28 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 18. 
After a few days, give tlie plant a gentle watering with 
tepid water; then let it alone for two or three weeks ; then 
rap the pot with your knuckles: if it has a hollow ringing 
sound, give it another watering enough to moisten all the 
soil; but if, on the contrary, it has a dead heavy sound, pass 
it by for a few days longer. Think before you water whether 
the plant really wants it or not. Do not water it because it 
is so long since it had any. Pursue this treatment and 
success will follow. After the plant is well established, weak 
manure-water at every third watering will give the foliage 
a beautiful dark-green colour. 
Train the branches regularly over the trellis, tying and 
not interlacing them with the trellis. Just before the first 
bloom is expanded, remove the plant to the conservatory or 
greenhouse, where it will bloom finer and for a greater 
length of time than it would if it remained in the stove. 
About the middle of September, remove it to the stove 
again, and keep it rather dry throughout the winter. At the 
latter end of February, shift into a pot 15 in. over, and give 
it the same kind of treatment as before; and the next shift 
should be to the rubbish heap, as old plants do not bloom 
nearly so fine as young ones. 
The easiest way to propagate it is to fill a small pot with 
sandy peat, tie it to the trellis, cut a young branch half 
through at a joint, and peg it down into the pot. In a few 
weeks cut the branch away. Plunge the pot into a cucum¬ 
ber bed, and shift on as the plant requires it. The plant 
must not receive a check, or it will never make a first-rate 
specimen. Plants struck in March or April will make fine 
specimens by the year following. Mould. 
BEES WITH EXCESS OF QUEENS. 
I wish to communicate, through the medium of your 
valuable periodical, the following fact, to such of its readers 
as are familiar with the Natural History of the Bee, in the 
hope that some one among them may be able to explain 
satisfactorily the circumstance. 
On the Cth of June, 1853, one of my hives threw its prime, 
and on the ICth its after-swarm. In the course of the next 
day (17tli), five dead supernumerary'queens were cast out. 
On the 23rd, I saw the young queen leave the stock-hive on 
two different occasions to meet the drones. All this was 
quite usual, and in the natural course; and the bees worked 
well, and carried farina abundantly; a pretty sure indication 
of the presence of a fertile queen. They continued to carry 
on the business of the hive without interruption, and pros¬ 
pered during the whole of the season. But the deviation 
from the ordinary course of their habits was in this, that 
a second brood of queens was produced in the month follow¬ 
ing, and ejected from the hive as soon as they became fully 
developed. On June 15th, I found one lying at the mouth of 
the hive, and on the 10th, two more on the ground in front. 
All three had evidently been destroyed before being capable of 
flight; they were clearly not so far advanced in age as those 
we observed at the conclusion of swarming. 
I have been an attentive observer of bees, and kept them 
for many years; but, during my experience in their manage¬ 
ment, have never met with an instance similar to this. My 
first impression was, that the young queen, which I saw 
leave the parent hive on June 23rd, had commenced depo¬ 
siting eggs, and from some unknown cause died while so 
engaged, and that the bees had themselves selected four 
worker eggs, and built around them royal cells to supply the 
loss they had sustained. I have always, however, noticed 
that wlion a queen is abstracted from the hive, and the 
workers have set about the formation of queens, that very 
shortly they cease to carry farina, i. e., as soon as all the 
brood left are sealed up; uor do they resume the collection of 
the bee bread till the new queen is impregnated and depo¬ 
siting eggs; therefore, I concluded that the queen of the 
23rd of June was still the mother bee of the hive. 
I have watched with great interest the proceedings of the 
bees of that hive. I sentit with others to the heath, whence 
it returned nearly 401bs weight in September; has wintered 
without assistance ; and I have now (March 17) the satisfac¬ 
tion of daily seeing its inhabitants carrying into it farina in 
great abundance.— A Subscriber. 
NEWCASTLE POULTRY SHOW. 
Having observed your observation on the Newcastle 
Poultry Show, and knowing that several gentlemen south 
purposed exhibiting, notwithstanding the unfavourable 
season of the year for the purpose, the following may not 
be uninteresting to your subscribers, if you think it worthy 
of a place in your columns. 
In consequence of the schedule of prizes containing a 
class for Cochin-Chinas bred in 1853, I wrote to Mr. Trotter 
one of the secretaries, to inquire whether fowls of that year i 
were disqualified to compete in the classes for old birds, 
and also to know whether my servants would be allowed to | 
attend on my poultry, to feed and see that proper care was 
taken of them during the exhibition; to this I received the 
following reply: 
“ Dear Sir,—I have to state, in answer to your favour, that 
there are no restrictions as to age. 
“ I do not think the committee will object to parries 
feeding their own birds at proper times; but servants enter¬ 
ing the building will be expected to pay like others.—War. 
Trotter.” 
I am not very well acquainted with the rules of the 
principal shows in the south ; but although there can be no 
reasonable objection to pay for the entrance of a servant 
once in each day, yet, it is rather unreasonable to require 
pay from attendants every time that they may have occasion 
to go out and return.— H. Marshall, Durham. 
[The feeding department of a poultry show should be so 
arranged as entirely to do away with the necessity for 
servants having to provide for their master’s birds. Con¬ 
fusion at the door, and in the room, must inevitably result 
from a contrary arrangement.—W.] 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
PLANTS FOR A CHURCH-YARD. 
In answer to “ R. Iv. A. P.,” who enquires for our opinion 
relative to appropriate plants for Churchyards and Cemetries, 
we have to express our entire dissent from those who would 
plant anything hut evergreens, up to a certain height, in, or 
round such depositaries of those who will live for ever. 
Yews, Hollies, and Cypress, are the most usually planted 
there, but we see no reason why others should not be 
equally fitted for the purpose. There is no tree, the mode 
of growth of which is better fitted to associate with church 
architecture, than the Evergreen Cypress (Cupressus sem- 
pervirens), but it must have a dry situation, and a warm 
climate. It might be planted within a yard of the church, 
without any danger from shade, or spreading about; next 
to any of the corners of the church, in pairs, that is, one at 
each corner, it would just he in place. The Horizontal 
Cypress ( C. horizontalis ) which is considered a species by 
some, and by others a variety of the last, is more fitting for 
a churchyard than any tree we know, but not to be planted 
near the church or any building. The celebrated Cypress 
of Mistra is believed to be of this kind; it branches out in 
all directions, and the young shoots hang down in dense 
soft clusters, not in long wreaths like the Fnneral Cypress 
( Ciipressvsfunehris ). The Twisted Cypress (C. torrulosa), 
the Weeping Cypress (C. pendula), and Gowen’s Cypress 
(C. Goveniana), are all very suitable for Churchyards and 
Cemetries. All these will grow in good ordinary soil, but 
the question requires to be handled, both practically and 
scientifically, and at great length. 
LESCHENAULTIA BILOBA. 
In answer to “ .J. C.,” none but the very best gardeners 
have ever succeeded with it better than yourself, and some 
of them not half so well as you, the she ret is to keep the 
roots always confined, by under-potting, or usiDg much 
smaller pots than the size of the plant would suggest, and 
to go on “ stopping ” the young growth for the first year or 
two, without regard to flowering, but first to get a thick 
bottom to the plant, and then very little stopping. Your 
Acacia has not the smallest resemblance to Dntmmondi, 
but it belongs to the same section. 
