THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, December 30, 1856. 221 
frame, Asparagus, Sea-kale, or Rhubarb can be easily forced by 
taking up the plants and placing them on a slight hotbed, 
to be covered with any light soil, and supplied with warm 
linings when the heat declines; or they can be forwarded 
in the open ground by covering them with pots, or by hoop¬ 
ing pliable sticks over each stool in the form of the old- 
fashioned bee-hive, and surrounding them witli a thick coat 
of leaves or hot dung. 
In the Greenhouse the New Holland plants are an 
acquisition, as there is some one or other species of Epacris, 
Correa, Polygala, Boronia, Pimelea, Leschenaultia, &c., 
generally in flower. To produce neat, bushy plants, it is 
necessary to cut them well back when they go out of flower, 
as, also, the free-growing sorts of Heaths. Camellias , while 
in bloom, should be kept free from damp overhead, and free 
from drought at the roots, and any over-luxuriant shoot to 
be stopped, that the growth may be equal and regular all 
over the plant. To obtain the most healthy display of these 
beautiful evergreen shrubs, it is now becoming a very general 
practice to plant them out in conservatory borders, composed 
of equal portions of sandy peat and loam. The best time 
for planting them will be immediately after they have done 
blooming, and before they have begun their season’s growth. 
Whoever has the means of assisting the growth of a few 
Fuchsias for cuttings and early flowering should select from 
their stock a few of the best sorts for this purpose, to be 
freshly potted in peat or leaf-mould and fibrous loam. If 
the stock of Verbenas, Heliotropes, or any other such plants 
for bedding-out purposes is limited, they should now be 
introduced where a gentle heat can be given to induce them 
to grow kindly, for the purpose of affording cuttings which, 
by proper attention, will become strong, healthy plants at 
the turning-out season. Calceolarias and Cinerarias should 
now be encouraged to grow in a warm, moist situation, with 
plenty of air, without draughts, in favourable weather. Avoid 
wetting the foliage when water is given; and insects must 
be destroyed by the cautious application of tobacco-smoke, 
that their foliage may not be injured. Tropoeolums, Ken- 
nedyas, Zicbyas, Gompliolobiums, Hardenbergias, and all 
such climbers should be well furnished with shoots at the 
bottom by stopping, to be trained on trellises or under the 
rafters. 
The raising of new varieties of fruits or flowers is a 
subject that will always afford much useful amusement. A 
selection of the best varieties of each class should be placed 
apart from those of an inferior kind, avoiding all that have 
bad forms or qualities, flimsy petals, serrated edges, or dull 
colours. If any seeds to produce varieties were saved last 
year they should now be sown. With the exception of 
those plants that are usually grown in peat soil, which 
should also be used when their seeds are sown, the majority 
of the seeds of other plants will vegetate freely and healthily 
in a mixture of equal parts of sandy loam, peat, and silver 
sand. Elat-shaped pots or pans are generally used for the 
purpose, with two or three inches of drainage at the bottom, 
covered with a little moss, and filled up with the soil within 
an inch of the top, and made firm and quite flat. The 
surface is sometimes divided into four equal parts, for the 
purpose of sowing four different sorts, the seeds to be as 
nearly of equal size as possible, with a label to each sort. 
When the seeds are sown, cover them with the same sort 
of soil that they are sown in. The general rule with the 
larger sorts of seeds is to cover them about equal in depth 
to the diameter of the seeds, and the very slightest sprinkling 
is sufficient for minute seeds; then cover them with a 
layer of moss to prevent evaporation, which is to be removed 
as soon as any sign of vegetation is perceived. The pots 
should be placed either on the shelf of a greenhouse, or, what 
is better, in a hotbed frame where the bottom-heat is very 
gentle, where they grow more quickly, and, on that account, 
it is preferable to the other situation. 
For Pinks a top-dressing of rotten dung will be of service 
in preserving the roots from frost. Dahlia roots should be 
occasionally examined, to see that they are not suffering from 
damp or mildew. Any that are affected should be exposed 
to the air and thoroughly dried, when they may be replaced 
with safety. A small collection can be easily preserved in 
pots, placed on their sides under the stage of a greenhouse, 
during winter. 
Pelargoniums may be kept perfectly hardy at this season 
by the admission of air at all favourable opportunities, and, 
whenever there is a necessity for a little fire-heat to exclude 
frost, the shoots will be less liable to injury than if they had 
been confined, when elongation exhausts the strength of the 
shoots, and produces spot and mildew, which disfigure the 
foliage, and very frequently prove fatal to the plants. 
If the weather continues mild Roses may be planted with 
safety, and protected with mulching or a good coat of rotten 
dung, to preserve the roots and to afford nourishment, as 
liquid-manure after every shower of rain. 
Auriculas, Carnations, and Picotees, in pots under glass, 
will now begin to grow, and must not be allowed to dwarf 
for want of water; plenty of air to be given by drawing the 
lights off the frame during the day, and tilting them a few 
inches high at night. The lights should never be closed 
unless severe frost sets in. A north aspect is the best for 
many such plants, as the rays of the sun after frost are 
more destructive than many degrees of frost.— William 
Keane. 
I ON CATCHING SWARMS AND CAUSES OF 
SWARMING. 
Mr. M‘Lellan, in his notice of catching queens and 
swarms at page 80, gives the following directions :—“ When 
the rush has terminated remove the parent hive, and in its 
place set an empty one; place the queen therein; the bees 
on returning, finding her at home, take possession, and the 
thing is done.” He means that the swarm is secured ; but 
he does not say how the queen is kept in the hive with the 
door open, nor where the parent stock is placed. If more 
than one queen left it with the swarm the thing, of course, 
would not be done, nor if part of the bees possessed 
another place. In the latter case neither bis plan nor the 
common one would prevent the swarm taking flight again 
to the place of its own choice, especially if the cavity con¬ 
tained old combs. That so often happens, to the loss of bee¬ 
keepers, that it requires no comment. But, supposing his plan 
to succeed, and the parent stock not to be removed beyond 
the usual range of the bees’ flight, the greater part of those 
that leave it would return laden to the place of their old 
home, and the stock with brood be reduced to a mere 
skeleton. 
My answer to a correspondent, “ When your bees attempted 
twice to swarm there could be no queens with them,” was 
construed as if I had said that bees swarmed without queens. 
Mr. M'Lellan leans to this; at least, he says, “ legitimately 
it bears that interpretation.” Be that as it may, I pass on 
to his own statement connected with it: “ That swarms 
accompanied by a queen all through their flight, and when 
they settle never return, must be strained and unnatural.” 
When once a swarm has settled or clustered round a queen, 
what could induce the queen to fly back either to meet 
instant death from the one already in her place, or, if now 
she must be an old one, and her jealousy would lead her, to 
destroy the brood for queens in the cells ? and that would 
subvert the rule of swarming for the season. 
“ The swarming signal may echo,” cannot mean the 
noise of the queens in their cells, nor any peculiar sound of 
the bees at that time, for before this the old queen has left 
with a swarm. But to assert the cause of her leaving before 
her successors appear, to use the words of Dr. Dunbar to 
myself, would be only cutting a knot we cannot untie ; and I 
think he truly adds, “Nature has so willed it.” Neverthe¬ 
less, Mr. M‘Lellan cuts it, for he says, “the idea of swarm¬ 
ing does not originate with her.” What then ? Does she 
not deposit the eggs, both for male and perfect females, 
perhaps three weeks before, and thus prepare the way for 
swarming ? 
Mr. M'Lellan makes some brief remarks, at page 133, on 
what I said in No. 429 respecting pollen, and the unfruit¬ 
fulness of queens being sometimes the cause of bees dying 
leaving a store of honey. The first he calls “ complicated 
statements,” without one word of proof; the next he seems 
to think that he has lit upon something new; but, as he 
invites the opinion of others, it is not for me to speak. I 
may, however, observe that, as there are no drones or male 
bees bred in winter, queens reared from “ workers' grubs ” 
during their absence must, of course, be barren; therefore it 
