 
plant, either by shoots taken off with a heel or by eyes. When it is propa¬ 
gated by eyes they should be taken with a leaf attached to each, and be 
placed in silver sand to keep them from bleeding. Insert them in small 
pots well drained, in a mixture of peat and cocoa-nut fibre, and plunge in a 
strong bottom heat of 90°, with a little sand under each cutting. If they 
are not placed in a strong bottom heat the eyes will not break. When the 
eyes have rooted and commenced growing they should be repotted into 
48-sized pots, in equal parts of turfy loam and peat, with sufficient sand to 
keep the soil open. The plants should be placed in a temperature of about 
70°, and be syringed frequently ; occasionally sponging the foliage is also 
highly beneficial. The plants should never be allowed to become potbound 
until they have grown to the allotted size, when they will be greatly 
benefited by liberal supplies of liquid manure. During their growing season 
they should never be allow-d to become dry at the roots, as dryness causes 
the leaves to turn yellow and spoils the beauty of the plants. Shoots taken 
off with a heel will make plants much quicker than raising them from eyes; 
and it is the safest plan, for if strong bottom heat is not afforded, the eyes, 
as before mentioned, will not break into growth. When only a few plants 
of rapid growth are required we advise that they be raised from cuttings, 
but when a great number of small plants are required, which is not unfre- 
quently the case now Indiarubber Plants are fashionable, the mode of 
raising them from eyes must be resorted to. Plants are now in great 
demand, and are being rapidly increased by the above modes in most 
nurseries, and they have a large sale in Covent Garden Market. 
Blanching (G. L). —You ask, “What is the cause of blanching?” We 
might laconically answ'er, “The absence of light;” but as you know that as 
well as we do, we presume you wish to know why leaves are blanched in 
dark places. It is occasioned by their being neither able to decompose the 
water they imbibe, nor to inhale carbonic acid. In the dark plants can 
only inhale oxygen, and thus, deprived of free hydrogen and carbon, on the 
due assimilation of which by the leaves all vegetable colours depend, and 
saturated with oxygen, they of necessity become white. An excess of 
oxygen has uniformly a tendency to whiten vegetable matters ; and, to 
impart that excess to them is the principle upon which all bleaching is 
conducted. An over-dose of oxygen causes in them a deficiency of alkaline 
or an excess of acid matter, and light enables plants to decompose the acid 
matter, and to restore that predominancy of alka inity on which their green 
colour depends. Sennebier and Davy found most carbonic acid in blanched 
leaves ; and all green leaves contain more alkaline matter than the rest of 
the plant which bears them. Every cook knows that a little alkali—car¬ 
bonate of soda—added to the water, improves the green hue of her boiled 
vegetables. That this is the cause of the ph-ncmenon is testified by direct 
experiment. Blanched Celery and Endive, and the white inner leaves of 
