THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, May 5, 1857. 
73 
you can bud as many finer Roses as you can get. All 
plants can be bought in the nurseries if on sale, and the 
nearest nurseryman is the best to apply to, as, if he has not 
got the particular plant, he can procure it cheaper than 
any one else ; he will also be partly or altogether responsible 
for what he traffics in. 
This is a good time to sow Grange's White Broccoli to 
come in late in the autumn; also the Walcheren, which you 
should sow twice a month from the middle of March to 
the end ef July, but only a little pinch each time, so as to 
have a few plants to plant out at regular intervals through¬ 
out the season, because this kind is always in season.] 
EDGING OE BULBS. 
“ Wayfaring on the 1st of last March through Lympstone, 
Devon, a pretty village on the banks of the Exe, midway 
between Exeter and Exmouth, I saw there, at the gardens 
of Capt. Wright, what I thought a very pleasing mixture 
edging a border, which ran parallel with a long, well-kept 
gravelled terrace walk. The edging consisted of Crocuses, 
white, blue, and yellow; the double Snowdrop; and a variety 
of Squills, Scilla ameena. All the bulbs appeared singly, 
closely planted in four straight rows; they were discrimi- 
nately intermingled, and the rows were about three inches 
apart. In answer to your call I send you this prescription 
of the mixture of Squills ; and would not S. bifolia , S. alba , 
S. rubra , S. obtusi/olia, S. prcecox, and S. Sibirica add still 
more to its effect?”— Upwards and Onwards. 
[Many thanks. Any one thing that has been actually 
done in this line is of more practical value than one hundred 
things which might be done. All the Scillas ought to be as 
common as Crocuses ; but, like the Crocuses, they flower at 
different times, not all at one time.] 
BED OF SEDUM ACRE AUREUM. 
“ In my communication to you respecting the Sedum acre 
aureum as a spring bedding plant I forgot to mention that it 
is the golden foliage, not flowers, that makes it so desirable a 
spring plant. The flower is the same as the common variety. 
I inclose a few sprigs of it.”—G. T. F., Leek. 
[It is the common Stonecrop, with the tops of its shoots 
bright yellow^—another “ Golden Chain ” in fact. Pray send 
us a few plants in a pill box by post. Mr. Beaton will be 
glad of it for the Experimental Garden.] 
CONSTRUCTION OF A PEACH HOUSE. 
“ I am much obliged to you for the paragraph in The 
Cottage Gardener on a ‘ Peach house.’ As you say you 
‘ would like to understand more thoroughly ’ what I really 
intend doing, I will now explain myself in as few words as 
possible, and if you will then give me your opinion you will 
confer on me a great favour. The climate I am situated in 
is too cold and wet for growing Peaches out of doors. I, 
therefore, wish to put a house up sufficiently large to hold 
twelve trees, and to have Peaches, Apricots, and Nectarines 
in abundance. I consequently want to know the best 
plan of succeeding in my object. I am not in favour of one 
plan more than another, and am at liberty to adopt any. 
One house would not be as convenient, perhaps, as three, 
say two glass divisions in one house of 100 feet. I mention 
this so that my naming ‘ a house ’ in the former part of my 
letter might not lead you to think I desired one house for 
all. If you could name any place you would recommend me 
to visit, if your opinion should be changed by what I have 
now written, I would go there, as I am desirous of putting 
up the best.”— Wales. 
[Our difficulty was with the word standard chiefly, and 
that you do not seem to make an essential, otherwise our 
opinion remains unchanged. Did we Avish to consult 
economy in fuel, and grow Peaches on a t»ellis in the usual 
way, we would have a back Avail eleven feet in height, front 
Avail eighteen inches, and Avidtli eleven feet, planting against 
the back wall, and having a Ioav trellis in front. Were 
filing less an object Ave would just remove the back wall, 
and double the house as a span-roof, standing north and 
south, its sides facing east and west. Did we wish to make 
the house handsome as well as useful we would have 
upright sides from six to seven feet high, and two-thirds of 
them to be glass; width of house twenty-two to tAventy-four 
feet; height at centre thirteen feet. This would somewhat 
resemble the span-roofed houses mentioned at page 220, 
Yol. XVI., as put up by Mr. McIntosh at Lord Panmure’s. 
With such a Avidth there could be a path in the middle, and 
a path and a shelf round the sides, Avith tAVO beds for the 
trees, and the trees could be trained to upright rounded 
trellises, or grown as standards as our correspondent pro¬ 
posed. For elegance and nicety this plan would be the 
best. For simplicity and economy we Avould adopt the 
other and older plan, as i3, or used to be, practised at Stowe. 
It is getting fashionable to groAv Peaches as standards, but 
for the reasons assigned we think it advisable to give them 
support. Such a house as you propose Avould be best 
divided, otherwise you would have a glut at times. When 
your trees Avere planted you might grow temporary ones in 
pots until they filled the house; but for the Peaches hanging 
down by their own weight we must OAvn that it is grander 
and more interesting to see them on standards than 
fastened to trellises. They do remarkably well in large 
pots and tubs.] 
WATER RUNNING OVER FROM THE SUPPLY 
CISTERN. 
“ Can you tell me the reason of the water in the supply 
cistern running over for some time when the water gets hot 
in the four-inch pipes of a pinery, and then sinking down in 
the pipes, and Avanting to be filled up with sometimes eight 
pots of Avater?”—H ead. 
[Fill a saucepan Avith Avater, set it on the fire, and bring 
it to or near the boiling point, and you Avill find the 
Avater will run over, because water expands, and requires 
more space as it is heated. This is why the Avater runs 
over your supply cistern. One of two remedies must be 
applied. Your cistern must be made sufficiently large 
to allow of the expansion of Avater, or it must be as far from 
being full as will permit of that expansion. As it is, you 
will not only have to supply, when your Avater is cold, the 
quantity run over by expansion, and Avhat was lost by 
evaporation, but also the quantity seemingly lost by the 
water taking less room as it cools. When the supply cistern 
is near the boiler running over there Avill be prevented by 
taking the supply pipe beloAV, and then into the bottom of 
the boiler; but in that case you will require air pipes at the 
farther and higher extremity of the piping, and when the 
heat is strong and the pressure great we have seen not only 
vapour issuing, but even water driven through the small air 
pipes to the distance of several yards. Presuming other 
things are right your simplest remedy is enlarging the 
cistern, and not filling it full.] 
WHEN DOES A QUEEN BEE DIE? 
“ It is always stated in books on bees that the old queen 
leads off the SAvarm. If she does so when does she die ? 
for, supposing she leads off a swarm this year, and that 
they are properly hived, and no maiden SAvarm comes from 
them, then next year she must lead off again, and so on for 
ever.” —John M‘Lellan. 
[We think a little reflection will enable you to see the 
absurdity of your position. Does it follow, because a swarm 
of bees is accompanied by the oldest queen at the time in 
the family hive, that the same individual must continue to 
“ lead off again, and so on for ever ? ” Doubts of her im¬ 
mortality are certainly implied in your other question, 
“ When does she die ?” Of the exact period of the demise 
of the mother bee it is impossible to speak with any approach 
to certainty, so many casualties have to be taken into ac¬ 
count. There is no doubt that, except from accident or 
disease, the life of a queen bee is usually prolonged much 
beyond that of any other individual in the family, and some 
have been known to exist during three or four years. Some 
apiarians have expressed a doubt whether the productive 
