August 8.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
280 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
w 
i) 
AUGUST 8—14, 1850. 
Weather near London 
in 1849. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun Moon 
Sets. R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bcf.Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
8 
To 
Swift last seen. 
T. 85°— 54°. 
S.W. 
Fine. 
36 a. 4 
35 a. 7 i 8 a. 3 
1 
5 
23 
220 
9 
F 
Linnet’s song ceases. [seen. 
T. 81°—56°. 
S.W. 
Fine. 
1 37 
33 8 
35 
2 
5 
16 
221 
10 
S 
St. Lawrence. Silver-spotted Skipper Butterfly 
T, 80°—59°. 
S.W. 
Fine. 
1 39 
32 j 9 
3 
3 
5 
7 
222 
11 
Sun 
11 Sun. aft. Trinity. Dog Days end. 
T. 81°—57°. 
s. 
Rain. 
40 
3ft 9 
29 
4 
i 4 
58 
223 
12 
M 
Swallows and Martins begin to congregate. 
T. 73°—56°. 
s. 
Rain. 
42 
28 1 9 
54 
5 
4 
48 
224 
13 
Tu 
Second brood of House Martins fledged. 
T. 70°—52°. 
S.W. 
Rain. 
43 
26 10 
19 
6 
! 4 
38 
225 
14 
W 
Goldfinch’s song ceases. 
T. 70°—52°. 
S.W. 
Fine. 
45 
24 ! 10 
47 
9 
4 
28 
226 
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, whose birthday was the 1 6th of the 
present month, in *1743, deserves a notice on this page as being one of the 
first to apply his knowledge of Chemistry practically to the cultivation of 
the soil. We can remember the time when the farmer and the gardener 
| scoffed at such application ; and we can remember, also, many of the 
wild theories published by dabblers in science, which practical cultivators 
quoted in justification of their scoffs. How baseless were those theories 
and that ridicule wc have also lived to sec acknowledged. Because Tull, 
Beatson, and others, mistaking the discoveries of chemistry, have main¬ 
tained that frequent hocings will enable the cultivator to dispense with 
his dunghill, is no more a reason that chemistry can afford no guidance to 
the farmer and gardener than astronomy is proved to be useless to the j 
navigator because some surveyors of the heavens have maintained that 
the sun travels round the earth. Doubtless, Lavoisier made many such 
mistakes, was wrong in his inferences, and consequently was disappointed 
when he came to the results of his experiments; yet he went on culti¬ 
vating his two hundred and forty acres in La Vendee. Satisfied that his 
principle was right, he instituted other experiments, corrected his mis¬ 
takes, gained yearly more and more knowledge of the phenomena of 
vegetation and of the food of plants, nor ceased until at the end of nine 
years his annual produce doubled that obtained per acre by the neigh¬ 
bouring farmers. This combination of practice with science must ever 
. outstrip either practice or science alone. The mere practitioner goes on a 
blind follower of the blind; and science without practical knowledge is 
like a sunbeam falling on empty space. In no department of knowledge 
is this union of practice with science more beneficial than in that in¬ 
cluding the cultivation of the soil. It exhibits in alight the most obvious 
the intimate connexion of the sciences—the mechanism of our imple¬ 
ments, the physiology of our animals and plants, the chemistry of their v 
food, and the geology of our soils, are all subjects on which volumes have 
been written—volumes from which the most experienced cultivator 
gathers enlightening information. Lavoisier through life kept this prac¬ 
tical use of science in view, and was engaged in researches tending to the 
same bright object when he voluntarily went forth to death at the call of 
duty; and we know of no nobler passage with which to embalm his 
memory. Finding that his chemical researches involved him in heavy 
expenses, lie sought for and obtained the lucrative appointment of a 1 
Farmer-general of the revenue—not to increase his fortune, but to enable 
him the better to aid other students in science, and to empower him more 
freely to open to them his laboratory. This was on the eve of the justly 
named “ Reign of Terror ” marking the outbreak of the French Revo¬ 
lution. Lavoisier continued at his studies without interfering in that 
political convulsion, and this, coupled with the fact of his being a 
Farmer-general, determined his doom. In that time of “ terror within 
terror,” when “ executions took place in batches, and fifty persons were 
sent to death daily,” innocence was no safe-guard ; and he was denounced 
on the absurd charge of mixing noxious ingredients with the tobacco 
supplied to the public from the warehouses within his department. To 
avoid arrest—for there was then rarely a passage from the prison door 
but to the scaffold—Lavoisier secreted himself ; but hearing that his 
colleagues and his father-in-law were imprisoned, he surrendered, and 
was condemned to death. lie asked for a respite to complete some 
experiments, the results of which would be important to mankind, but 
the reply was, “ The Republic has no need of Chemists ! ” He sought 
no further for delay; and no victim murdered by the guillotine ascended 
it with more fortitude, nor died more beloved by their private friends, 
nor more lamented by men of science. He was beheaded on the 8th of 
May, 1794* This is no appropriate place for commenting upon his dis¬ 
coveries in science, his logical deductions, his enlightened theoretical con¬ 
clusions, nor even upon his admirable chemical nomenclature. He may be 
said to have constructed a language for chemistry—a language so happily 
constituted, that the mere name of any compound at once informs of 
what it is constituted, and to what class of bodies it belongs. We wish 
most fervently that some Lavoisier would arise among botanists, and 
reform their nomenclature of names—names at present constituting a 
jargon ditticult to interpret, and for the most part worthless when 
interpreted. 
Meteorology or the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations 
during the last twenty-three years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 74*3° and 51° respectively. The greatest 
heat, 93°, occurred on the 10th in 1812 ; and the extreme cold, 32°, was 
on the 13th in 1839. Ninety-eight days were fine, and on sixty-three 
rain fell. 
Insects—W c have been asked 
so repeatedly to furnish information 
whereby the three different tenants 
RANGE OF BAROMETER—RAIN IN INCHES. 
Aug. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1815. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
1849. 
8 
B. 
729.716 
30.029 
30.220 
29.712 
2Q.831 
29728 
29.731 
29.896 
29.960 
129.619 
30.025 
30.153 
29.614 
29-820 
29.701 
29.700 
29763 
29.837 
R. 
0.01 
— 
— 
— 
0.26 
0.01 
0.10 
0.13 
— 
9 
B. 
7 29.684 
30.029 
30.060 
29.756 
29.628 
29.969 
29.876 
29 851 
29.752 
\ 29.596 
2Q.844 
29.950 
29733 
29.427 
29.844 
29.751 
29.803 
2y.678 
R. 
0.01 
— 
— 
— 
0.01 
— 
0.02 
0.23 
— 
10 
B. 
J 29.800 
29.772 
30.177 
29.744 
29.577 
30.022 
29.881 
30.022 
29.873 
129.678 
29.621 
29-997 
29.591 
29.526 
30.007 
29.808 
29.952 
29737 
R. 
0.36 
1.06 
— 
— 
0.05 
— 
0.05 
0.15 
— 
11 
B. 
f 29.662 
30.131 
30.237 
29.783 
29.760 
30.073 
30.112 
30.054 
29.906 
\ 29.458 
29-832 
30.234 
29.550 
29 . 62 s 
30.039 
30.072 
29.994 
29.861 
R. 
0.30 
— 
— 
0.12 
0.36 
0.26 
— 
O.lp 
0.34 
12 
B. 
r 29.923 
30.257 
30.237 
29.608 
29.929 
30.066 
30.110 
30.018 
2Q.764 
129.888 
30.200 
30.213 
29.374 
29.826 
30.039 
30.088 
29.963 
29.679 
R. 
— 
— 
— 
0.33 
0.01 
0.01 
— 
— 
0.02 
13 
B. 
r 29.886 
30.399 
30.211 
29.611 
30.036 
29.792 
30.253 
29.990 
29.624 
129.772 
30.379 
30.093 
29.531 
30.003 
29-682 
30.189 
29.951 
29 570 
R. 
0.30 
— 
— 
0.24 
0.07 
0.22 
— 
0.21 
0.09 
14 
B. 
729.719 
30.359 
30.074 
29.424 
29.952 
29912 
30.316 
29.872 
29.763 
129.599 
30.214 
29.9*5 
29.331 
29-819 
29.879 
30.276 
29.711 
29.674 
R. 
0.04 
0.30 
— 
0.68 
of a bee-hive may be distinguished 
from each other, that we think it 
best to furnish a drawing of each, 
with the descriptions given of them by one who has written the most 
successful monograph of the bee tribe—the late Mr. Kirby. We will 
begin with the most numerous members of the colony—the working Hive 
Bee {Apis mellijica). Its head, triangular; mandibles (jaws), promi¬ 
nent, terminating the head in an angle, toothless, overlapping at the 
point; tongue and maxilla* (teeth), long and incurved; labrum (upper 
lip) and antenna;, black. The trunk has black teguke; wings, reach 
to the edge of the fourth segment of the abdomen ; legs, black, with 
digits (fingers) pitch -coloured; hinder tibia- (shanks), naked above, con¬ 
cave lengthwise on outside, inside convex, furnished with lateral recum¬ 
bent hairs to form the corbicuta (receptacle for kneaded pollen) ; the 
upper surface of the under part of the hinder tarsi (feet) resembles that 
of the tibue, furnished underneath with a stiff brush {scapula) of hairs in 
rows. The abdomen rather longer than both head and trunk, oblong, 
rather heart-shaped, clothed with pale yellowish hairs, first segment short 
with longer hairs, base of three intermediate segments banded with pale 
hairs, apex (summit) of three intermediate ventral segments tawny, and 
at the base of each a trapeziform war-pocket, covered with a thin mem¬ 
brane; sting, or rather sheath of the sting, straight. There are two 
sorts of working bees—the wax makers and the nurses who attend upon 
the brood. An ounce of bees contains 336, and a pint holds 2160 . They 
collect the nectar of llowcrs, from which they form honey and ivax; the 
pollen or dust from the anthers, of which bee-bread , their food, is made ; 
and propolis, a resinous substance used in the lining of the hive, and 
finishing the combs. The tongue of the bee laps up the nectar; and it 
is swallowed, passing into the first, stomach or honey-bag. Wax is be¬ 
lieved to be secreted in the wax-pockets. They do not attempt to collect 
nectar from the Trumpet Honeysuckle, because of the difficulty of access 
to it; but they avoid that of the Crown Imperial, probably because 
noxious; and the Oleander yields honey fatal to flies, but it never suc¬ 
ceeds in tempting the bee. In each journey from the hive a bee visits 
but one species of flower, which is the reason we see them return with 
such different coloured pellets of pollen. Each bee makes about six 
excursions daily. In twenty-four hours they will construct a comb twenty 
inches long and seven wide. The bees often seen vibrating their wings so 
rapidly at the entrance of a hive are promoting its ventilation. They 
have been preserved in the same hive for thirty years; but the age to 
which a bee will live has not been clearly ascertained. 
No. XGVIL, Vol. IV. 
