136 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
on brier stoeks, than when on their own roots: Rosa centifolia Sultana, R. hol- 
landica maxima, or La Duchesse de Gramfnont, and Rosa unica carnea, and R. 
pimpinellifolia The following sorts should be worked on Rosa semperflorens, 
on which they will bloom early and abundantly: R. muscosa, and its several va¬ 
rieties ; R. unica, R. centifolia sulphurea, and R. Nigra vera.— M. Stickle r, Prus. 
Garcl. Soc. 
Culture of the Blue Hydrangea.— M. Fintelmann considers it clear that 
the blue colour of the flowers of the Hydrangea is owing to the presence of iron 
in the soil sometimes the iron is found in peat earth, and sometimes in loam or 
sand. To make sure of blue flowers, he recommends the mixture with soil of a 
small quantity of iron filings, or of rust of iron in any form; say about one 
twentieth part.— Prus. Gard. Soc. 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
On the Power of the Common Bee to generate a Queen. — (Con¬ 
tinued from page 89.J—From the system of Heinmetz, and that of Harold, an¬ 
other theory was raised by Privy Counsellor Voigt, in Schwarzbach, near Culm- 
back; and Precentor Lucas, in Nischwitz, near Wurzen. According to their 
system, the Queen is the real mother of all the bees; laying, during eight months 
of every year, an almost incredible number of fructified eggs; from which in 
twenty or twenty four days, the common working bees are bred, which in their 
sexual character, are both male and female. The males by means of their mouth 
fructify not only the Queen, but also their sisters, the common female bees or 
mother drones: and from the eggs laid by the latter, in the rnonth of May or 
June, the drones are actually bred. The fructification or vivication of so many 
thousand eggs is wholly performed and executed by the principle of life, or by 
the animating creative spiritual power, the aura seminalis contained in the 
spittle, which may be considered as the vehicle of it, and the process of which 
is so very visible in the frequent application of the proboscis of the common 
male bees to that of the Queen. This system may therefore be considered as 
follows : 
Power of production and reproduction 
t -;- A - 
Working Bees Mother Bee 
v v- J 
Working Bees. 
( Sphere of 
f Production. 
Absolute Male Power of Female power oQ 
Nature reproduction reproduction f Sphere of 
-y- J f reproduction. 
Relative Nature Drones ) 
For the truth of this system, an appeal is made to experience, which shows 
that common bees, with a queen, can compose a perfect hive, without a single 
drone being considered necessary. 
Thissystem, however, did not long hold its ground; the obscurities which dis¬ 
tinguished it induced Heumann to suppose that he could remove those obsurities, 
and according to his system, the queen is the only actual mother of her like ; 
