THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, December Id, 1850. 189 
feet; healthy; lots of fruit last year, but, like No. 2, not 
worth gathering. 
No. 7. Eight feet in height; a one-sided affair; not to be 
recommended. 
No. 8. Dead. 
No. 9. Six feet in height; full of bloom this season at the 
top, and just as unhealthy as the advocates for tight lacing 
could wish. 
No. 10. Like No. 7, one-sided and top-heavy. 
No. 11. Dead. 
No. 12. About eight feet in height; healthy, but one¬ 
sided ; showing that if planted out as standards, if not kept 
low, they will require stakes to keep them up. 
It will be seen by the above that one-third of the trees are 
dead, another third on their last legs, and the remaining 
third, though healthy, have never produced a fruit that any 
one acquainted with the taste of a good Pear would not have 
discarded from table, although such varieties as the Chau- 
montelle, Louise Bonne of Jersey, Marie Louise , &c., do well 
here. 
Even after seeing Mr. Rivers’ collection and others, I 
would prefer the Pear stock under judicious root pruning. 
The interesting exhibition of the three trees I saw in Regent 
Street on Tuesday last was, after all, got up for exhibition; 
and Pear stocks, to say the least, were hardly fairly repre¬ 
sented.— D. Ferguson, Stowe, Buckingham. 
EARLY-BLOOMING POMPONES. 
In a recent number of your valuable paper I see a cor¬ 
respondent asks for a list of early-blooming Pompones. I 
have raised some hundreds, and find the following to be the 
best for early out-of-door cultivation :— 
Hendersonii, pale yellow. 
Solfaterre, yellow. 
La Lilliputia, reddish brown.* 
Sacramento, yellow, tipped with red.* 
Madame Roussilon, white and rose. 
Autumnum, buff. 
Argentum, white.* 
Cedo Nulli, white, with brown points. 
Scarlet Gem , scarlet. 
Bcrrol, golden yellow. 
Pluie d’Or, gold and canary. 
Vesta, pure white. 
Surprise, white, tipped with lilac. 
St. Thomas, chestnut red. 
Regalis, orange red. 
Durnjlet, rose and carmine. 
Those marked thus * show a little centre when fully 
bloomed. 
The above all bloom very early with me, and before any 
others; but they must not be stopped after the first week in 
August.— Samuel Broome, Inner Temple , London. 
POWER OF BEES TO GENERATE HEAT. 
A circumstance occui’red in my apiary on the night of the 
1st of December, which, as I have never seen anything of a 
like kind mentioned in The Cottage Gardener, I think 
may not be out of place to record in its pages. 
With the generality of apiarians I know that the tempe¬ 
rature of the bee is in ordinary circumstances some degrees 
higher than the medium in which it exists, probably 10° to 
14°, and that, if they are in any way disturbed, they can 
raise it, even in the depth of winter, as high as 80° or 90°; 
but I was not aware, until the night in question, that intense 
cold is as effectual in arousing them as any disturbative we 
can employ. 
I make a practice every night of visiting my bee-house (a 
glazed structure, by the way) before I retire to rest. At eleven 
o’clock on the above night I did so, and found the thermo¬ 
meter outside the bee-house standing at 13°, while within 
the house a gentle hum was heard proceeding from the 
hives, almost equalling the sound of a busy hive in spring. 
Through not having a thermometer in any of my hives or 
boxes I cannot say what the heat in their interior would 
have reached; but if I may hazard an opinion, founded on a 
comparison between the sound now and the noise and 
accompanying heat in spring, it would have ranged some¬ 
where between 50° and 60°. The glass cover and window of 
an empty super, placed over a stock having the communica¬ 
tion cut off, were encrusted with frost, nothing of the kind 
appearing in the window of the stock. At noon, on the 2nd, 
the thermometer stood at 2C°, the bees making no per¬ 
ceptible noise. Am I not warranted in inferring from these 
facts that the bees not only possess the power of preserving 
themselves from the otherwise fatal effects of intense cold, 
but also the sagacity or wisdom of exerting this power in 
its proper time and place ? that in cold weather they will 
| continue in their state of sleep until the temperature falls 
below a certain point? This point once reached they shake 
their torpor off, and, by increased activity of their respiratory 
organs, disseminate a genial warmth throughout their domi¬ 
cile. How does this affect the doctrine tliat frost causes the 
' honey in the hives to become granulated or candied? For 
j my own part I am convinced that, so soon as the tempera- 
j ture of the hive approaches to 32°, the bees will create such 
! a warmth as will effectually exclude the freezing influences 
of frost. 
I never found this candied honey in any of my hives but 
once, and I know quite well that frost had nothing to do 
with its being there.—D. G. M‘Lellan, Rutherglen. 
[Why not bring your opinion to the test of experiment? 
! A shilling thermometer in a hive, and another outside in the 
i house, would show the difference.—E d. C. G.] 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
COLLINSIA BICOLOR ALBA. 
“ I inclose a specimen of my variety, Collinsia bicolor alba, 
saved by me from the bicolor. The specimen sent is from 
seed from those that were in flower in May this same 
year, and described by you in your paper of May 27th, p. 157. 
A second time I showed a specimen along with a branch or 
plant of the Bartsicefolia alba. I am sorry you made a 
mistake at p. 289 of your July 22nd paper. You there say 
it is a very greatly improved variety of Collinsia Bartsiafolia. 
It has no connection with the former. The public generally 
i has been under a delusion altogether, for many have con¬ 
sidered the C. bicolor alba out. I write this hoping you may 
do a service to gardeners and seedsmen by making it public 
j that the bicolor alba has not yet been supplied that I know 
of. 
“ Any one the least conversant with the Collinsias knows 
the. difference between the seed of the Bartsiafolia, which is 
a very small seed, and the seed of the bicolor variety, which 
is four times the size of it, and flat. 
“ I send you a sample of my variety of the new white Col¬ 
linsia bicolor alba, and one of the white Bartsiafolia. I 
think the white raised by me is not so large as its parent, the 
bicolor. However, it is very different from the white Bartsice- 
folia, which I have found will bo far more precarious to get 
to stand a spring than the free-growing variety of bicolor. 
“ The Bartsiafolia alba is a pretty little white annual 
when in full bloom, and well worthy to be grown either for 
a bed or for an edging; but it will have no chance in a whole 
bed with the variety of the bicolor alba I have raised. It 
grows, in rich soil, eighteen inches, with a beautiful branch¬ 
ing habit; the flowers snow white, and the foliage a deep 
pea green. Others may possess this variety, but it is not 
out yet to my knowledge. Those sent cannot be compared 
to a summer’s growth, and the colour is not so pure now 
either, although I think it will be a valuable autumn annual, 
for it looks quite gay with me in the greenhouse in pots 
now. I am afraid it will be withered by the time it reaches 
you: from this date three or four days will pass, perhaps, 
before you see it. 
“ Being convinced the bicolor alba, when out and grown, 
will be a great acquisition to our hardy annuals, has caused 
me to give you these particulars regarding the two varieties. 
-—William Melville, Dalmeny Park Gardens." 
[While the cut flowers of this new Collinsia were on the 
