7 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
is to cut a small hole in the top, drive three flat-headed nails 
around it, standing up half an inch; on these lay a piece of 
empty comb, the upper cells of which can be filled with 
syrup, and the whole covered closely with an empty hive. 
The bees will readily take down a pound of syrup a day. 
When not required a cork secures the hole.—W. B. Teget- 
MEIEB. 
PURPLE AND WHITE HONESTY AS BEDDING 
PLANTS. 
In The Cottage Gardener, March 17th, “ The Doctor’s 
Boy ” requests communications on early bedding plants. I 
i employ the purple and white Honesty ( Lunaria ) with great 
I success in this department; and as it is, like many other useful 
| and ornamental plants, very much neglected, or perhaps over¬ 
looked, I send this memorandum of its application, hoping 
to extend its cultivation with those who, like myself, value 
early and simple flowers. 
I sow the seeds at the usual time in a reserved border. 
In the course of the summer they become strong plants, 
and when the tender plants, Geraniums, &c., require housing 
they are put in their places. In April and May they present 
a tine mass of bloom, which would continue beyond the 
time the half-hardy plants are ready to succeed them, when 
they are taken up and thrown away, being only biennials. 
In shrubberies, or where the ground is not wanted for other 
things, they are ornamental in seed and after it is shed, and 
never require renewing, from the seeds sowing themselves, 
as no doubt is the case on the islands in the Zoological 
Gardens at Clifton, where my attention was first drawn to 
the Honesty, from seeing there its large masses of purple 
bloom. I had some difficulty in procuring the white from 
seed; but I now have plenty, and a striped sort originated 
in my garden from the two kinds blending or hybridizing.— 
Flora. 
THE STEWARTON BEE BOXES. 
In common, I presume, with all readers of The Cottage 
Gardener who are bee-keepers, I experienced a wish to 
know more of the Stewarton bee boxes, and of the system 
pursued in that locality, than could be acquired from the 
very interesting letters of the gentlemen who first called 
attention to them in the pages of this paper. Owing to the 
courtesy of Mr. Eaglesham, who has been at some trouble 
in replying to the numerous queries that I have forwarded 
to him, I am enabled to describe not only the boxes, which 
are now before me, but the system of management to which 
they are subservient. I will firstly describe the formation 
of the boxes, of which three, precisely alike in all respects, 
constitute a hive. Each box is octagonal, or eight-sided, the 
inside measure being thirteen inches and three quarters 
across from side to side, or from back to front. The height 
of the box, measured inside, is five inches and three 
quarters. The bottom is perfectly open. The top is quite 
fiat, and consists of seven fixed bars, each one inch and 
a half wide, placed parallel to each other in the direction 
from back to front. The spaces between the bars are three- 
eighths of an inch wide, and are capable of being closed by 
strips of wood, which slide in grooves made in the sides of 
the bars, and which can readily be drawn out behind when 
required. Across the middle of each box, at half its height, 
is a cross bar serving to support the comb. Windows with 
sliding shutters are placed in the back and front of each 
box, and an entrance is cut out of the front, three inches 
in width by half an inch in height, with a slide to close it to 
any required extent. In addition to the set of three boxes 
a shallow honey box, three inches and three quarters in 
depth, and without an entrance in the front, but otherwise 
made in precisely the same manner, is used as a super. It 
is hardly requisite to state that these boxes are used on the 
storifying system, consequently they are furnished with 
buttons and hooks for the purpose of securing them together. 
I The general outline of the management is as follows :—A 
swarm is hived into two boxes communicating with each other. 
When these are nearly filled with comb a honey box is placed 
above, neatly furnished with guide combs on the bars. When I 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, April 7, 1857. 
the bees are fairly at work in the honey box the third body 
box may be added below , to give increased room and prevent 
swarming. 
In the winter this third box is removed, and the comb it 
contains left in, as it possesses a value well known to every 
skilled bee-keeper. Feeding when required is liberally 
pursued, enough being given at once in the autumn to last 
till spring. The feeding box, eight inches square by one 
inch and a half deep, is divided by strips of wood into 
divisions half an inch wide. This is placed on the top of the 
hive, covered over with a box, and the slides withdrawn to 
permit the bees to ascend to the food. 
The present article is merely descriptive, to enable those 
who are interested in the subject to form their own con¬ 
clusions as to the value of the boxes. I have, therefore, 
entered into no criticism respecting them. I may, however, 
remark that they are essentially working boxes , and not 
childish playthings, and in good seasons, I doubt not, will 
yield a very large honey harvest. They are remarkably 
well put together, and so reasonable in price that I do not 
understand how they can pay the expenses of the manu¬ 
facturer. 
I shall hive an early swarm into the set that I have, and 
will communicate the result through the columns of The 
Cottage Gardener.— W. B. Tegetmeier. 
A THING THAT “IS DONE.” 
By the Authoress of “ My Flowers 
Shall I be forgiven if I bring before my readers’ special 
notice the case of a gardener which has but lately come to 
my knowledge ? It is always painful, but very salutary, to 
bring home to a class or an individual failings or sins 
peculiar to their position or pursuit, because we all know 
how blind we are to our own faults, or else how we ruin 
ourselves by making light of them. Dishonesty is, dear 
reader, in the heart. It is not in this profession, or that 
business, or in this or that situation, whether the temptation 
is ever so great, or the opportunities ever so inviting. 
Reader, it is the corruption of our nature—the root of 
bitterness deep-seated in our hearts—that makes us sin, 
and leads us in that way, the end of which, unless repentance 
meets us, is death. The man that steals, or defrauds, or 
deceives in humble life would do exactly the same were he 
placed in the peerage. It might not be cabbages, or shop 
goods, or petty larceny; but it would be in matters of 
business, transactions of honour, affairs that take place 
between friend and friend, man and man, lawyer and client, 
debtor and creditor, master and man. Ah, dear readers, do 
not some among you feel a sudden dart in your inner 
chamber as secret doings flash upon your memory —doings 
that no eye has seen, no finger has touched, but that we 
know have been done snugly and quietly ? 
To my subject. A lady who loves her flowers with 
real enjoyment, and who has lately changed her residence, 
brought with her a young man as gardener who had been 
for some years in her service, and for whom she felt quite a 
regard. He had been, in the first place, taught the 
grammar of his business under the old gardener, went to 
finish himself under a first-rate nurseryman, and returned 
to occupy the old gardener’s place, who died just before 
William’s time with the nurseryman expired. The old 
gardener had been a very honest, hard-working, matter-of- 
fact affair, but by no means an artist; knew little of the j 
floricultural branch, and was so wedded to old ways and 
systems, that his mistress, after striving in vain to enlighten 
and enlarge his mind and beautify her borders, fairly gave 
it up, and made the best of what she could in no way over¬ 
come. Great was her delight when William entered upon 
office, deeply skilled in every modern improvement, master 
of his work, and young and active too. The garden, as by 
magic, burst into flower; endless varieties dazzled the eye; 
successions of crops, both of flowers and vegetables, trod on 
each other’s heels, and plenty decked the land. The sitting 
rooms were decorated too, and, altogether, the change 
astonished and charmed the lady’s eye. William married, 
and his wife having been a young servant in the same 
family during his boyish days there, all seemed settling 
down comfortably and satisfactorily. 
