TIIE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 19, 1859. 
37 
cuttings in. After roots are emitted, pot them off into small : 
pots, shade till they are established, and then gradually harden 
them off, and place them out of doors till October, stopping once j 
or twice to make them bushy. Then place them on a shelf in the 
greenhouse through the winter. In March, repot them into four- j 
inch pots, and put them into a cold frame, protecting them from | 
spring frosts. As soon as the weather will permit, place them out ' 
of doors, but do not allow them to flower that season. House 
theipa at the proper time ; and, in March following, repot them 
into six-inch pots, stopping them in severely. Then, when the 
frosts are over, set them out of doors again, and every plant will 
flower profusely. They may then be brought into the greenhouse 
or conservatory, to display their beauty, and emit their grateful 
perfume, to reward the cultivator for the pains and care he has I 
bestowed upon them. After that season they may be potted 
again into larger pots, and treated hardily as before ; and will then 
become handsome specimens for decoration or exhibiting pur¬ 
poses.—T. Appleby. 
GTINDLACH ON THE SECRETION OF WAX 
BY BEES. 
As Me. Wig hton appears to doubt some of the conclusions 
arrived at by the above-named eminent German apiarian, I am 
induced to submit a few extracts from his “Natural History of | 
Bees,” which, it will be perceived, fully bear out the opinions ad¬ 
vocated by “B. and W.,” and Lieut. -Col. Newman, as well as 
by —A Devons dike Bee-keeper. 
“ As soon as the bees have filled their stomach, or what is called 
the honey bladder, with honey, and cannot deposit it for want of 
cells, the honey passes gradually, in large quantity, into the in¬ 
testinal canal, where it is digested. The greater part is expelled 
as excrement; the rest enters the fluids of the bee. In conse¬ 
quence of this great flow of juices, a fatty substance is produced, 
which oozes out on the eight spots formerly mentioned, which 
occur on the four lower scales of the abdominal rings, and soon 
hardens into lamime of wax. On the other hand, when the bees 
can deposit then’ honey, only so much enters the intestinal canal 
as is necessary for their support. The honey bladder need not be 
filled with honey longer than forty hours, in order to bring to 
maturity, on the eight spots, eight lamime of wax, so that the 
latter fall off. I made the experiment of giving to bees, which I 
had enclosed in a box with their queen about the end of September, 
dissolved sugar candy instead of honey. Out of this food laminre 
of wax were formed ; but these would not separate and fall off 
readily; so that the mass, which continued to ooze out, remained, 
in most of the bees, hanging to the upper lamina; and the 
lamina; of wax became as thick as four under ordinary circum¬ 
stances. The abdominal scales of the bees were, by means of the 
wax, distinctly raised, so that the waxen lamina; projected between 
them. On examination, I found that these thick laminae, which, 
under the microscope, exhibited several lamellm, had a sloping 
surface downwards near the head, and upwards in the vicinity of 
the tail. The first waxen lamina, therefore, must have been 
pushed downwards by the second ; (because, where abdominal 
scales are attached to the skin, there is no space for two lamime) ; 
the second by the third, and thus the inclined surfaces on the 
sides of the thick lamime had been produced. I saw distinctly 
from this, that the first-formed lamime are detached by those 
which follow. The sugar had been converted into wax by the 
bees ; but it would seem that there was some imperfection in the 
process, as the laminae did not fall off, but adhered to the suc¬ 
ceeding ones. 
“In order to produce wax in the manner described, the bees 
require no pollen, but only honey. I have placed, even in October, 
bees in an empty hive, and fed them with honey; they soon 
formed comb, although the weather was such that they could not 
leave the hive. I cannot, therefore, believe that pollen furnishes 
food for the bees ; but I think they only swallow it in order, by 
mixing it with honey and water, to prepare the liquid food for 
the grubs. Besides, bees often starve in April, when their stock 
of honey is consumed, and when they can obtain in the fields 
abundance of pollen, but no honey. When pressed by hunger, 
they tear the nymphse out of the cells, and gnaw them in order 
to support life by the sweet juice which they contain. But, if 
in this condition they are not artificially fed, or if the fields do not 
soon yield their proper food, they die in the course of a few days. 
Now, if the pollen were really nourishment for bees, they ought 
to be able to support life on it, mixed with water. 
“ Bees never build honeycomb unless they have a queen, or are 
provided with young out of which they can educate a queen. 
But, if bees are shut up in a hive without a queen, and fed with 
honey, wo can perceive in forty-eight hours that they have lamince 
of wax on their scales, and that some have even separated. The 
building of cells is, therefore, voluntary, and dependent on certain 
conditions, but the oozing out of wax is involuntary. 
“ One might suppose that a large proportion of these lamince 
must be lost, since the bees may allow them to fall off out of the 
hive as well as in it; but the Creator has wisely provided against 
such a loss. If we give to bees engaged in building cells honey 
in a flat dish, and cover the dish with perforated paper, that the 
bees may not be entangled in the honey, w r e shall find, alter a day, 
that the honey has disappeared, and that a large number of lamince 
are lying on the paper. It would appear as if the bees, which 
have carried off the honey, had let fall the scales : but it is not so. 
Eor, if above the paper w T e lay two small rods, and on these a 
board overhanging the dish on every side, so that the bees can 
creep under the board and obtain the honey, we shall find next 
day the honey gone, but no lamince on the paper; while laminae 
will be found in abundance on the board above. The bees, there¬ 
fore, which go for and bring the honey, do not let fall the lamince 
of wax, but only those bees which remain hanging to the top of 
the hive. Repeated experiments of this kind have convinced me 
that the bees, as soon as their lamince of wax are mature, return 
to the hive and remain at rest, just as caterpillars do when about 
to change. In a swarm that i3 actually employed in building, we 
may see thousands of bees hanging idly at the top of the hive. 
These are all bees whose lamince of wax are about to separate. 
When they have fallen off, the activity of the bee revives, and its 
place is occupied for the same purpose by another,” 
(To be continued.) 
VARIETIES. 
The Dugong and its Oil.— A specimen of this curious and 
interesting marine animal may now (January 22) be seen at the 
shop of Mr. Elliott, the druggist, in George Street; and by those 
who take an interest in the natural history and productions of 
Australia it will be viewed with considerable pleasure. The 
specimen is a fcetus, brought from Moreton Bay by Dr. Hobbs, 
who is now in Sydney, and was taken from a dugong twelve feet 
in length, and about eight or nine feet in girth. Of the con¬ 
formation and habits of this animal we are indebted to Dr. Hobbs 
for the following particulars :—The dugong resembles somewhat, 
in shape and size, the porpoise; but is unlike it in having no 
dorsal fin. The hide, or skin, in its dried state, although much 
thicker, partakes of the character of pig skin ; and, if tanned and 
prepared, would, doubtless, make good saddles. The bones—a 
specimen of which may be seen at Mr. Elliott’s—are very heavy, 
of the same specific gravity as ivory, and take a beautiful polish ; 
when struck together they give out a metalliferous sound, indi¬ 
cating the density of their structure, and reminding one of the 
bones of Behemoth, which were “ like bars of iron.” The eyes 
are very small and deeply set in the head, like those of a fat pig. 
The ears of the specimen now in Sydney are very small, and 
resemble rather holes made by a pin than ears ; but in the full- 
grown animal these holes (auditory canals) are protected by the 
skin, which is thinnest over these organs. The tail is like that 
of a whale ; and as the fins, one on either side, are so very small 
in proportion to the size of the animal, it is evidently the prin¬ 
cipal propelling power. The dugong is a graminiverous rumi¬ 
nant ; by means of its large lips the long blady grass growing on 
the banks in shallow water is plucked off and conveyed to the 
mouth, the roof and floor of which are curiously covered with 
circular tufts of short bristly hair, resembling two shoe-brushes 
which have been almost worn down to the wood. The design of 
this is very evident; the thin blades of grass could not be re¬ 
tained in the mouth were it not for this arrangement. The 
tongue is short, thick, and small; in the upper jaw the bulls 
have two front teeth or tusks; the females (cows) have none. 
The grinders arc like those of the ox. The stomach is precisely 
similar to that of ruminant animals in general—full of grass of 
various degrees of fineness, indicating more than one mastication, 
and innumerable long worms, like those found in horses occa¬ 
sionally. The heart is like the whale’s, double. The lungs are 
of great length, and of great capacity. The mammee are beneath 
the fins, as in other mammalia of that class. In rising to blow, 
the dugong exposes less of the body than the porpoise, and at a 
distance might be mistaken for a turtle. The meat of this animal 
