THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, September 29, 1857. 413 
to produce Warder’s ,£30 or £40 I leave to the calculation of 
my readers. 
One friend who owns forty hives informs me that his 
honey will produce him between <£50 and <£60 this year, and 
many of his stocks are in common skeps, so that Warder’s 
exaggeration is really assumed. I do not mean to say that 
in any system of collateral working, or such contrivances as 
Nutt’s or Bagster’s hives, or the ladies’ playthings now so 
much vaunted as cottage hives, any such results can possibly 
he obtained; but with a good arrangement of storifying 
boxes, such as are recommended so strongly by Dr. Bevan 
in his “ Lecture on Bee-keeping ” (I am not alluding to his 
large work, “ The Honey Bee ”), as used up in the north in 
the form of Stewarton boxes, or as made with loose bars as 
I have employed them, such results are attainable. This 
I know, for I have obtained them repeatedly myself. 
Should the abstract of Warder’s book be regarded with 
any interest I may occasionally give a little description of 
some of the other older writers’ works on this subject. 
My edition of Warder’s book is the seventh, published in 
1742. Its title is, “ The True Amazons, or the Monarchy of 
Bees, &c. London: Printed for T. Longman at the /S'/tip, 
in Pater-Noster-Roiv —W. B. Tegetmeier, Tottenham. 
NOTES FROM THE CONTINENT—No. 11. 
POTSDAM. 
Some persons, unmindful of the old proverb, “ Com- 
parisons are odious,” have called Sans Souci “ the Prussian 
Versaillesthe title is by no means an apt one, although 
it is a beautiful place. The name Sans Souci means literally 
without care , and if a king can ever throw off the cares of 
office we might fancy he could do it here. The palace, 
which was built rather more than a hundred years ago by 
Frederick the Great, stands upon an eminence, the slope to 
the south in front of it being cut into six terraces. The 
perpendicular walls are covered with tender climbing plants, 
Vines, &c., and in winter are covered with glass; the terraces 
are laid out with flower-beds on grass, and have a very 
beautiful appearance seen from the palace. The upper 
terrace is most profusely decorated with flowering plants in 
pots: everything from China Asters to Gloxinias seems to 
have been called into use here. Among them are placed 
young Palms and other plants with fine foliage, and the 
whole are shaded by splendid old standard Orange trees. 
Among the decorations here I was struck with the beautiful 
festoons carried from tree to tree. Pelogyne suavis (?) is the 
plant used for this purpose. Its flowers are inconspicuous, 
but it produces a most charming effect, and with no trouble, 
for it does not even require tying to the string which it covers. 
I have never seen it so used in England, though it is to be 
found in every garden here; but in no place have I seen it 
so beautiful as in Sans Souci. It is struck from cuttings 
every autumn, kept in an intermediate house in winter, and 
planted out in spring. 
At the foot of the terraces are the water-works. The 
principal fountain throws a jet of water 130 feet high, and 
there are several others, which, although very pretty, are 
not to be compared with those at Versailles or at Sydenham. 
The avenues here are decorated with many statues and 
groups of figures. 
To the left of the palace is a steep slope cut into a series 
of terraces, and planted with Figs and the finer sorts of Vine 
from Italy and Spain. They are covered with glass through 
winter and spring, and ripen their fruit well. On the oppo¬ 
site side of the palace is a new piece of ground, bearing the 
somewhat inappropriate name of “ The Winter Garden.” 
It is planted with Rhododendrons, Hollies, Conifers, and 
the like, nearly all of which must either be placed under 
glass or covered with straw during winter. The forcing 
garden, although the best in the neighbourhood, is by no 
means good. Upon the brow of a hill close by is the new 
orangery—a splendid building, more like a palace than a 
house for plants. It is 600 feet long, but is said to be none 
too large for the purpose. Standard Orange trees seem to 
be a necessary adjunct to every large garden, and they have 
above 500 here. Above the central part of the building are 
two towers, not yet finished, which will contain rooms for 
the reception of the king, and from the windows command 
a most picturesque view. 
Not many minutes’ walk from this is a nursery garden 
belonging to the State, for the rearing of ornamental trees 
and shrubs. It was established many years ago, when the 
great number of public works in progress, such as the 
making of parks and new roads, all of which are planted 
with avenues, required more trees than could be obtained. 
At present it contains a good stock of all the best sorts of 
Conifers, &c. The forest trees are reared in another garden 
at some distance. I saw here a few plants of a very good 
dwarf Sunflower; they were not more than five feet high, 
bushy, and every shoot flowering. A rude fence was entirely 
covered with Apios tuberosa, producing its pink and brown 
papilionaceous flowers in profusion : so sweetly scented was 
it that its odour, even at midday, could be noticed at a great 
distance. Among other things here I saw some fine Mul¬ 
berry trees, five feet high, though only two years old, from 
eyes, struck like Vines; a prettily variegated Oak, from a 
shoot which had “ sported ” in the forest; a fine, large- 
flowered variety of Spircea callosa , very desirable for shrubbery 
borders; and tjie white, Spirsea-like-flowered Polygonum 
Sieboldii, a good thing for bouquet making, and quite hardy. 
Sans Souci is one of the principal resorts of the holiday 
people from Berlin. Besides its fine scenery, gardens, and 
fountains, its historical associations make it doubly in¬ 
teresting to every patriotic Prussian. It was the favourite 
abode of the great Frederick, “ the good old Fritz.” Upon 
those terraces he was fond of sitting to amuse the little 
leisure he allowed himself by playing the flute while sur¬ 
rounded by his pet dogs. In one of those rooms he died, 
wishing to be interred by the side of the horse which had 
carried him through so many battles, and which, with many 
of his dogs, lies buried on the upper terrace. I need 
hardly say this request was not complied with.— Karl. 
ODDS AND ENDS ON BEE MATTERS. 
MODE OF LOOSENING THE STING. 
Many persons may recollect reading the account of the 
combat of two queens, in which the victress is described as 
being at first unable to extract her sting, and ultimately ex¬ 
tricating it by turning round and round upon it as a centre. A 
few days since I was attending to some hives early in the 
morning (I mention the time as the bees at that hour are 
not very waspish), when a bee suddenly issued out, and flew 
against my wrist, evidently more in surprise than anger. It 
stung, but not deeply. At first it was unable to extricate 
itself, when it commenced turning round, making about 
three turns in one direction. This, however, failed to loosen 
the sting, and it then reversed its movement, turning in the 
other direction. About two turns loosened the sting, and 
the bee walked over my hand with it protruded. After a 
few seconds it was drawn up into the body, and the bee 
flew away. I remarked afterwards that there Avas not as 
much irritation resulting as when the animal leaves the 
sting in the wound, and it has to be extracted by hand. 
I am not about to argue that this proceeding is the result 
of any peculiar instinct, or still less any reasoning faculty. 
All animals confined in any mode endeavour to move in the 
only direction open to them. Thus a dog or goat tethered to 
a tree runs round and round; a cockchafer spitted on a pin 
makes the same gyratory movement; but in these cases the 
results are not so beneficial to the captive. 
QUALITY OF THE STEWARTON HONEY. 
As Mr. Wilson is describing the very successful working 
of the Stewarton boxes in Ayrshire, I have thought that the 
opinion of a southern regarding the character of the honey 
might not be wholly uninteresting. I have just received a 
201b. box of honey from Stewarton, and find that the comb 
is of the finest possible colour, being as nearly Avliite as it 
is possible for comb to be; in fact, I do not recollect 
ever seeing any so perfectly free from colour. I rather 
pride myself on my own ability to obtain supers of virgin 
comb free from brood or bee bread; but neither in the 
Stewarton hives nor in my own pattern bar hives have I 
