L 30 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 22 . 
house shrub. It is a native of Port Stephen ancl other 
parts of Eastern Australia, where it was discovered by Mr. 
Allan Cunningham. It flowered at Kew in the February 
of 1854, and is “ one of the finest yet known of the 
genus.”—( Botanical Magazine, t. 4799.) 
Ateoclinium eoseum ( Rose-coloured Atroclinium). 
A greenhouse annual, with showy, pink flowers, like a 
small China Aster, and pale green herbage. It is a native 
of South-west Australia, where it was found by Mr. II. 
Drummond in 1853. It belongs to a new genus founded by 
Professor A. Gray, and there are four other species.— 
(Ibid. t. 4801.) 
Senecio peoecox (Early-flowering Tree Groundsel). 
This has been long known as Cineraria prcecox. Under 
the latter name it will be found in The Cottage Gaedenees’ 
Dictionaey. — (Ibid. t. 4803.) It is a greenhouse, yellow- 
flowered evergreen, and native of Mexico. 
Hedeea glomeeulata (Globe-umbeled Ivy). 
This singular stove evergreen comes from Gede Mountain 
in the Island of Java. It blooms annually at Kew in April 
and May, and is remarkable for its pendent racemes, like 
gigantic bunches of currant blooms, four or live feet 
long.— (Ibid. t. 4804.) 
Rhododendron Maddeni (Major Madden’s Rhododendron). 
“ Next to R. DaUwusice, this is perhaps the noblest of the 
Sikkim Rhododendrons which rewarded Dr. Hooker’s re¬ 
searches in Northern India. Its flowers are nearly as large 
as in that species, fragrant, very much in general form and 
size resembling the white Day Lily (Lilium candidum) but 
the corolla is delicately tinged with rose. Fine as is the 
original figure of the author above quoted, it is quite equalled 
by our flowering specimens at Kew, which were in perfection 
in May and June of 1854, in a cool and shaded greenhouse. 
The large, delicate flowers contrast well with the ample dark 
green foliage, which is rusty beneath, and has deep red 
petioles. It is a rare species in its native mountains, only 
found in the inner ranges of Sikkim-IIimalaya, in thickets 
by the Lachen and Lachoong rivers, at Choongtam, at an 
elevation of 0000 feet above the level of the sea. We cannot 
venture to consider it a hardy plant. The species, Dr. 
Hooker says, ‘ is named in compliment to Major Madden, of 
the Bengal Civil Service,—a good and accomplished botanist, 
to whose learned memoirs on the plants of the temperate 
and tropical zones of North-west Himalaya the reader may 
be referred for an excellent account of the vegetation of 
those regions. The same gentleman’s paper on the Conifcrce 
of the north of India may be quoted as a model of its 
kind.’”— (Ibid. t. 4805). 
Ceanothus eloeerundus (Copiousflowered Ceanothus). 
This most beautiful of the blue-flowered species is a 
native of California. It was sent thence by Mr. W. Lobb, 
to Messrs. Veitch, of the Exeter Nursery, and of King’s 
Road, Chelsea. The leaves are numerous, compact, and 
glossy, and the crowded flowers look like clusters of balls of 
mazarine blue. It flowers in June, and is quite hardy.— 
(Ibid. t. 480G.) 
Anguloa UNIFLOEA (/Singleflowered Anguloa.) 
This stove Orchid was flowered by Messrs. Jackson, of the 
Kingston Nursery, from a lot of Mr. Warcewitz’s Columbian 
Orchids, sold by auction in 1852. It bloomed in June, 1854. 
Its flowers are large, cream-coloured spotted with pink, and 
only one on each scape.— (Ibid. t. 4807.) 
BEE-KEEPING FOR COTTAGERS. 
(Concluded from Vol. XII., p, 257.) 
KEEPING HONEY. 
Having disposed of the medical properties and uses of 
honey, we proceed to detail what we know of preparing it 
and wax for use or sale. 
By way of conveniently doing this, let us suppose that the 
system mentioned in Section 5 has been followed, and has 
succeeded to the bee-master’s heart’s content; lie will then 
have in his store-room four hives well filled with honey, 
namely, a, and a’s second swarm, and'i’s first and second 
swarms ; and also such supers and glasses filled with honey 
as he has been able to take from the hives c and d. 
As honey keeps better in the comb than in any other way, 
it will be better not to break up any of the hives until the 
honey is wanted, if the bee-master has convenient cupboards 
for storing his full hives. If, however, room be an object, it 
will be necessary at once to break up some, at least, of his 
hives. He should begin with the old hive «; its combs will 
be quite black and tough, and totally unfit either to be sent 
to table, or to be mashed up; if the latter should be 
attempted, the product will he a mixture of honey and brood- 
bread. Having, then, your sieves handily arranged over 
your milkpans (which may be washed and used for this 
purpose), carefully cut out all the combs with the knives 
mentioned in Section 2, and lay them in a dish ; then take 
each comb separately, lay it on another flat dish, and with a 
sharp knife cut it into as many thin slices as there are rows 
of cells, taking care to cut through the centres of the cells ; 
then carefully shift all these thin slices into the sieves, and 
as each cell has been divided down the centre, the greater 
part of the honey contained in the comb will run through in 
a nearly pure state. The toughness of the combs, which 
has been caused by the skins left in the cells by the bees 
that have been bred in them, as mentioned in Section 1, 
renders this cutting comparatively easy. The honey which 
has run through the sieves will have in it many small 
portions of wax, which, in a day or two, will rise to the top 
and may be skimmed off, or the whole may be squeezed 
through a piece of thin muslin, and the honey then run into 
pots, carefully tied over, and kept in a dry place. 
The drained combs must be thrown into a tub of water, 
and in about twenty-four hours (having been turned over 
two or three times during that period,) they will be nearly, 
if not quite, deprived of their remaining honey; they can 
then be put into an empty hive, or pan, and put near your 
bees, who will quickly dispose of any small portions that 
may have been left in them. The water must, in the mean¬ 
time, be taken care of, and used for washing other combs 
and the sieves, Ac., which have been just used, and when 
sufficiently strong, this water may be brewed into mead, or 
vinegar, according to the receipts given in the early part of 
this Section. 
As soon as the bees have effectually cleaned out the 
drained combs, all such parts of them as show any signs of 
having any wax about them must be collected, and the wax 
may be made available in the following manner: it is one 
which has succeeded with us better than any other that we 
have read of in works on bees. Make a flat box of perforated 
zinc, nearly as large in its diameter as the largest kitchen 
pot you have, from two-and a-half to live or six inches in 
height, according to the height of your pot. Let this box 
be weighted at the bottom, and into it put such waxy combs 
as you have collected; then put it into the pot and boil it 
until every particle of wax has melted and floated to the top 
of the water, whence it may be collected when cool, the 
refuse in the box being still an admirable stuff for lighting 
fires. 
Having thus, as we conceive, pretty satisfactorily disposed 
of our old hive, let us turn to the swarms : the outer combs 
in these will be filled with honey and ceiled over; the middle 
ones will be comparatively empty; we recommend you, there¬ 
fore, to cut out the outer well-filled combs, and either mash 
them up and lay them on the sieves, and run the honey into 
pots as before, or lay them carefully on a large dish, wrap 
the dish carefully up in paper and stow it away; some 
people paper fine pieces of comb separately. As these 
combs are new ones, they will be neither dirty nor tough, as 
in the case of the old hive. As to the middle combs, we 
consider that they are more valuable for their own sakes 
than the little honey which is in them; and we, therefore, 
recommend that they should be kept until the next swarming 
season, either as they are (that is, with their little honey in 
them), or after they have been cleared out by such of the 
weak hives of the Apiary as may require a little feeding. 
In the next summer, these hives half-filled with combs may 
