1876. ] 
WASPS. 
225 
to make a good start. Remove, as soon as they are past, all the first fiowers. 
Encourage a strong and vigorous second-growth, and do not neglect tying them 
in to the forms as the shoots grow. 
They need scarcely any pruning in winter, simply cutting out all dying 
and used-up shoots, but twisting and bending the new shoots in at their full length. 
Manure highly every year, and by washing, or by the syringe or engine, during 
growth, use every effort to keep the pillars free from insects.— George Paul, 
Cheshunt. 
WASPS. 
I TIRING my long gardening career, this is the only season in which I have 
not seen a common wasp—at least, up to the end of August. The queens 
were about at the usual time, but many seemed to have perished by the ^ 
winterly weather in May, which destroyed the fruit-blossoms. This accords 
with the old saying, “ A plum year is a wasp year.” The same remark applies to 
the hornet, the progeny of which increases exactly like that of the wasp. From all 
this, it is fair to surmise that wasps may be scarce next season. For the sake of 
those unacquainted with the life-history of the wasp, I note that the foundation 
of the nest is made by a solitary queen which has survived the winter, and 
consists of fixing a prop made of scrapings of wood, mixed with a gummy 
substance, at the top of a cavity. Thus the embryo of a colony of wasps is like 
a nail with a triangular impression on its head, being the nucleus of the hexa¬ 
gonal cells before the tiny, paper-like structure is covered to take the parachute- 
form. The solitary queen soon forms a few cells, in each of which she deposits 
an egg, even before it is completed to a size sufiicient for the larva of working 
wasps. Those, when bred, assist her in all the operations connected with the 
prosperity of the colony; they work both early and late, and feed the brood with 
great care. The combs, however, made in autumn contain cells only for the 
larvae of drones and queens. 
In strong colonies it is surprising to see the vast quantities of both sexes that 
are bred; the whole community are engaged in their welfare. The old queen, 
like the queen of the honey-bee, deposits the eggs during the season; but the 
hive-bee being always gregarious, only a few queens are required to increase its 
race by swarming, while the fertility of the wasp depends greatly on the quantity 
of queens which survive the winter. These and the drones or males, live in 
harmony with the common wasps, and gradually leave the nests before the whole 
disperse—sooner or later, according to the weather. 
In dry places, and mild autumns, I have been stung both by hornets and 
wasps so late as the middle of December, while they were guarding the late 
brood of queens. Need I say that wasps have no store of food to defend, like 
the hive-bee, whose habits are less suitable for our climate than those of wasps. 
These forage about both late and early, long after honey-bees cease to be abroad. 
Since the above was written, I have seen wasps and heard of their nests, so 
