September 25.1 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
405 
an}' young chickens that are very backward in fledging as 
the cold weather approaches. 
Work in the Hen-yard during the Autumn Season .—Feed 
all the poultry well, and more abundantly after they begin 
to moult. Take care that the backward and timid chickens 
get a good supply. 
BEES.—No. 1. 
Completely as the stock of which I gave an account in a 
former letter had disappointed me, owing to the extraor¬ 
dinarily cold weather of last May, I did not at all regret 
having experimented upon it, as it set me to work specu- 
| lating upon, and afforded me some reasonable ground ior 
attempting to explain, the causes of the failure of so many 
hives in winter and spring. It also taught me this lesson— 
that bees have not the power (which has been generally 
attributed to them) to regulate, at pleasure, the temperature 
of their hives; or, if they have the power, at least that they 
are not led in general to exercise it, even (for instance) at a 
time when the strongest bee-instinct, that of self-preserva¬ 
tion, or (as it is called) loyalty, would be most likely to 
induce them to raise it according to their need. Here were 
not only royal cells ceiled over to he kept warm, of whose 
existence the bees were perfectly aware, but also young royal 
larvae in every stage of growth, yet the cold* obliged them 
to forsake the comb in which they were lodged, when a very 
slight motion on their part would have raised the tempera¬ 
ture of the hive to a summer heat, as, in fact, it did, when¬ 
ever I disturbed them. The excitement occasioned by alarm, 
or anger alone, seems to prevail in influencing it, save when 
the hive is summer-full of brood and wax-makers, and the 
natural temperature of the bees pervading the whole hive is, 
of itself, great and excitiug. Another thing is worthy of 
remark,—the old queen (I believe) died before the completion 
of her fourth year; and this, doubtless, is the case witli 
many hives which perish in the winter or spring (otherwise 
than from starvation), and this is of no unfrequent occur¬ 
rence. I have been surprised to find how many stocks die 
away every winter; in two seasons I have lost three hives 
in this way, which were full and heavy, and this in a com¬ 
paratively small apiary, and my neighbour’s experience is 
like my own. If, then, there be danger of losing so many 
stocks from this cause, as confessedly exists (especialfy in 
amateur apiaries), am I not right in advising* the destruc¬ 
tion of every queen bee in an apiary, who has been ascer¬ 
tained to have completed her second or, at the latest, third 
year of existence ? For would not this effectually prevent 
the frequent winter-failure of stocks, to which I have alluded, 
I resulting from the death of a worn-out queen, at an un¬ 
favourable period of the year ? In order to insure the 
greatest success in following this advice, it would be desirable 
to encourage early breeding, to which I am glad to find Mr. 
Bayne has drawn the attention of your readers in a recent 
number of Ti-ie Cottage Gardener. The advantages 
of this practice are great in many ways, and it may be 
done to a remarkable extent (as I hope to show from 
my own experience this year, in a future paper,) where 
hives are managed in snug bee-houses, or warm parlour- 
windows. This would encourage early swarming; in fact, 
[ so that a swarm might always be expected (weather permit- 
i ting) to issue before the 20tli of May. Nothing is easier 
! than to catch and destroy the queen of this swarm, which 
: latter would immediately return to the parent hive, and re- 
| issue with great regularity in a few days, under the sove- 
i reignty of a young queen. It would not much signify even 
! if it issued a little late (say not till the middle of June), 
because the enlarged size of the swarm would amply make 
up for the lateness of the season by the rapid increase in 
wealth of the new and populous hive. I would further 
mention, as an advantage resulting from this treatment, 
that the old stock would be less likely to cast than under the 
usual circumstances ; besides that, in the interval between 
the return and re-issue of the prime swarm a large quantity 
of honey would be added, in a kindly season, to its stores— 
either in the hive itself, or in caps or glasses over it. If 
* I should have stated that the external air was excluded every night, 
and the ventilators opened beneath the hive, communicating with a warm 
room, and the glass was always well covered up. 
t See “ English Bee-keeper,” page 34, &c. 
the old queen were known to be a prolific mother, I would 
suffer her to live to the beginning of her fourth year ; or, if 
she were a bad breeder, I would destroy her at the com¬ 
mencement of her second year. A little, discretion in de¬ 
termining when to do it, would result in great success, with 
little corresponding ^failure. I am indebted for this sug¬ 
gestion to a valuable paper which appeared in your columns 
(vol. v., page 72), signed with the initials H. T. Should 
any individual dread the idea of searching for, and catching 
a queen among a whole swarm, I can only say that my own 
experience of its facility fully corroborates what your cor¬ 
respondent lias there stated. A little courage, at first, is 
certainly required; and a bee-drees will give this where it 
is naturally wanting, as in my own case I will freely confess 
it is. The practice of destroying queens, at all events, in 
the way I have recommended, is, it will be seen, no new or 
untried thing. 
But thero is yet a simpler and more effectual way of 
getting rid of superannuated queens, and maintaining a 
perpetual supply of youthful sovereigns, which my new 
system of cottage bee-management recommends to notice, 
and which I must be permitted (at the hazard of seeming 
to be over-much in love with the production of my owm pen 
and brain), to press strongly on the attention of your 
readers. I do so from the conviction that that system is the 
most suited of any to our fickle climate and uncertain 
seasons, and the persuasion that it must ultimately, if only 
fairly tried, supersede all other methods of out-door bee¬ 
keeping. I have given it a two-years’ trial on a small scale, 
and it answers beyond expectation. This very summer I 
have managed several of my stocks in this way ; and, indif¬ 
ferent, nay bad, as the season has been, in every case the 
result has been highly satisfactory. It must be reserved, 
however, to a future occasion to treat of this at length.— 
A Country Curate. 
BOTANICAL NOMENCLATURE. 
I have only just seen, owing to absence from home, your 
number of July 24. Will you allow me to make a few 
remarks on what is said, page 252, on the subject of Bo¬ 
tanical nomenclature. I do not deny that many names ! 
given by botanists to flowers are absurd ; but consider for j 
a moment the amazing difficulty in devising appropriate 
names for such a multiplicity of objects. 
The number of flowers known and named exceeds, I 
believe, 50,000. Allow five species to a genus as an average, 
and there are 10,000 distinct names required. Entomology, 
and other natural sciences, as ornithology, &c., have appro¬ 
priated, and are appropriating, names by thousands, and 
thus narrowing the field for botanical nomenclature. B. J. 
desires the advent of a botanical Lavoisier; but he has 
appeared already in the form of Linnaeus. Perhaps that 
great man’s greatest gift to natural history, was his devising 
generic and specific names. Lavoisier’s nomenclature, as 
a system, is perfect, but requires almost equal perfection in 
the science, or it often misleads. For instance, the grand 
element oxygen itself is wrongly named. Lavoisier gave it 
that name, because he believed it was the chief or only 
generator of acid; but we have acids, as the hydrochloric, 
in which there is not a single particle of oxgen. 
Names in natural sciences should be neutral, that is, 
involving no theory nor system. Thus, carbon is an excel- | 
lent name. It is short, easily remembered, formed from ! 
the Latin, and involving no theory. Such should names in ! 
botany be :—1. As universal names, i.e., not limited to one I 
language or nation; they should be either compounded 
from the learned languages, or have an allied form. 2. They 
should be tolerably short, so as to be easily remembered. 
2. They should be free from all distinctive peculiarity of ! 
nation, so as to avoid what is called barbarism. Such names 
as Yieusseuxia (French), Fuchsia (German), Wrightia 
(English), should, therefore, be always avoided. 4. And, 
lastly, they should he neutral, and involve no theory or 
circumstance which may be found erroneous. Tested by 
these signs, Vanda seems to me a very good name. It is j 
of a form, though not classical, yet allied to it. No Euro- j 
pean nation would find a difficulty in pronouncing Vanda. \ 
It is short and easily remembered. It is neutral; and, i 
