THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 2, 1857. 
]87 
racter both as a worthy man and a good apiarian is so well 
known, that such an expression cannot affect him. He was 
Dr. Bevan’s confidential friend when he wrote “The Honey 
Bee.” Besides, his own excellent treatise on these subjects 
is no “ fudge.” 
As regai'ds the Latin phrase, we may quote the well- 
known saying among the Scotch, that one should think 
thrice before he speaks once, and if those apiarians who 
seem to have more faith in the Royal Jelly theory than our 
excellent correspondent under notice were to follow that 
rule they might see the absurdity of believing that food is 
placed at the bottoms, or rather, the tops of the cells; for 
when the grubs advance in growth how could they turn 
round to eat ? Besides, if they could, then they must eat a 
mixture of their own excrements. It is well known, however, 
that the bees feed their larva, and often the young queens, 
in the cells after they are perfect insects.—J. Wighton. 
NEW BOOK. 
The Reason Why.* —There are two very difficult things 
to do clearly, whether we are conversing or teaching— 
namely, to give a good definition, and to give a correct 
explanation of the cause of any phenomenon. Every one 
knows Sea-kale, but to define what Sea-kale is to a person 
who never saw it would be puzzling to one not intimate with 
botany; and it would be equally difficult, if not more so, for 
any one not having a knowledge of chemistry to explain 
why that Sea-kale is green when growing in the open air, and 
white when grown under a blanching pot. The admirable 
little volume we have named helps to a very large amount of 
such knowledge, and it is imparted in that kindly tone and 
religion-tinted spirit that must make it doubly welcome to 
every one who feels and would convey to others the force of 
this admonition of the wise king : “ Say unto wisdom* Thou 
art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman.” 
The two extracts we subjoin will give a just idea of the 
contents of this most instructive and most amusing work. 
“the flame of a candle. 
“ Why does the lower part of the fame of a candle burn of a 
blue colour l —Because the hydroyen of the tallow, having a 
stronger affinity for the oxygen of the air than carbon has, 
igniffes first. Pure hydrogen burns with a bluish flame. 
“ Why does the middle of the flame look dark ? —Because it 
is occupied with gaseous vapours, derived from the tallow, 
which have not yet ignited. 
“ Why does the upper part of the flame produce a bright 
yellow light ? —Because it is in this part of the flame that the 
hydrogen of the candle and the oxygen of the air combine, 
and there is jhst sufficient earbon mixed with the hydrogen 
to improve its illuminating power. 
“ Why is there a fringe of pale light round the upper part of 
the flame ? —Because some of the carbon escapes in a state of 
incandescence , and as soon as it reaches the air it combines 
with oxygen , and so forms carbonic acid gas. 
“ Why does the flame terminate in a point ?—Because cold 
air rushes towards the flame in every direction, and is 
carried upward. At the point where the flame terminates 
the cold currents have so reduced the temperature that com¬ 
bustion can no longer be sustained. 
“ Why , if you hold anything immediately over the flame, will 
the flame lengthen ?—Because, by preventing the rapid escape 
of the heated air, you maintain a temperature which increases 
the combustion at the point of the flame.” 
“ THE WORLD IN MINIATURE. 
“ There is a world of miniature phenomena which has never 
been fully recognised, in which we may see the mightier 
works of nature pleasingly and truthfully illustrated. 
“ When the wind blows into the corner of a street, and, 
whirling around, catches straw, dust, and feathers in its 
arms, and then wheels away, flinging the troubled atoms in 
all directions,—it is a miniature of the mightier whirlwind, 
which wrecks ships, uproots trees, and levels houses with 
the earth. 
* The Reason Why. A careful collection of many hundreds of 
reasons for things which, though generally believed, are imperfectly 
understood. London: Houlston and Wright, Paternoster Row. 
“ When a cloud of dust, on a hot summer’s day, rises and 
flies along the thirsty road, making the passenger close his 
eyelids, and dusting the leaves of wayside vegetation,—it is 
a miniature of the terrible simoon, which blows from the 
desert sands, scattering death and devastation in its track. 
“ When steam issues from the tea-urn, and becomes con¬ 
densed in minute drops upon the window-pane,—the minia¬ 
ture is of the earth's heat, evaporating the water, and the 
cold air of night condensing the vapours into dew. 
“ When grass and corn bend before the wind, and are 
beaten down by its force; when the pond forgets its calm, 
and rises in troubled waves, casting the flotilla of natural 
boats that moves upon its surface in rude disorder upon its 
windward shore,—the little storm is a miniature of those 
great hurricanes which wrecked a fleet in the Black Sea, 
and levelled the encampments of a mighty army. 
“When the snow that has gathered upon the house-top, 
warming beneath the smiles of the sun, slips from its bed, 
and drops in accumulated heaps from the roof,—it is a 
miniature of those terrible avalanches which in the Pyrenees 
bury villages in their icy pall, and doom man and beast to 
death. 
“ When the rivulet hurries on its course, and, meeting 
with obstructions, leaps over them in mimic wrath, over¬ 
turning some little raft upon which, perchanco, a weary fly 
has alighted,—it is a miniature of those rapids on whose 
banks the hippopotamus and the alligator yet live; and 
where, though rarely, man may be seen directing his raft 
over the troubled current, amid the rush of debris from 
forests unexplored. 
“ And when, in a basin of the rivulet, two opposing cur¬ 
rents meet, and form a little vortex into which insect life 
and vegetable fragments coming within the sphere of its 
influence are drawn,—it is a miniature of the roaring whirl¬ 
pool, or the.wilder maelstrom of the Norwegian* seas. 
“Nature rehearses all her parts in mild whispers; and 
for every picture that she paints she places a first study 
upon the canvass. Man need not go into the heart of her 
terrors to understand their laws. Many an unknown Hum¬ 
boldt, sitting by the river’s side, may rejoice in the ‘ aspects 
of nature,’ and share the bliss of knowledge with the great 
philosopher.” 
HAIGH’S KIDNEY POTATO. 
In an article in The Cottage Gardener in one of the 
February numbers, signed T. Appleby, I find it stated that 
Haigh’s Kidney was raised at Newton Kyme by a school¬ 
master named Haigli. This is a mistake. It was raised 
from seed by a shoemaker named Major Haigh, of Bardsey, 
near Leeds, of whom I purchased the first sets I had, and 
forwarded a sample of the produce to Mr. Cuthill, Cam¬ 
berwell. I am in some doubts whether the Lapstone Kidney 
is the same as Haigh’s, for I think the latter are flatter and 
the eyes not so distinguishable in the potato.— The Rector 
of Newton Kyme, near Tadeaster. 
CULTURE OF INTERMEDIATE STOCKS. 
In The Cottage Gardener of May 12th you patronise 
the growth of Stocks, and at the same time give a few good 
hints to stir up gardeners to aim more at keeping a universal 
display of them all the season. 
The above remarks I coincide with. You do not make 
mention of that valuable class of Stocks, the Intermediate, 
originally called Buck's Intermediate Scarlet, the* only 
colour I know of we possess with so many good properties, 
if true. I have frequently regretted that we are, not 
in possession of more colours, retaining the same dwarf 
habit, and more particularly the certainty of a multiplicity 
of double flowers. If all the principal colours could but be 
got with every property of the above, I consider a-finer class 
of Stocks, and more generally useful, is not extant. 
I have frequently seen published a pretence to send out 
a dozen varieties of the Intermediate, but I have never 
succeeded in getting any at all similar in properties to the 
Scarlet Intermediate of any other decided colour. However, 
I vouch that I have succeeded in raising a true purple from 
