120 
THK COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION, May 20, 1857. 
pyramidal Saxifrage, which is not, however, pyramidal unless 
tied up, but beautifully waving and almost pendulous, grows 
on calcareous rocks, where water oozes through their seams, 
and a little powdered stone has lodged on some little promi¬ 
nence, or has gathered round the plant itself, and generally in 
a northern aspect, unless the supply of water to the surface o 
the rock is constant. I find many plants thrive in a ball ot 
moss with a little native soil in the centre of it. 
This plant was figured exactly fifty years ago in the 
Botanical Magazine from a weak, faded specimen, all th& 
flowers being coloured of the effete dark hue. It is there 
said that it must be protected from wet and frost. Mine 
has stood twelve months, and is in fine flower. The 
strongest plant has about twenty-five or twenty-six com¬ 
pound branchlets of flowers, bearing from nine flowers to 
about four each. The colour of the fresh flowers is yellow; 
of the old ones orange, not bright. I imagine that it has 
not been in England the last forty or fifty years. I was told 
in Switzerland that I had no chance of cultivating it unless 
I could plant it instantly. Where it grew in Switzerland 
the water was gushing out from the hill side.—( Horticultural 
Society’s Journal.) 
EARLY SPRING FLOWERS. 
If you think the following hints worthy of a place in your 
invaluable journal they are at your service. 
I have for five years grown hundreds of Arabis grandiflora 
alba for beds and edgings; also Erica lierbacea. With the 
latter I hope soon to edge sixteen large beds. _ As a per¬ 
manent edging I keep it neatly in shape by cutting it with 
the shears not later than the last week in April, and it 
flowers abundantly, and does not look unsightly, although 
the beds are surrounded with grass. I also grow large quan¬ 
tities of the two yellow Doronicums. Arabis 'purpurea I 
think is much neglected ; not less so Pulmonaria officinalis. 
Of the latter I have a variegated variety which, I think, might 
be placed beside some of our handsome - foliaged stove 
plants for its finely-marked leaf. When well grown I think, 
for a neutral bed or edging for summer, it might find a place 
in some flower gardens. 
I am this year much pleased with Lamium maculatum , 
and beg to ask some of your numerous readers, What might 
not be accomplished by hybridising and cultivation with 
some of our British plants for spring flower gardening ? I 
have also a good batch of Sedim acre aureum. Who would 
not admire a bed of Arabis purpurea with a golden chain of 
the Sedum, or a centre of red Daisies ? 
I have two mixed herbaceous borders, one on each side of 
a broad walk 150 yards long, each side backed by a Holly 
hedge. For the back row for spring I have large bunches of 
Fritillaria imperialis, the old crown imperial; then the double 
yellow Daffodil , each of the bunches about four feet apart; 
then a good sprinkling of Polyanthuses and Auriculas , and 
as a finishing edging the mixed single Anemone. 
I also grow a good quantity of bulbs in variety ; but April 
is the month I am most anxious to see the garden in its 
spring beauty; and, by way of a puzzle to some of the young 
gardeners, how am I to have a Perilla bed, edged with 
Flower of the Day , to be prime for April as a neutral bed, 
neither of the plants to have a flower on—their effect to be 
from the leaf ? If no one can answer it before August I 
suppose I must tell them.— James Kidd, Gardener , Bulwick 
Park , Wansford. 
APIARTAN SOCIETIES. 
whose interest such societies should take under their 
^Cottagers have gradually neglected keeping bees of late 
vears from various causes, but perhaps the greatest one is 
the remarkable fact of the evil effects of our long, cold 
springs- but let us trust that more genial ones may be per¬ 
mitted to return. Next, the loss of wild flowers by the cul¬ 
tivation of waste lands; the loss, however, is m some 
decree compensated by.the increase of cultivated ones, and 
we°have to note that waste lands offer only autumnal flowers 
for bees. And the general use of sugar, which has super¬ 
seded, in some cases, the use of honey, is another eftect of 
civilisation not to be contended with; but the sale of 
foreign might, perhaps, be checked by the more attentive 
cultivation of our own. In general the cottager is obliged 
to dispose of his honey to the druggist, who is likely to give 
a low price upon the certainty that he has no other market, 
and for good honey in the comb he seldom receives more 
than one-third of the price for which it is retailed in the 
shops. This is in the power of Apiarian Societies to 
remedy, by appointing agents to collect honey of them, or 
at least by pointing out a better market. 
Horticultural Societies offer prizes for honey, but in 
general it is only amateurs who exhibit. Cottagers often 
keep back by either being dazzled by their novel hives or want 
of friends to encourage them. Still they have some true ones; 
for instance, the Earl of Traguair offers liberal prizes to 
cottagers for the best “ caps of honey ” collected among 
the Peebles hills; and the Rev. Hr. Gilly once told me that he 
has known cases where they have paid their rents from the 
produce of their bees. Likewise, Mr. Hart, land steward 
to Sir W. Middleton, who is not only a good practical 
farmer, but an able apiarian, and has done much good 
among cottagers, both by his advice and example in bee¬ 
keeping ; and the great interest that the late Mr. Payne took 
to encourage them in the same way is so well known that 
I need hardly name it. But all such are their true friends, 
while the occupation in itself is a pleasure and relief to 
minds often oppressed with care and laborious pursuits.— 
J. Wighton. 
As keeping bees has been a favourite pursuit of late we 
trust that the very interesting observations at page 15, re¬ 
specting the utility of the formation of a British Apiarian 
Society, may not be lost sight of; for surely there is as 
much interest for intelligence among bee-keepers as amongst 
fowl-keepers, farmers, and gardeners, whose societies spring 
up everywhere; and, as the thing has been so well pointed 
out, little more need be said, except, perhaps, if a British 
Society should prove too wide a sphere, surely local ones 
may be formed. In the meantime, however, I may give a 
few hints on the decline of bee-keeping among cottagers, 
THE STEWARTON SYSTEM OF BEE¬ 
KEEPING.—No. 2. 
In The Cottage Gaedenee, No. 449, the weights of three 
hives are given. These hives were weighed on the 15tli of 
April, and to-day (May 15th) they stand thus :— 
No. 1. 23 lbs. 
No. 2. 23 lbs. 
No. 3. 20 lbs. 
The bees received no assistance from me, and it will be 
noticed they have gained nothing for themselves. Such a 
result was to be expected, as, with the exception of a few 
days, the weather has been cold, searching, and backward, 
the prevailing winds being east by north. 
In an ordinary season my hives gain a little weight from 
the Gooseberry bushes at this period; but, speaking com¬ 
paratively, the month recorded has been a very bad one for 
bees. The last three days have, however, been all that 
could be desired, and the results are already apparent, as 
bees begin to show at the windows of the bottom boxes. 
I expect to have something connected with management 
to record next month. 
Recurring to the joining of weak stocks, I should say, as a 
general rule, this may be done as soon as possible after the 
falling off has been discovered, although my own practice is 
different. 
Suppose; at the beginning of spring, I discover two of my 
hives weakly, to encourage breeding I cover them well up 
and feed as required. My object in this is to let both queens 
have life and employment till the commencement of the 
honey season, in order to produce an extra number of 
labourers. On the arrival of the honey season I join the 
stocks, give them a honey box, and generally have the 
pleasure of seeing the allies hard at work in this compart¬ 
ment on the following day. This method requires a little 
extra attention and some extra feeding ; but the increased 
rank and file very soon make up for all trouble and expense 
with ample interest. —Robt. Wilson. 
