MAY. 
131 
plants are kept under glass (well shaded) through the summer, 
or when placed out the shadiest places are selected for them. 
In this country, the finest display of Camellias we ever saw was 
grown in a house formed by covering the space between two 
high walls; the roof (a span one) was twenty or more feet 
from the floor, and only the south sashes were glazed; the 
amount of light which passed into this house was, therefore, 
small, and the atmosphere was always cool and moist; the 
plants remained in-doors all the season, free access to the 
air being given during the summer. The plants grew most 
vigorously and flowered profusely; they belonged to an 
esteemed friend of ours—an amateur—and were the admiration 
of hundreds, whom his kindness permitted to visit them when 
in bloom. This house had no means for being heated, and 
had the same care in training been applied to them as is given 
on the continent they would have equalled them in form, as 
they did in vigour and abundance of bloom. We name this col¬ 
lection (plants from which are now in the Crystal Palace) as a 
proof of what has been done with little means. No cultivated 
plant requires less artificial assistance to grow it than the 
Camellia. A rather rich peaty soil, moist atmosphere, and 
shady situation are all that it requires as regards house room, 
hut it should never be overpotted, nor should it ever want for 
water; and if placed out of doors protect the roots from the 
action of the sun and drying winds, by plunging them in Moss 
or old tan. 
Let us hope that some one will undertake the cultivation 
of this showy evergreen on the Belgian model. 
HUMBLE BEES. 
Those who live far from the smoke of cities, and are admirers of Flora 
in her simpler dress, that is to say, shrubs and herbaceous plants, will 
certainly not ask the question, what have humble bees to do with 
flowers'; for they must have observed these insects whilst engaged in 
their daily labours, from the opening of the Crocuses and Hepaticas 
in the spring to the destruction of the Fuchsias and Nasturtiums by 
the first frosts of autumn, adding not a little to the attraction of the 
flower garden by their cheerful humming and diversified colours. 
The humble bee (apis bombilius) belongs to that section of the family 
of bees which is called sociales (social) from their forming families or 
societies, all the members of which co-operate together for the welfare 
of the community. Each variety, at a certain period of its existence, 
is composed of individuals of three different sexes, females, males, and 
neuters, and during its greatest prosperity the amount of its population 
amounts, according to the species, from 50 or 60 individuals to upwards 
k 2 
