432 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, March 24, 1857. 
hives thus working was exhibited last season at the Zoolo¬ 
gical Gardens, London ; and there still remains, at the same 
place, a family in one of Mr. Taylor’s bar glass observatory 
hives (see “ Bee-keeper’s Manual,” page 08, fifth edition), 
in which it worked exposedly during the summer, though 
covered for protection through the winter. 
In reply to your inquiries as to feeding been, no doubt the 
food should always be placed within, or be accessible from 
withinside the hive at all seasons. A drawer at the bottom is 
not found so safe and eligible as a vessel placed upon the 
top of the hive, having a hole there through which the bees 
can ascend, whether for the purpose of feeding or of working 
in a super. The details of the construction of such a passage 
in a bar hive, with the suitable feeding troughs, would be at 
once understood by referring to the full instructions and 
illustrations to be found in the work on bees by Mr. Taylor 
to which we have already alluded.] 
LACHENALIA TRICOLOR.—SEEDING VERBENAS. 
“ Will you be so kind as to give me the name of the 
inclosed Lachcnalia, a most useful winter-flowering species 
of vigorous habits ? 
“ I should also be glad (o learn the best way to treat 
Verbenas to obtain seeds from them. It appears to me that 
they grow too freely when planted out to produce much.”— 
Y. Z., Guernsey. 
[This is, as “Y. Z.” says, a most useful winter-bulb; but 
we thought it was lost for the last thirty years at least. It 
is the smooth, shining, plain green-leaved kind of tricolor. 
Tricolor is so called from the zebra bars across the leaf. 
The variety from “Y. Z.” is called lucida in some of the 
early volumes of the “ Botanical Magazine.” Mr. Beaton 
would be much obliged by “ Y. Z.” sending a couple of roots 
to the Experimental Garden next June, when the leaves 
will be all gone; and he advises “ Y r . Z.” to offer his surplus 
bulbs to some London nurseryman in exchange for some of 
the new bedding plants, this Lachenalia being a stranger to 
the present race of London gardeners. 
No one crosses, or not one out of a score, any of the Ver¬ 
benas. Some of the kinds seed as freely as Poppies, and some 
not at all. We have no personal knowledge of their ways, but 
we know they sport like Dahlias; and all flowers which do 
so sport are not to be depended on for crossing, that is, you 
cannot depend on mixing the colours or properties by the 
pollen. The right way to cross a Verbena is to have the 
mother plant in a pot, so as to be able to keep it out of the 
reach of other pollen than that which is intended, to thin 
the truss of flowers more than one-half while in the flower- 
bud, and just before the flower opens to slit it up from the 
middle of the tube with a pin, to extract the anthers, and to 
dust with other pollen when the stigma is ripe or appears 
moist. But an off-hand way of doing it is to pull off the 
flower carefully, so as to leave the style safe behind, as you 
would a Polyanthus or an Auricula; then to take another 
flower from the pollen plant and place it on the naked 
stigma, so as to look as if it grew there. The pollen being 
in the upper part of the tube, it may dust the stigma or it 
may not. The slitting of the tube is the real practical 
process.] 
FUCHSIA FOR A SMALL BED.—WALTONIAN 
CASE MANAGEMENT. 
“ Will you please to inform me what is the best Fuchsia 
to make an entire small bed of? Also say whether I could 
! raise sufficient plants from cuttings now in time to fill a bed 
j with Verbena venusa, mixed with scarlet variegated Gera- 
■ niums, and what would be the best Geranium for this 
| purpose ? 
“I am getting a Waltonian case made. Does it require 
, the sand to be kept damp? and what heat should it be ?”— 
| J. J. B. 
I 
[Fuchsia globosa major is the best one for a small bed, to 
i be cut down every autumn, and to be covered with coal 
ashes in winter. For a terrace garden or for a “ gem of a 
garden ” this is the only one of all the Fuchsias which is in 
the right style of growth and flower for a moderate bed, and 
no such garden is, or ever will be, complete without a pair of 
them at least. The sides might be edged with Crocuses, and 
the middle between the Fuchsias might be filled with bulbous 
or Spanish Irises, or with dwarf or double Tulips, all of 
which might remain together for years. The next best 
Fuchsia for a neat garden is a large-flowered variety of 
microphylla, which never stands the winter. One or two-year- 
old plants of this microphylla make the best clipped rows to 
accompany long, straight lines in geometric gardens, and 
both it and globosa major can be kept to any architectural 
shape, so to speak, without hurting the flowers. For a very 
large bed Ricartonii is the best Fuchsia. The finest beds in 
the county of this kind of Fuchsia are at Hampton Court. 
It ought to be cut close to the ground every winter, and it is 
quite hardy. The third or fourth best is gracilis, but this is 
better as a hedge three or four feet high. This is the time 
for propagating Verbena venosa. The old scarlet variegated 
Geranium is the only one to plant with venosa. 
The layer of sand in a Waltonian case should neither be 
wet nor dry, but drier before the middle of March ; 70° is a 
good heat for it with air.] 
HARDY SCARLET GERANIUMS AND BLUE 
FLOWERS FOR BEDDING. 
“ An old subscriber to your journal, residing in the north 
of Shropshire, wishes to know if there be any good bedding 
scarlet Geranium equally showy as Turn Thumb, but more 
hardy. 
“ She finds that Salvia patens and the branching and 
Chinese Larkspurs do not flourish in her garden, owing, pro¬ 
bably, to the smoke of some chimneys near to it. She is, 
therefore, rather short of blue flowers, and would be much 
obliged by having the names of some given which are pretty 
and suitable for bedding.”—C. I. S. 
[Punch, alias St. Vincent, is a better bedding Geranium 
even than Tom Thumb where the soil suits it, and it is the 
easiest of all the scarlet race to keep in winter; but without 
a trial no one can tell how it would turn out. Compac.tvm is 
the next easiest to keep, and will do equally well on all soils, i 
Trcntham Gem is a new bedder of the first-rate-style class, 
and keeps as well as Punch, and will probably, when it is j 
well known, take the place of all those bedders which grow 
stronger than Tom Thumb. But there are much dwarier 
kinds of scarlets than Tom Thumb, which keep fully as well, 
if not better. Royal Dwarf is, perhaps, the best of them ; j 
Collins' Divarf and Glowworm are the next two, and the three 1 
have the Tom Thumb or Frogmore Scarlet style of flowers. 
Blue bedders are as scarce as “ true blues ” everywhere ; 
there is nothing between the little blue Lobelias and the 
tall Salvias and Lupins worth planting except the Larkspurs .] 
VARIEGATED MINT AS AN EDGING FOR SCARLET 
GERANIUMS.—DELPHINIUM FOBMOSUM AND 
CALCEOLARIA AMPLEXICAULIS FOR BEDDING. 
“ Do you consider the Variegated Mint superior to any 
plant we grow when used as an edging for a bed of Gera¬ 
niums, &c. ? I am entirely unacquainted with it, and shall 
be glad to know the height which it attains, and the distauce 
small plants spread in a season. 
“ Delphinium formosum is also new to me. Will you, at the 
same time, describe its growth, how far apart it requires 
placing in a bed, and whether plants raised from seed in a 
cold greenhouse in February will be sufficiently early in 
(lowering tq make a good bed this year? I propose having 
one of my beds filled with the Zelinda Dahlia, and growing 
round it a band of Calceolaria amplexicavlis, edged with tho 
Variegated Mint. I should be glad to know your opinion 
upon it, and whether the Calceolaria is too high for tho 
purpose.”— Flora Montague. 
[The Variegated Mint is the best edging plant we have 
for a Geranium bed, or to front a mass of evergreens; also 
to mix with variegated Geraniums for a bed. It is best 
from cuttings made in April, and the more it is stopped all 
through the summer the better it looks; therefore it may 
be kept as low as ten inches, and from that to twenty inches 
or two feet, in good soil. It is the easiest of all plants to 
