THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, December 23, 1856. aol I 
portion of that article he is so well pleased with what he 
had done tlfkt he thought he was only making “ sure doubly 
sure ” by removing his hive to an immense quantity of white 
clover; but his high hopes were all blasted, and then we 
find him only “fancying he saw his error was in giving too 
much room.” A stream of knowledge has, however, ap¬ 
parently flowed in upon Mr. M‘Lellan between the 23rd of 
September and 11th of November ; for, at the latter date, 
I we find he has nothing to learn respecting the placing of 
boxes above or beloiv the stock-box. 
I would here remark that a practised bee-keeper will 
acknowledge nothing like fixed rules in the management of 
that which is affected by such a variety of causes as time, 
season, locality, and ever-varying circumstances. 
The Glasgow gentleman’s stock of Stewarton honey affords 
a strong argument in favour of our management as com¬ 
pared with Mr. M‘Lellan’s. Taking Mr. M‘Lellan’s own 
statements the case may be stated thus :— 
1855. 185G. 
Stewarton. Fifty boxes. Seven boxes. 
Rutherglen .... Something. Nothing. 
I was not a little astonished to find we enjoyed such a 
fine district, comparatively speaking. Mr. M’Lellan com¬ 
pares Stewarton to Eden before the fall; but may my 
friend not be labouring under some mistake? I should say 
he lias spent his honeymoon somewhere near us, as the 
reminiscences of such days can alone account for his glow¬ 
ing opinion of our quarter. We, like ungrateful sinners, 
have been in the habit of calling this a backward place, 
more than usually given to rain ; and as to “ sixty acres of 
white clover ” in one piece, a tithe of this would make our 
fortune, even without the Lime-trees mentioned by Mr. 
M'Lellan. 
Mr. M'Lellan infers that I am one of those who walk in 
the footsteps of their grandfathers, and I am proud to say 
that I do in many good things. In bee management, how¬ 
ever, I have deviated wonderfully; and, along with a few 
others, I have long been engaged in bringing to perfection a 
system thoroughly known, I fully believe, only to ourselves. 
We have been too earnestly engaged in this one pursuit to 
pay much attention to any other. 
I have a great love for figures—they appear to me much 
more conclusive than words, and I will just state a few of 
the results of our system; and, if Mr. M’Lellan’s can outdo 
us, then we must capsize our pet boxes and take to the 
better plan. 
Here let me remark that we have sent to the market the 
finest honey produced in this country; and the Glasgow 
gentleman already referred to will no doubt tell Mr. M‘Lellan, 
should lie ask him, that Stewarton honey has no rival. This 
settles the question as to quality, and the figures will speak 
as to quantity. I hope to see Mr. M‘Lellan figure in The 
Cottage Gardener on this subject at an early date. 
Within the last few years our storied system has, among 
others, produced the following results :—One hive yielded 
60lbs. white comb, and was left 70 lbs. in weight; another 
yielded 601bs. comb, a good swarm, and each hive, young 
and old, at the end of the season weighed 50 lbs.; a single 
swarm produced 51 lbs. comb, and was left 50lbs. in weight; 
and we had a hive of which the particulars of comb 
abstracted were not taken, but it weighed gross 180 lbs. 
And now, Mr. Editor, I consider this a subject of im¬ 
portance, and would have written sooner, but our “ honey 
season’’in accounts is on just now; and I have been so 
busily engaged looking after the “ bau-bees ” that I was 
obliged to leave the “ honey bees ” alone. 
I cannot close without begging of Mr. M‘Lellan to be very 
careful when he handles chloroform, until he has brought 
forth from the mighty womb of the future that all-important 
secret “ anent filling glasses without brood,” wdiich is to be 
the great advent of next season. Should chloroform de¬ 
prive us of the expected “ wrinkle,” I should then “ hate, 
abhor, abjure, condemn, detest it ’’ henceforth and for ever. 
—Robt. Wilson, Stewarton. 
[You will confer a great benefit on the community by 
giving a full detail of the Stewarton system.— Ed. C. G.] 
NAMING FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
Mr. Beaton would have made an excellent advocate. I 
do not know when I have seen a more triumphant Vindica- : 
tion of a bad case than his article on the TJiademaiitm con¬ 
troversy, page 149 of The Cottage Gardener fof this 1 
month. 
It appears now, as any one might have guessed, that the 1 
name in question was not original, but that Mr. Beaton had, in 
an unguarded moment, followed the practice which he so justly 
condemns, viz., “ of honest people putting their fingers into 
other honest people’s pies without knowing of what they are 
made.” That this is the case is evident from the fact of his , 
adding the word rerjium to Sweet's name, Pelargonium dia- 
demdtum , and translating it Royal Diadem. {Vide page 271 
of the July number.) 
I congratulate Mr. Beaton, however, on having relieved 
himself of the responsibility of giving such a name as Dia= 
demdtum to a plant, and hold Sweet to be the guilty man. 
This is one instance out of many, perhaps more glaring,- 
which shows the absurdity of any one ignorant of what 
constitutes pure Latin or pure Greek turning over the pages 
of a dictionary or lexicon in search of a name for something 
new. The object of giving classical names in scientific 
matters is, that they may be understood at once all over the 
world wherever scholars exist. It is to elucidate what is 
unknown by what is well known. When, then, a person 
ignorant of the classical languages betakes'himself to a 
dictionary to enlighten the world on his discovery or inven¬ 
tion, he does not know that it comprises the constituents of 
a language spoken in its various stages of purity and corrup¬ 
tion for a period of nearly 800 years ; that it contains words 
used by writers of authority, and others used by writers of no 
authority whatever, whose writings 999 out of every 1000 
scholars utterly ignore; and, therefore, the chances are very 
much in favour of his rendering his meaning obscure instead 
of plain: ignoium per iynotius, as has proved to be the case in 
this instance of the word diadematus. It would be as if a 
writer on science, 200 or 300 years hence, were to use a word 
coined at the present day at the gold diggings in California 
under the impression that it was pure English, and, there¬ 
fore, well understood by cultivated English scholars. 
Let me assure Mr. Beaton that the word diadematus 
(adjective or participle) is a “barbarism” (Pliny’s Apollo 
diadematus ” would be with Cicero diademate indulus ); and 
“ barbarisms,” whether in “ a trade-list,” or a garden, or a 
composition, are much to be deprecated. 
I agree with Mr. Beaton that this is quite a parallel case 
to Dr. Lindley’s title, “ Nixus Plantarum,” which, simply, does 
not mean “ the tendencies of plants.” The significations of 
Nixus or Nisus are travail in childbirth, pain, trouble, and 
(its fundamental meaning) a leaning or resting upon. 
This last was beautifully applied by Cicero in a figurative 
sense to the motions or revolutions of the heavenly bodies, 
indicating their dependence on each other , a sense which is 
by no means pertinent to Dr. Lindley’s subject. Propensiones 
Plantarum would be the Ciceronian expression. 
In conclusion, I beg to inform Mr. Beaton that “ H. C. K.” 
and “ Sylvester ” are neither identical nor convertible terms. 
—H. C. K. 
STEPHANOTIS FLORIBUNDA. 
No collection of stove plants, however limited, should be 
without this charming climber. Its dark green, leathery 
leaves, contrasting so well with the pearly whiteness of its 
large and deliciously-scented blossoms, lias gained for it 
a fame that but very few of the inhabitants of our plant- 
stoves can lay claim to. 
I will here detail the practice which, if followed out to the 
letter, will produce plants in first-rate excellence; not merely 
a large plant with here and there a bunch of bloom, but one 
covered all over with bloom nearly as numerous as its most 
ample and enduring leaves; and then what an object to look 
at! Let a thousand individuals go into the stove or green¬ 
house when it is in full bloom, and mark if one out of that 
number goes out again without exclailfiing, “ What a beautiful 
thing! What a splendid plant!” 
In February or March take a good healthy plant in a 
