October 28. 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENER. 
07 
perhaps, though a second swarm rarely becomes very popu¬ 
lous. At all events, the question of advantage rests in so 
much equilibrium, that I had rather, in most cases, let 
nature alone, unless in some obviously exti'eme emergency. 
The oldest queen on record was one of Mr. Goldings, which, 
at four years of age, or nearly so. filled the hive so full of 
brood of all kinds before she died, that a large swarm 
issued soon after (in May), and four more subsequently. 
As regards the question of bees working in the light, I can 
only say, that so far as I have seen, they appear to care 
nothing about it, if used to it from the first. Alternations 
between light and darlmess does not do; and they are 
alarmed where one or the other is not continuous. I saw 
a hive thus working, exposed to the light, many years ago, 
j I think at Oxford; hut the experiment, I believe, is hardly 
likely to lead to any very useful practical result beyond 
ascertaining a fact. I mentioned the hive I am now work¬ 
ing (altogether of iglass at the sides) to a friend, who told 
me he once saw a number of wooden hives at work, and all 
without shutters to the windows, of which most of the hives 
had two. The owner, in answer to a question, replied, that 
he found the bees did not care about the light, and he left 
off making shutters to save trouble. In winter, I should 
say they would be needed; and, on the whole, I should 
prefer them. However, you shall judge for j'ourself next 
year, when I hope to send you a hV//i< hive. The good old 
Doctor is to have one; and he tells me he has already in 
his mind decided as to where it is to stand. We have just 
emerged from an argument as to the natiu'e of a drone eg;/, 
leaving off wdiere we began. You will be grieved to hear i 
that his eyes have failed him of late; his own admirable j 
hand-writing being of late exchanged for that of a secre- j 
tary. | 
“ I mentioned to Dr. Sevan that the Entomological Society | 
had offered a prize for the best essay on the duration of life j 
in bees, of which I thought he knew more than any one. 
Ho says he could do no more than repeat what he has 
already written. The question, indeed, appears to me to 
have been settled fifteen years ago by him. Dr. Dunbar, 
Mr. Golding, and, I think. Sir William Jardine, beyond 
farther dispute (see the “Honey See”), Sut, judging 
from what has recently appeared as to bees in the name of 
one of the magnates of the said Society, they do not seem 
a-ware that the world has kept moving of late years.” 
FLOWER-GARDEN PLANS.—No. 1 . 
1 Blue. 5 Blue. 
2 Dark purple. 6 Yellow. 
3 Dwarf box, clipped. 7 Scarlet. 
4 Bright pink. 8 Blue. 
9 Bright pink. 
10 Brilliant orange. 
11 White. 
Tins, the first of our series of flower- 
garden plans, was sent to me before the 
subject was announced for publication. 
The author is a friend, and a clever 
gardener, and he had no idea at the time 
he sent it, that either his “ tracings,” or 
anything about them would ever be made 
public. Having fixed on this plan for 
oiu- first number, some delay was neces¬ 
sary, to obtain his consent to publish it. 
He made no obsen'atious on the plan the 
second time, and all that he said in the 
first letter, was this—“ I send you tracings 
of a flower-garden, which I have some 
thoughts of laying down here. What do 
think of it? The colours I merely put 
down for your good-natured criticism. But 
I always think a few well-defined and 
distinct colours better than a larger number. 
Don’t you ? ” I do think so, for that is the 
grand secret, after all, of planting a flower- 
garden for effect. Some plant more, to 
show the extent of their bedding-plants, 
their scarcity, and sa forth, and pride 
themselves on the greater number of 
species or varieties they can thus in¬ 
troduce, and when the space is large 
enough, and the sizes and position of the 
beds are such as to allow of all that being 
effected in “ a well-defined, and distinct 
manner,” that kind of pride is very ex¬ 
cusable. Some day or other, I shall give 
the best instance I know of that way of 
planting a large flower-garden. Mean¬ 
time, I shall give two reasons for fixing 
on this for the first plan; first, because the 
j colours are given without mentioning the 
j plants for producing them; thus leaving 
j the field open for young planters of both 
j sexes to exercise their taste a little, and send us the names of 
such plants as they would plant in this garden, and this I 
I earnestly invite young artists, as we may call them, to do. 
’ Then, after a few months, I shall criticise all that are sent to 
; me, and give the way I would plant myself. As the plans will 
; be numbered, there will be no difficulty in referring to any of 
j them at any future time, and there is a long time before us, 
1 between this and next May, without any occasion for 
pressing on our different styles of planting. All the time 
' that I served at Shrubland Park, the final arrangement of 
, tlie flower-gardens there was not settled before the middle 
^ of April, and those fine gardens have been allowed to bo 
; among the very best in the country; and in another year or 
I two, when the whole of the great improvements now going 
on there shall have been completed, I should not be far 
from the mark, if I were to say that would bo the finest 
place in England for flewer-gardens ; and then I venture to 
say that it will be late every spring before they will settle 
how the whole is to be planted. 
My second reason for this jdan is because my friend has 
introduced a new feature in it, for the first time since I 
began to plant flower-gardens. I mean his introducing Box 
as a relief or green colour in beds No. 3, between the dark 
pui-ple in beds No. 2, and the blue in beds No. 1. This style 
is all but quite new in this country. I only know of a few 
places where box-beds, or beds of some flowerless j)lants are 
used; but on the Continent, I hear the plan is common, and 
I know that some old foreign authors treat of this style as 
quite familiar. The different coloured gravels, pebbles, and 
sand they use in Italy, in their Itahan gai’dens, is part and 
