354 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— August 12, 1850. 
here 23° frost, and that night I only had a. single mat in 
addition to the calico coverings. Certainly, the frost got in, 
but did not materially injure anything except a few Cinera¬ 
rias. I had one division full of Scarlet Geranium cuttings 
in pots, except a few I stuck in without, just for an experi¬ 
ment, and as they have done very well, and the plan has 
been favourably spoken of in Tun Cottage Gardener, I 
shall adopt it this season, and save that number of pots for 
use in the spring. 
But it is not for winter storing alone that these pits 
are useful; for, as soon as the weather would allow, I cleared 
out No. 1 of all tlie hardier things, and the old roots that 
were kept for forcing for cuttings. I then put in about 
eighteen inches of well-worked dung, with six inches of 
mould on the top. I then sowed my annuals in the im¬ 
pression made witli the rim of a flower-pot, with a stick in 
the centre with the name of each sort; which, in addition 
to its utility, looks orderly and systematic; and by the time 
the plants were fit to prick out, No. 2 was ready to receive 
them. They have done exceedingly well with a very small 
amount of trouble. 
As most of your readers know, about this time a good 
many of the perennials are going and gone out of bloom : 
the flower-stalks must be cleared away, a good many of the 
old roots cleared off altogether, and the vacancies must be 
filled up with soniething, and in tbe.se pits is the very place 
to grow the plants to fill up the vacancies. I have had, and 
still have, them as full of plants in pots plunged to the rim 
as ever I could cratn them. As they increase in size they 
diminish in numbers. I find Balsams in 10-incli pots 
plunged up to the rim, and something over, with a good 
sprinkling of fowls’ dung on the top for the watering to wash 
in, have become such plants that, from my previous expe¬ 
rience, I could not have credited, and, most probably, bad it 
not been for The Cottage Gardener, I should have re¬ 
mained in happy ignorance of. Besides, see how convenient 
these pits are, when all the plants are put out, to plunge the 
various plants in that require hardening or ripening. Whilst 
the sun strikes down on their tops the roots are as cool as 
their neighbours, the Cucumbers. When that is over, 
the dung, from the frequent waterings, is in good condition 
for any purpose it may be required, and the pits are ready 
to receive their winter tenants. Here can be made a slight 
hotbed to plunge anything at taking-up time, and that will 
bring them above the level of the ground, as I keep them 
all, winter and summer, as near the level as I can to the top 
of the frame. 
Now, sir, from the economy of these pits, who would be 
without them, particularly as any man with a spark of 
ingenuity about him could put up any length or breadth he 
may require at a cost not worth naming? But the time and 
trouble they wonld save him would be worth naming a good 
many times, as can be vouched for by— The Doctor’s Boy. 
[The plants you enclosed ore—1. TUiddlea ylobosa ; 2. Cis- 
tus ladaniferus ; 3. Agrostemma coronaria. —Ed. C. G.] 
BARLEY-SUGAR FOR BEES.—WEAK QUEENS. 
In answer to “^B.,” we cannot give any advice on 
making barley-sugtm for bees “ so as not to candy.” Pro¬ 
bably, however, the effect arose from using too much sugar. 
Mr. Payne was a practical apiarian, and his receipts are 
good. But barley-sugar, or any other sweet substances, are 
not fit for bees unless they are fluid; for though bees have 
strong mandibles, they do not eat hard food like wasps, but 
suck with their proboscis. When hard sugar is offered 
them they only sip it as it gradually melts by heat and 
moisture. 
Are you sure you did not lose the first swarm ? for, ac¬ 
cording to the lilies of swarming, the old queen was dead, 
or left the hive eight or nine days previous to the first one 
noticed on the 22nd, otherwise there could not have been 
two young queens in the other attempt to swarm next day, 
for she would have destroyed them, and even the brood in 
the queen’s cells ; therefore your first swarm was led off by 
a young queen, a very unusual thing, and, of course, was like a 
second. Destroying one young queen would not prevent 
the other from again attempting to lead off a swarm, espe¬ 
cially as none had left the hive while there were rivals in 
the cells. The swarm “ all right ” on the 27th corresponds 
with the time a third would have left if the stock had 
swarmed in the usual way. The weakness of your liive 
now caunot be owing to a weak young queen, for the time is 
too short, but, most probably, to the loss of the old queen, • 
which might have happened some time previously to that 
mentioned ; if so, there would not be a sufficient number of 
eggs deposited for the brood to fill up the places of old bees 
dying off. In any case, if the bees were right, the glass 
hive could not affect them at-this season ; but, as they are 
weak, it would be best to remove it, and place the hive in its j 
former position.—J. Wighton. 
NOTES FROM TASMANIA AND AUSTRALIA. 
Prunes. — The common hedge Plum of this colony, 
which is, we believe, usually allowed to go to waste, makes 
an excellent Prune. It is similar in appearance and flavour 
to the fruit imported and sold in the grocers’ shops. We do 
not suppose the fruit will ever be preserved in quantities to j 
be worthy of note as an article of export, yet it may be ! 
worth consideration to preserve them for home consump¬ 
tion. The reader, generally, is probably not aware of the 
Prune being ranked among the articles of the materia 
medica. Most of those sold in England are imported, and 
are' supplied from Brignole, in Pruveine. A superior sort is 
supplied from Tours, which is from the large damask violet 
Plum ; the little damask white Plum and the Damsons are 
also dried to make Prunes. All these fruits possess the 
same general qualities with the other summer fruits. They 
are nearly inodorous, and contain chiefly mucous saccharine 
matter and malic acid. They are used as mild refrigerants 
in fevers and other hot indispositions, and are sometimes 
kept in the mouth for alleviating thirst in hydrophobic 
cases. They are emollient, lubricative, and laxative, and 
are taken by themselves for gently operating internally in 
costive habits, and where there is a tendency to inflamma¬ 
tion. Decoctions of them afford a useful basis for laxative 
or purging mixtures, and the pulp in substance for 
electuaries.— ( Cornwall Chronicle .) 
A Mammoth of the Vegetable World. —The largest, 
and perhaps, therefore, the oldest tree in the world, of 
which I am conversant, is an Eucalyptus, or Gum-tree, 
standing near the foot of Mount Wellington, near Hobart 
Town, in Tasmania. Its diameter is full thirty feet, but its 
height cannot be distinctly ascertained, as its entire bead 
and branches are above the rest of the forest, and the 
Government will not nllow the surrounding trees to be 
felled, for fear of any injurious consequence to the vege¬ 
table monster. I think, however, that I am well within the 
mark when I allow 250 feet for the height.— (Dr. La yard.) 
This Eucalyptus stands on the estate of George Hull, 
Esq., J.P., of Tolosa, and has been visited by the late 
Governor and bis Lady, General and Miss Wynyard, Capt. 
Erskine, R.N., Captains Stanley and Clarke, E.E., and 
several other gentlemen, in whose presence the measure¬ 
ments were made. It is eighty-four feet in circumference 
at the base, giving a diameter of about twenty-eight feet. 
A fire lias burned a room in it ten feet by nine, and about 
twelve feet high, in which fifteen people might easily sit 
down. At some little expense, the proprietor has cut a 
bridle track to its base, and any person can see it by taking 
a most pleasurable, ride of about six miles. Captain 
Stanley estimated its height at 330 feet. A hurricane has, 
however, broken off a large portion of the top branches of 
the tree. In shape, the tree is very like the Eddystone 
lighthouse — large at the base, and gradually tapering 
upwards to the first branch, which is supposed to be 200 
feet from the ground. The Government parted with rthe [ 
proprietorship of it to the present owner, by a grant deed, 
in 1820, for 2,500 acres of land, for his services as an officer 
in the celebrated Peninsular war of 1810 15. It is 
estimated that this tree, if cut down and sawn into planks, 
would realise, at 10s. a hundred feet, t‘325.— ( Hobart Town 
Mercury.) 
Sydney Horticultural Improvement Society. — The 
ninth monthly meeting of this very thriving Society was 
Held at the Royal Hotel, April 1st, David Shepherd in the 
chair. 
Mr. Milne, botanist of H.M.S. Herald, read a very 
