June 5. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
167 
which both wasp and fly had fallen together. Ceing in the 
habit of flying late in the evening, they imitate bats in 
pursuit of moths. In warm nights they may bo seen re¬ 
turning laden, even at midnight. The hive, or rather ves¬ 
piary, I had contrived, afforded me good opportunities of 
making these observations, as also of noticing the excre- 
mental fluid of these insects, which is so copious that I was 
obliged to provide for its escape through the floor of the 
hive. The frequency of this discharge accounts for there 
being so large an opening in the under part of the shell of 
the hornet’s nest, very different from the small aperture in 
the nest of the wasp, and particularly of the tree wasp. 
The construction of the covering is, perhaps, the most 
curious part of the hornet’s ingenious labour, and is begun 
as already described. To make room, however, as the 
combs increase, the inside shell is often cut away, and the 
material worked up again, to form a larger one. Cut as the 
season draws towards a close the reverse takes place. 
Coatings are formed inside to protect the smaller combs 
below, with many curious windings and openings, which it 
is impossible to describe. These coverings vary in colour, 
according to the wood of which they are made, and exhibit 
strata of different shades of colour, like rocks. The combs 
beneath this warm protection are formed under the other, 
about a quarter-of-an-incli apart, and are supported by many 
pillars composed of tougher materials than the cells. The 
top of each comb becomes the floor for the one above it. 
The cells are hexagonal in shape, and the workers, erro¬ 
neously called neuters, are bred in the combs first formed, 
while the combs made later are exclusively occupied with 
the larvae of queens and drones. Though both are bred in 
cells of the same size, tlio queens are larger than the drones, 
owing to the greater length of their cocoons, or closings of 
the mouths of the cells by grubs, before they change to the 
pupa state. The drones are easily known by their long, 
dark, and curved horns, and, like males of all the bee tribes, 
are without stings, and take no active part in the colony. 
Their sole function is to impregnate the queens before they 
leave the nest at the end of the season. The workers are 
smaller than the drones, and are the real supporters 01 the 
whole colony. 
The food of hornets is similar to that of wasps, but 
they are not nearly so destructive in gardens ; deriving their 
food chiefly, it would appear, from the forest. I have known 
them to eat off the bark of Ash shoots of considerable 
thickness, probably for the sake of feeding on the juice of 
the inner rind. Nothing, however, comes amiss to them, 
from the hard Pear to the blue bottle fly, which latter they 
will carry home in their mouths to feed those in the nest. 
I have stated that the drops of clear, tasteless fluid, which 
hornets carry in their mouths, is nourishment for the 
grubs, but it may be also drink for the insects. As hornets 
devour flies, it may seem strange that flies will venture near 
their nests, and even enter them to deposit their eggs in 
the filth underneath ; yet it is true. A still more curious 
fact may be stated with regard to wasps, who equally wage 
war upon flies, which is, that a kind of fly is actually bred 
in their cells, the name of which I do not remember, but 
they might be called Wasp cuckoos, as the insects lay 
their eggs in wasps’ nests, and so leave the brood to their 
care. 
Though the name of hornet is known to every one, the 
insect is found only in parts of the country, and never seen 
in Scotland. Though the hornets appear later in the 
spring than wasps, they are more hardy, and do not leave 
their nests till the end of October. Wasps generally break 
up in September; during which month the queens gradu¬ 
ally quit their nests for winter’s quarters. Hornets do the 
same a month later, leaving the workers to attend to the 
younger brood; and these, true to their trust, will not leave 
the nest till benumbed with cold. The drones leave pre¬ 
viously with the queens, but these having fulfilled their 
mission, and having no instinct to provide for winter’s 
quarters, soon perish. 
It will not be inferred from these observations that the 
writer has any wish to encourage wasps and hornets, since a 
knowledge of their habits will assist us materially in devising 
means for their destruction. A good apiarian knows the 
temper of his bees by their sound; and the same may be 
said with regard to hornets. The staLe of the weather seems 
to affect their temper. When it is windy, or hot, the sound j 
they make is angry, but even then they will never attack a j 
person without due notice and buzzing about him. In calm 
weather they may he observed as closely as bees, and with j 
equal safety. Like bees, too, in hot weather, hornets fan 
with their wings at the doorways of the nests, making rather 1 
a pleasing sound, which seems to proceed from small holes 
under their wings, and which varies with the movement. This 
is the observation of a German writer respecting bees, which 
arc dumb, except when they emit a slight squeaking sound, 
if deprived of their wings. Hornets, like bees, have a great 
dislike to strangers intruding into their nests. During the 
past season, I put both strange queens and working hornets j 
into their nest; but they were quickly destroyed. Mr. 
Knight justly observes, that it is those only who issue from 
the wasp’s nest that attack one; and the same applies to 
hornets, as those returning are heavy laden, and their object i 
is to get home and deposit their burthens. Doth, however, 
are great plagues to man ; and every means should be 
employed to reduce their numbers by killing the queens in j 
spring, and destroying their nests in summer. 
There are various plans, such as stilling them with gun¬ 
powder, &c., but the most simple one, especially with wasps, 
is merely to pour about a wine glassful of turpentine into 
the hole of the nest in the evening, and close it up with a 
bit of turf. I think that Professor Henslow was the first to 
recommend this. Cut if a price were set upon the head of 
each queen in spi'ing—say a penny—as practised by some 
noblemen and gentlemen, such as the generous Earl of j 
Traquari, who gives a penny for every queen wasp brought j 
to his gardener, it would materially thin their numbers, and j 
not only dfford amusement to children, but add a little to their I 
treasured-up store. If all who have a wish to preserve their 
fruit were to adopt his Lordship’s plan, those destructive 
insects would be few indeed.—J. Wighton, Cossey Hall 
Gardens. 
NEW PLANTS. 
Drimys Winteri {Winter’s Bark). 
Although a plant known in this country for nearly three 
centuries, the Drimys Winteri has never before been pour- 
trayed here from a living.plant. 
It was brought to this country from the Straits of 
Magellan, by Captain "Winter, who accompanied Sir Francis 
Drake in his voyage round the world, in 1578. He had 
found its bark very serviceable to his crew as a spice eaten 
with their food, in the cold southern latitudes, as well as a 
