THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 27, 1857. 
WINTER WINDOW GARDENING. 
At the time of writing (October 20th) my window garden 
is as gay as ever. In a space eighteen inches by ten inches 
by ten inches I have upwards of twenty beautifully-foliaged 
plants growing luxuriantly, yet without crowding. Besides 
these there is room for fourteen small fish to enjoy them¬ 
selves amid the miniature forest, and very happy they seem. 
I tap with my finger-nail on the side of the glass tank, and 
immediately up they come flocking to the spot. A few 
pieces of vermicelli being dropped in cause quite a commotion 
—such pushing and diving, choking, chasing, and gulping. 
I would recommend such a garden particularly to “ cot¬ 
tagers,” being so inexpensive, and withal so gratifying. 
“ The water is calm and still below, 
For the winds and waves are absent there ; 
And the sands are bright as the stars that glow 
In the motionless fields of the upper air.” 
Let our friend, The Cottage Gardener, consider the 
words of Jones, of Nayland, when he says, “ Let a man 
have all the world can give him, he is still miserable if he 
has a grovelling, unlettered, undevout mind. Let him have 
his gardens, his fields, his woods, his lawns, for grandeur, 
plenty, ornament, and gratification, while at the same time 
God is not in all his thoughts; and let another man have 
neither field nor garden ; let him look only at nature with 
an enlightened mind—a mind which can see and adore the 
Creator in His works, can consider them as demonstrations 
of His power, His wisdom, His goodness, and His truth; 
this man is greater as well as happier in his poverty than 
the other in his riches.” 
Knowing the cost of -wood engraving I withhold a sketch 
of my case, which I can assure my readers is very amusing, 
interesting, and instructive. Instead of the drawing here 
is a list of my plants and fish. 
PLANTS. 
5 Vallisneria spiralis , Italian Water Grass. 
3 Musca fontinalis antipyretica , Great Water Moss. 
2 Chara vulgaris , Common Chara. 
1 Anacharis alsinastrum , Canadian Anachrus. 
1 Hottonia palustris, Water Violet. 
2 Myriophyllum aquaticum, Finer Milfoil. 
1 English Water Grass. 
2 Pistia stratiotes , Egyptian Houseleek. 
1 j Ranunculus pantothrix , All-hairy Ranunculus. 
1 Potamogeton gramineum , Grassy Pondweed. 
Lemna gibba , Duckweed. 
Lenina, new floating plant. 
2 Callitriche autumnalis, Starwort. 
FISH. 
2 Bleak. 
3 Prussian Carp. 
2 Bronze Carp. 
1 Minnow. 
1 Loach. 
1 Eel. 
1 Gold Carp. 
2 Gudgeon. 
1 Tench. 
Truly “ the works of the Lord are great, sought out of 
all them that take pleasure therein.” — E. A. Copland, 
Bellejield , Chelmsford. 
EASY METHOD OF PEGGING DOWN PLANTS. 
As some of your correspondents are giving their opinions 
upon the most suitable materials for pegging down bedding 
plants, some advocating wooden pegs, and others bast mats, 
if the method I adopt is of any service to the readers of 
Iiie Cottage Gardener perhaps you will have the good¬ 
ness to lay it before them. Having many plants annually 
to peg down, and but few fingers to perform it, I was obliged 
to find out the most expeditious mode that would effect that 
j purpose, wood and fern requiring more time to make into 
i pegs than I could well spare. I got a bamboo cane cut into 
lengths of about nine inches, and with a small billhook 
cleft the lengths into manageable pieces for the knife, then 
vitli the latter implement I split these pieces into very 
small strips. Any bandy man with his knife can make an 
immense number of these in a very short time. These strips 
I tie up in small handsful, and an hour or so previously 
to using I throw them into a can of water, which makes 
j them bend more readily without breaking. Each of these 
by the finger and thumb is converted into a perfect hair-pin 
shape, which I find to answer admirably. Since I adopted 
the above mode my pegging down has not been such a big 
job as formerly; indeed, I have often wondered why it was 
not adopted very extensively. It must not be much known, j 
—A Northwegian. 
WARDER’S HIVES. 
! 
In my paper on bees at page 382 of last volume I made 
some remarks on Warder’s book, eighth edition, which are 
noticed by Mr. Tegetmeier at page 412 under the head of 
“ Strange Notions, False Statements, and Collateral Plives.” 
When I said that Warder’s hives seemed to be collateral | 
ones I meant Geddy’s, noticed at page 110, not Warder’s 
eight-sided boxes described at page 121, which are storify- j 
ing, or rather, on the common plan of putting an empty 
hive or eke under a full one. I knew Warder’s hive before 
I was hardly able to read his book. My father had a set of his 
boxes at Melville House, Fifeshire, and whatever Mr. Teget¬ 
meier may think of them the plan is defective by the great 
loss of brood when a box is taken away; indeed, more so 
than the cottager’s drumming one "when properly done, by 
which the brood is saved. In my book on bees I stated that 
Warder’s hive was the same as Geddy’s patent one in the 1 
time of King Charles II., but was told afterwards that such 
was a collateral one, and that Nutt either copied it, or from 
another who gave drawings of the three boxes. But, be that 
as it may, Warder’s book is not clear on the point, and as it 
is of little consequence I pass on to notice that Mr. Teget¬ 
meier asserts the “ collateral plan is most unsatisfactory.” j 
Some good apiarians, not of yesterday, think otherwise; and 
I know enough of bee-keeping to warrant my saying that suc¬ 
cess depends most on the season and pasturage. But perhaps 
Mr. Tegetmeier will either state his friend’s address, or the 
method by which he expects to have T50 or TOO worth of 
honey this season. That amount beats Warder’s, which I shall 
notice, whose knowledge of bees was far beneath that of the 
writers in these days, whom Mr. Tegetmeier speaks slightly 
of. For instance, Warder states that“ young working bees are 
fed like sparrows some days before they leave their cells,” 
and in “ wet days they solemnise the funerals of their dead,” 
meaning that bees lose no time in good weather to clear 
out their dead; but the contrary of both requires no com¬ 
ment; nor that the “drones sit and hatch the brood, keep¬ 
ing the eggs Avarrn .... are not suffered to go out till one 
or two o’clock.” Also the “ queen bee’s large legs are as 
yellow as gold, as she is all along the under part of her 
belly.” 
I pass from such silly notions to observe that Warder calls 
Virgil the “silver-tongued poet;” but he may be as justly 
called golden-tonged, for he says that in “ three years 
time you may, from ten straw hives (if good weather comes) 
have bees enough to take the fourth year 100 more,” ob¬ 
serving, “ such comes to T40 sterling.” This statement was 
made about a century and a half ago on the great increase of 
bees by swarming, audit may be the root of some imaginary 
ones in these days; but all who count on honey harvests 
that way should be told of Warder’s true remarks at page 
80. “ I think scarcely one cast in twenty will gather honey 
enough to keep them till next spring.” Casts mean second | 
swarms. Thus 100 hives are brought near to eighty; and I j 
could go further, but at present refer the reader to an able 
notice on ialse statements of produce from hives at page 407, * 
last volume, by “An Old Apiarian,” who truly observes 
from Golding “ that it is not the kind of hive that commands i 
the honey store. No ; that will be ruled by the season and 
locality, and these vary greatly.” These few words are 
sufficient alone to place Mr. Golding amongst our best 
apiarians, although Mr. Tegetmeier chooses to put him down 
with others as “not bee masters.” I have already said in 
these pages that he was Dr. Sevan’s confidential friend and 
assistant when he wrote the “ Honey Bee,” therefore Mr. 
Tegetmeier’s attack cannot affect the character of so worthy 
a man.— J. Wigiiton. 
