January 1?, 1393. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
89 
sprout end uppermost, in shallow boxes and placed in a Peach house or 
vinery being forced. The warjn moist atmosphere will cause them to 
grow strongly, and when side roots show at the base of the sprouts the 
time for potting has arrived. Plant them rather deeply, allowing good 
room for top-dressings. Also start enough sets at once, and in a similar 
manner to plant a two or three-light frame or a whole pit, and which 
should be got ready for them in the meantime. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Palms.— During severe weather, when an excess of fire heat has to 
be used to maintain the desired temperature, thrips are liable to prove 
troublesome to these plants. A sharp look out must be kept for these 
pests, for if allowed to become established they soon injure the foliage, 
which may look unsightly for years. Once these insects make their 
appearance, sponge the fronds carefully with a solution of tobacco 
w’ater in which a little softsoap has been dissolved, say 1 oz. to four 
gallons. After all have been sponged, fumigate the house once or 
twice in succession until every trace has been destroyed. Where these 
plants can be liberally syringed once or twice daily according to the 
weather, they can, as a rule, be kept free from thrips, but where the 
syringe cannot be freely used constant care and attention is needed. 
Do not overwater these plants at their roots, and, on the other hand, be 
careful not to allow them to become dust dry, or the foliage will soon 
present a sickly appearance. Maintain a night temperature of 60° 
where Kentias and other warm kinds are grown. 
Adlantums. —Plants from which fronds have been gathered, and 
only small stufi remains, may be cut clean over and started again into 
growth. If placed in a temperature of 55° to 60° they will soon com¬ 
mence pushing up new fronds, when they should be repotted without 
delay. If the plants need larger pots remove the drainage and any 
roots that may be crowded about them ; the remainder of the ball can 
be placed in the new pot without disturbance. If the plants are in pots 
large enough they may be divided by cutting them straight through the 
middle ; the drainage should be removed and the plants potted without 
disturbing them further. The soil, which should consist of equal 
portions of good loam and leaf mould, with the addition of sand, must 
be pressed firmly into the pots. If the plants have been infested 
with small slugs thoroughly dust the crowns with soot. This will 
drive them out, and they can be picked off a short time afterwards. 
Continue this practice until the plants are perfectly free from these 
pests. A small white caterpillar-like grub occasionally infests these 
plants and feeds upon the crowns and young fronds just as they form to 
such an extent that seldom a perfect frond is allowed to develop. These 
can only be destroyed by thoroughly shaking away from the plants every 
particle of soil, when they roll out and can be destroyed. The best means 
of stamping them out is to burn any infested plants. After potting 
stand the plants on a moisture-holding base and syringe freely amongst 
the pots. Very little water will be needed until the plants commence to 
grow. 
Gloxinias. —Any plants that are starting into growth where they 
have been stored away to rest will only draw up weakly if allowed to 
remain in a semi-dark place. The old soil may be shaken from the 
roots and the tubers soaked for a short lime in tepid water and then 
left to drain thoroughly. After this they can either be potted singly 
or placed in boxes amongst leaf mould and sand until they have well 
started into growth, when they can be potted singly into the pots in 
which they are intended to flower. Once the plants are started in pots 
we find they do well on a shelf fairly close to the glass, where the tem¬ 
perature ranges from 55° to 60°. 
Eulalia japonlca.— Plants that died down after use in the conser¬ 
vatory and have since been kept in a cool house may be removed to the 
forcing house or any structure where gentle warmth is maintained. 
They will soon commence to push up new growths, when the plants may, 
if increased stock is needed, be divided into two, three, or more pieces ac¬ 
cording to their size. These plants are most useful in 5, 6, and 7-inch pots, 
and grow freely in any rich soil—good loam, sand, and one-seventh of 
manure will suit them very well. If gentle bottom heat can be given 
them after division they will soon become established, when cooler 
treatment will suit them well. 
Begonia weltonlensls. —This la a useful plant for conservatory 
decoration, as well as two or three other kinds of a similar nature. The 
earliest batch may be shortened back and placed into a temperature of 
50° until they show signs of growth, when the old soil should be shaken 
from their roots and the plants repotted in a fresh compost. The plants 
can be placed in the same size pots or smaller. If the latter, they will 
soon need repotting. They will be found to succeed well in three-parts 
of loam to one of leaf mould, with a liberal quantity of sand according 
to the texture of the loam, and one-seventh of old Mushroom bed refuse. 
Water with care until the plants are growing freely. They will start 
well in a vinery if no better position can be found for them. 
Caladlum argyrites. —A good batch of tubers should be started 
into growth ; 2-inch pots are large enough in which to start them, or 
better still, place them in pans amongst light sandy soil, and after 
growth has commenced put them in pots. The pans or pots containing 
the tubers should be plunged amongst cocoa-nut fibre refuse in the 
propagating frame. Too much water at first often proves detrimental 
to them. 
Polnsettlas. —As the bracts of these fade place the plants where 
the temperature ranges about 50°, so that their stems may harden and 
xipen. Keep them on the dry side, and after a short time they will 
not require any water. 
w. 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
. 1 ■ I. I ■: I . I - r=T. j-i-F-i-i-i'-i.i-T-i-r-i-i-i-r.T 
tg 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
The Weather. 
We are still frost-bound. About 2 inches of snow fell on 
January 3rd and 4th, and on the 5th the thermometer registered 9°. 
At no time during my lifetime has there been so much frost during 
October, November, and December as we experienced last year. 
Several times we have had an unbroken frost of three months’ 
continuance during January, February, and March, but never in 
the latter months of the year. 
Observations. 
It is very desirable that bee-keepers should pay particular 
attention to bees from the time they are put up in autumn until 
they are past danger in spring. The condition they are in at the 
start, how they are protected, and their state at the end of 
winter should be carefully noted, also noting the numbers of bees 
the hives may have lost, or whether the hives are actually stronger 
at the beginning of March than they were at the beginning of 
November, as is not unseldom the case. A diary of the state of 
the weather is similarly desirable, not only to the apiarian, but to 
the worker in the garden. No two winters are entirely alike, but 
by collecting data of that nature over a series of years the notes 
become valuable for reference. If bee-keepers would in due time 
state how their bees have wintered on the points indicated, the 
record would be interesting and suggestive. That some bee-keepers 
have something to learn there can be no doubt. When one person 
can winter bees (no matter how old they are) without much, if any, 
loss, while others have many dead bees blocking up the entrances 
of their hives, necessitating removing them with a “ hooked wire,” 
so as to save the remnant of a once strong hive, it is clear that more 
light is needed—more sound practical knowledge. Advice is often 
taken from teachers who simply give the best they can, and when 
a calamity occurs amongst the bees of their pupils take refuge in 
the proposition that the bees died from old age. In nine cases out 
of ten this, in my experience, is a mere fallacy, and my advice to 
the inexperienced is to rely on the most successful workers in the 
practice of the apiary as the safest guides. 
White Lupin for Bees. 
Some people object to growing this plant owing to its liability 
to shed its flowers, supposing it to be natural. This is not the 
case. It is due to insects. The white Lupin, in addition to its 
beauty, secretes much honey, and exudes it in great quantity from 
the flower stalk, standing in large clear globules. The bees gather 
this honey, as also do earwigs, and thus destroy the blooms. 
Are Bees a Nuisance ? 
I SHALL be greatly obliged if you can answer the following 
questions :—1, Are bees one of the specified “ nuisances ” of 
English law ? 2, Has a case ever occurred where neighbours have 
obtained an injunction from a magistrate or county court judge to 
compel a man to remove or sell bees located on his own ground 
owing to them occasionally stinging people during hot weather, or 
damaging a neighbouring laundry business by soiling the clothes 
during their cleansing flights in spring and early summer ?—F. S. 
[Bees are protected by law. A nuisance means an “ unlawful 
act or omission.” It is not unlawful to keep bees, but if bees are 
so irritated as to attack people in the public streets or thorough¬ 
fares town or county councils might be compelled to frame local 
acts to prevent the annoyance. If bees are handled and kept as 
they should be they will sting no one outside their boundary, and 
it is to be hoped bee-keepers will so manage their apiaries as to 
make extreme measures unnecessary. Cases have been tried in 
America, and even in England, to prove bees a nuisance, but in no 
instance did the pursuer get a conviction. May not a laundry, in 
some respects, be a greater nuisance than bees ?—A Lanarkshire 
Bee-keeper.] 
The Tits and their Habits. 
Mr. S. Arnott (see page 18) will please observe that it was the 
blue tit, Parus coeruleus, which was accused of taking the fruit 
buds and killing the bees. I have already alluded to the habit of 
Parus major picking up dead bees and dissecting them. Since the 
snow came, which now lies about 6 inches deep where not drifted, 
I have watched the great tits constantly peering around two stocks 
of bees in straw skeps near a window convenient for close observa¬ 
tion, but they have not interfered with the hives by tapping or 
otherwise. I have suspended a lump of suet for their benefit, and 
they appreciate it. No bird is easier caught than these. In 
