February 17, 1867. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
141 
ing material on outside borders must be attended to, and when the heat 
is declining renew it by the addition of fresh leaves and litter. Vines 
in pots must not lack moisture at the roots ; supply them with liquid 
manure, and renew the surface dressings from time to time as 
necessary. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Fancratiuins .—Those that have had a good season of rest may now 
be repotted or top-dressed. If the latter, use two-thirds loam and one of 
cow manure prepared as previously advised. If they need the former 
the compost advised for Eucharises will suit these plants well. Too 
much drainage should not be employed, as the plants root deep and 
with great freedom. In repotting shake away the whole of the old soil 
from the roots, and be careful not to bury the bulbs, or a large per¬ 
centage of the soil will not contain a single root. Spread out the roots 
carefully near the surface, for they are certain before the end of the 
season to be crowded round the drainage. These plants will grow in 
almost any position in the stove after potting until they are again 
established, even standing under the shade of large plants ; syringe 
liberally, but do not give too much water. Watch for thrips, for if there 
is any in the house they are certain to attack the under side of the 
foliage of these plants. 
HymenocaJlis macrostephnna .—This is so closely allied to the above, 
that in gardens they are looked upon as the same. The treatment is 
the same, and those who do not possess the plant should obtain it without 
delay, for it is undoubtedly superior to any of the Pancratiums. It 
possesses narrow foliage fully 3 feet in length, and flowers with great 
freedom during July and August rmder ordinary stove treatment. 
Gloriosa grandiflora .—The bulbs of this useful stove climber maybe 
shaken out of the old soil in which they have been resting, and may be 
potted and started into growth. This plant will do well in sandy loam 
and one-seventh of manure, or in equal parts of peat and loam. If 
placed in a temperature of 65° the tubers will soon start growing, when 
the pot containing them should be placed in such a position so that the 
shoots can be trained under the roof, unless they are to be trained upon 
a balloon-shaped trellis. The soil in each case should be thoroughly 
warmed by placing it in the stove the night previous to use. Be careful 
also that the soil to be used is in a proper state of moisture. 
PRACTICAL BEE-KEEPING. 
No. 3. 
We must next consider what race of bee is most profitable to 
the ordinary bee-keeper. We must touch on the reproduction and 
perpetuation of the species, and point out how it is that the 
different races possess various characteristics, some useful, and 
others a hindrance to the production of surplus honey. We must 
also, in choosing which race of bees is likely to yield the largest 
profit, refer to the benefits and difficulties derived from climatic 
and other conditions in various localities, and finish the argument 
by stating our own opinion, based upon all these considerations, as 
to the advisability of the average bee-keeper attempting to keep a 
particular strain or race of bees unless there are circumstances in 
his individual case, which, by placing him in a more favourable 
position for the purpose, enable him to contend more successfully 
with difficulties which can hardly be surmounted by his less happily 
situated neighbours. 
For the production of comb honey a strain of bees is required 
which has little disposition to increase by swarming, unless the bee¬ 
keeper is so negligent of his own interests as to allow great over¬ 
crowding and consequent enforced idleness. As with the population 
of overcrowded cities there is a tendency to migrate to new lands 
as yet but sparsely occupied by man, so with bees : but the 
impulse in these insects is far stronger than in man, and why ? 
Because bees in a natural state, where man does not interfere with 
the internal arrangements of the hive, have, generally speaking, 
when a hive is in a normal condition, only one means by which the 
race may be perpetuated. By sending forth a swarm headed by the 
old queen—possibly almost worn out with labour—the throne is 
left for a young monarch, hatched under the most favourable 
conditions possible—the swarming impulse. This queen again may, 
if the bees are strong enough in numbers, give place to a still more 
youthful successor, and so another colony goes forth, under the 
happiest omens, to prepare a home and food before winter stays the 
work of the year. Yet another swarm may also issue ; but enough 
has been said to show that it is by swarming alone, until man began 
to study bees and their habits, that the race has been prevented 
from becoming extinct. All this necessity for natural and un¬ 
restrained increase has now passed away. Man watches over the 
queen, and in his own way raises a successor to the throne. Every 
effort ought to be made by sexual selection and careful management 
to perpetuate those stocks which show least desire to swarm, and 
are therefore, other things being equal, the most profitable workers 
for their owner. This is the great need. We must seek to raise 
a strain of bees which will, with careful management, devote 
themselves to labour, and leave the duty of race perpetuation to 
man. 
The various races of bees are, no doubt, descended from a 
common stock. The influence of climate, selection, and the “ sur¬ 
vival of the fittest,” together with such other influences as may 
have been at work from time to time, and which we are unable to 
comprehend, have produced the various strains of the original race. 
So again with man even ; if we are slow to accept the theory that man 
himself is the descendant of an extinct species of anthropomorphous 
apes, we may well imagine that the present European is considerably 
more advanced in intelligence and power of using his different 
members than the earliest beings who inhabited the earth. We see 
a distinct step between the “ age of stone ” and the “ age of iron.” 
Why should there be a difference in the case of bees ? In man the 
weaker race is continually giving place to the stronger, the savage 
dies out in the presence of the white man ; the inferor races of bees 
will also, I believe, gradually, even if man gave no assistance, become 
extinct, and the stronger take possession. With this influence, 
then, continually at work man ought surely to be able to produce a 
bee possessing all the qualities which he desires. Again, in his 
endeavour to obtain a race of bees possessing the most desirable 
qualities only, man never seems until comparatively recent times to 
have considered that the influence of the drone is almost if not 
quite as great as that of the queen in producing bad and good 
qualities in succeeding generations. It is useless carefully to select 
queens and not pay the same attention to the drone. The queen is 
also thought by some to mate with the first drone she happens to 
meet on her nuptial flight, but is this probable ? Why the beautiful 
form of queen and drone if their beauties were not to entrance and 
enthral the wooed and the suitor ? Doubtless there is as much 
difference, even where the human eye can see none, between the 
personal appearance of one young queen and another as there is 
between one man and another. The queen and drone no doubt 
have and exercise a choice ; whether the most playful drone, or the 
strongest on the wing, or one possessing some virtue unknown to us 
is the favoured suitor, we are unable to say, but just as a bird 
chooses its mate, either by reason of its entrancing song or gay 
plumage, so a queen bee, I believe, chooses from many thousand 
drones her mate. To rear a race of bees we must pay strict atten¬ 
tion to the males ; the drone must be reared in the best stock pos¬ 
sessing those qualities in the greatest degree which we desire to 
perpetuate. By this selection of drones or queens, or by the 
haphazard mating of those drones and queens possessing certain 
qualities, the different species have arisen ; by paying attention to 
this very point another species may yet be raised possessing still 
more useful qualities and less serious defects than any existing race 
of bees. 
But it may be asked, Why do some bees desire to swarm so 
inordinately ? Why do they endeavour to increase so often ? May 
not the answer be given by alluding to a well known fact ? If we 
have a stock of bees which is continually throwing off swarms and 
we breed from such a stock, the result is another stock having the 
same characteristics. Now, if this breeding from a stock thus 
continually throwing off swarms has been going on for generation 
after generation, what may we expect ? A race of bees in which 
the desire of continual swarming is so firmly implanted that much 
trouble will be experienced in endeavouring to prevent, either by 
cross-breeding or other means, the issue of swarms. Again, a stock 
not given to increase may well be the ancestor of a race of bees the 
characteristic of which is a small increase and a great yield of honey. 
Now, if we can find such a stock as this last one, and attention is 
paid to the matter of breeding, we may hope to fix this charac¬ 
teristic of gathering honey rather than throwing off swarms. When 
such a race of bees has been found or reared, it will then be 
necessary for a bee-keeper in this country to consider whether—if 
the race has been reared abroad—it is suited to this climate ; and if 
it is too tender, then care will again be required to acclimatise it in 
addition to keeping the strain pure and free from crosses with the 
common bee. Taking all these matters into consideration, I am of 
opinion that the practical kee-keeper working for profit should leave 
to those who have the time and patience the duty of rearing new 
races, and content himself with keeping a common race of approved 
merit and virtue. Even if an ordinary bee-keeper obtains a choice 
strain, it is hardly profitable to take the necessary means to keep it 
pure. When the “ coming bee ” has been found or reared we will 
then all adopt it, and until then the majority of us must rest content 
with taking such simple measures as lie in our power to aid in the 
extermioMion of the inferior and the increaseof superior races, trust- 
