February 4, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
95 
I-engthen they will bear gentle heat and come early into flower. Select 
from amongst those that have been flowering dwarf free-flowering 
varieties, and if these are given a little artificial manure to the surface 
and kept slowly moving they will not be long before they commence to 
flower again. Those that need cutting back should be kept rather dry. 
Place all that have done flowering and need pruning in a cool house, 
and give them little or no water ; if cuttings are needed from them 
early they will root all the better and be much less subject to damp if 
moderately firm than if they are soft. 
Calceolarias .—Give the earliest plants their final shift. Use a 
moderately light but rich compost, keep the plants cool and on a 
moisture-holding base. Repot successional plants as they need more 
root room. Do not allow them to become dry or keep them in a dry 
atmosphere, or they will soon be attacked by aphides. 
Cinerarias.—Y ot those in small pots that are required for flowering 
in May a small shift only is necessary. Keep the plants cool, only be 
careful that the foliage does not suffer from damp. They will be safe 
in the greenhouse where fire heat is used to keep out frost and occa¬ 
sionally to expel damp. Water those throwing up their flower spikes 
with soot water in a clear state. 
Primulas .—Place in 3 or 4-inch pots those required for late spring 
flowering. Keep the plants cool, but in a position where they will be 
free from damp. If close or confined they suffer from damp, the foliage 
draws up weakly, and the plants flower imperfectly. Sturdy growth 
must be ainoed at, and the result is abundance of large flowers. 
Carnations .—Fumigate at once if aphides attack the points of these 
plants. Miss Jolliffe will continue to unfold its flowers if the tempera¬ 
ture in which they are grown does not fall below 45° at night. Autumn 
rooted plants in small pots may be placed into 5-inch size. Well rooted 
layers of Souvenir de la Malmaison and other varieties may also be 
placed into 5 and 6-inch pots. If these are kept where frost can be 
excluded they will continue to root and make slow growth. Watch for 
any brown fungoid growth on these plants. The only remedy is to 
move infested plants, and scrape out with the point of a knife every 
trace of the disease, and then dust the affected part with sulphur. If a 
solitary plant only is attacked it will be wise to burn it at once. A 
sharp look out should be kept for this disease; if allowed to spread it will 
quickly destroy the plants. 
Lilium Ilarrisi .—Watch for aphides, they are liable to attack the 
points of the plants ; fumigate at once if they are observed. It is sur¬ 
prising how quickly they cripple the foliage. If the plants are not 
needed in flower quickly keep them close to the glass, where the 
temperature is about 40°. If given intermediate treatment they soon 
run up to a height of 4 feet or more. This cannot well be avoided if 
they are wanted in flower early. As soon as L. eximium has grown 
through the plunging material place them on a shelf close to the glass 
in a perfectly cool house. African grown bulbs of L. Harris! appear to 
be of larger size than those grown in America, and as they are issued 
about Whitsuntide they will prove invaluable for flowering during the 
closing weeks of the year. 
w. 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
m 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
The temperature has risen to 50° ; Hellebores are in flower, 
Arabises are coming, the earliest Snowdrops are advancing, 
and the bees are preparing to take advantage of all, many of 
our hives have indeed already been in full flight. 
Garniolians. 
As usual, these have wintered satisfactoi-ily, scarcely a dead 
bee to be seen, and all is dry within. The debris lies on the 
under floor, and there is nothing to adhere to the bees, so they 
can take a flight without loss of time cleaning themselves, and 
return to their hive in safety. Young bees have appeared, but 
we have not learned yet where the drones are that clustered 
with the bees in December. 
PUNICS. 
These have given me the most concern, but I am glad to say 
their wintering qualities are as satisfactory as their summer 
doings. 
The hive that I alluded to two weeks ago as showing signs 
of abdominal distension has, it appears, had only a few bees so 
affected, probably young ones that were bred too late. The 
dead bees at it are under 500, and there are more bees in it now 
than there were in December. The bees are down to the 
entrance, and at a temperature of 4G°. I put my finger to it, 
and the heat coming therefrom felt to be 65°. 
The other pure Punic had less than 100 dead bees. I shall 
be glad to hear results from other apiaries where the Punic bees 
are kept. 
Foreign Bees. 
Since the year 1859-60, when Messrs. Neighbour introduced 
the Italian Alp bee, there have been no less than nine or ten 
varieties of foreign bees introduced into this country. Through 
some mistake in my essay I am made to say that Mr. Woodbury 
was the introducer of the Italian Alp bee. He might be so in 
the sense that he was successful with his first one, but it was 
through Mr. Neighbour’s agency that Mr. Woodbury came into 
possession, hence this explanation. I have had eight varieties 
in all, and so far as it has gone I am most in love with the 
Punics. The Italian Alp bee I never would have given up had 
they been imported pure —that is principally the cause of this 
article. 
When the Cyprians and Syrians were imported into this 
country through Jones and Benton, Abbott extolled these bees 
to a great extent, both in his journal and in private letters, as 
good workers and highly coloured, some of them having fine 
yellow bands. Two of these queens came into my possession, 
but neither on the bees accompanying the queens, nor yet upon 
their progeny, could I discover more than two yellow, or, as 
Herman styled them in the Italian, orange red girths.” They 
differed in no respect from those of the same breed I had years 
previously. Nor have I ever had the good fortune to see any 
possessing more than two entire girths. I have observed some 
with more or less yellow on the posterior segments, but nothing 
more than mere rudimentary markings of yellow. 
Garniolians tegan to arrive as well marked wilh yellow as 
Syrians, and Italian Alp bees that could not be distinguished 
from Syrians and Cyprians. In short, the importations proved 
beyond a doubt that breeders were taking no care of keeping 
distinct varieties in their original purity. 
Herman gives us the geographical location of these bees, 
with the statement that they are only to be found in “the 
extreme north of Italy, that is the Italian Switzerland where 
they have preserved their purity;” and that oving to the 
situation and almost perpetual snows they could not get 
crossed with any other race. That they are not to be found 
pure outside that range or locality. There has been much 
fruitless discussion both in this country and America as to 
whether the Italian Alp bee is a pure variety, some holding that 
it is and others not, and the same assertions are made on behalf 
and against the British bee. We need not bother with what we 
will nev.r find out. The original British bee does not always 
breed to a fixed type. Before the introduction of the Italian Alp 
bee in 1859 yellow girths were occasionally found upon some of 
them, and all of them the rudimentary yellow on the first ring; 
besides that variation some colonies were lighter in colour than 
in others, which some people took for a distinct variety, but the 
mating of queens with drones from a great distance proves this 
impossible. 
The basis upon which much of the discossion in this country 
sprung was regarding the variation of drones fr. m one queen. 
In America it is because of the variation of the workers. In 
both countries they failed to grasp the question. In the 
former case they tried to prove the Italian bee was not pure, 
because of drone variation. In the latter, because the workers 
varied. 
Drones of all varieties differ in colour. When we attempt 
to prove the impurity of any race by drones we look into other 
characteristics and not colour, and we have no difficulty in 
tracing impurity in any variety by markings of the workers. 
Herman speaks of two orange colmred girths, and never of 
more. Doolittle cf America contends the Italian Alp bee is 
not pure, because its workers vary in colour. Root, while 
agreeing with us that “ five-banded ” Italian bees are crossed 
oLs, le'^says that Doolittle’s five-banded ones are pure! 
