THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September 21, 1858, 
with its supposed old queen and scanty population, has gained 
about seven pounds in the three weeks, whilst the other two 
have probably doubled their store ; allowance being made for 
the diminution which takes place at this season in the numbers 
of the bees themselves. All this, too, has been done at a time 
when those remaining at home have continued rapidly to lose 
weight. 
In visiting the hives on the days above indicated, I was 
much struck with the ardour with which all worked, appearing 
as active as in May; and, considering how the populations 
had been thinned by the autumnal deaths, it was surprising to 
see such crowds of honey-gatherers. As bearing upon the 
question of the distance traversed by bees in search of 
pasturage, I may remark, that, at the very time my bees were 
most active, some strong stocks which I inspected not more 
than a mile distant were doing nothing, and probably break¬ 
ing in upon their winter’s store. 
Of the three hives, the seven-bar one (No. 2) is undoubtedly 
the strongest, being well-filled with bees. Next comes No. 1, 
and last, No. 3, which has comparatively few inhabitants, and 
presents a melancholy contrast to its prosperous appearance 
during June and July. 
Little can be concluded from one experiment, and No. 2 
may have had an unusually prolific queen; but my impression 
is, that heat appears more concentrated in the seven-bar box, 
which, on that account, would seem better adapted for breed¬ 
ing than broad and shallow boxes.—A Devonshire Bee- 
keeper. 
P.S.—Most of the queries of your esteemed correspondent, 
<c An Old Apiarian,” are, I think, answered in the foregoing 
article. 
“HANDY HELPS TO USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.” 
Under this title is publishing a series of penny treatises 
on whatever may be the topics of the day. They are mar¬ 
vellously cheap, and necessarily on very varied themes— 
from “ Eclipses” to “ Mormons,” from “ Sir Colin Campbell” 
to “ The Leviathan.” They are good epitomes of informa¬ 
tion, relative to subjects of which everyone is talking. The 
number now before us (price fourpence) is “ The Indoor- 
Naturalist,” and gives hints and directions for constructing 
and stocking Wardian Cases, Aquaria, &c. It concludes 
with the following extracts from a century-old pamphlet on 
“ The Water Garden — 
“It is entitled, ‘A Flower Garden for Gentlemen and 
Ladies ; or, the Art of Raising Flowers without Trouble to 
Blow in full Perfection in the Depth of Winter in a Bed¬ 
chamber, Closet, or Dining-room.’ From this strange old 
book we will take the liberty of making such extracts as are 
likely to interest the in-door naturalist, to whom we must 
leave the task of verifying the statements which they 
contain. 
I flatter myself,’ says our quaint author, ‘thatthe fol¬ 
lowing improvement in the delightful art of gardening, as it 
has hitherto escaped the thought of the curious, will meet 
with no unwelcome reception, it being a contrivance to divert 
the ingenious, in a place and at a time they cannot be other¬ 
wise furnished with those pleasing objects of delight; that 
is, to raise many sorts of flowers in a chamber, in the 
greatest smoke of London, and in the midst of winter, and 
to have them blow in full perfection within the twelve days 
of Christmas, as I had myself in the last Christmas past.’” 
“‘I shall run into no extravagances, and ooly give the 
reader what I performed with very little trouble, leaving the 
improvement thereof to better understandings.’ 
“After having described bis early experiments, in which 
he succeeded in raising Tulips, Snowdrops, Crocuses, and 
other plants in large basins filled with good garden mould, 
he arrives at the conclusion that earth can be entirely dis¬ 
pensed with, and that the plants may be made to flourish in 
water alone. 
“ ‘ I resolved to trust to the effects of water only,’ he con¬ 
tinues,‘that is, without earth, which would he a much 
neater and cleanlier way, and might be more acceptable to 
the curious of the fair sex, who must be highly pleased to 
see a garden growing, and exposing all the beauties of its 
spring flowers, with the most delicious perfumes thereof, 
in their chambers or parlours—a diversion worthy the en¬ 
tertainment of the most ingenious; but yet farther, to bring 
399 
this to a more profitable use by raising young salads in the 
same place, and all with very little trouble or charge. 
“ ‘ I bought some dozens of flint glasses of the Germans, 
who cut them prettily and sell them cheap. I bought them 
from whole pints to halves and quarters. These glasses are 
wide at the top, and are made tapering to the bottom, which 
renders them very convenient for this use. I likewise bought 
some glass basins as large as I could get, and took care to 
choose them also tapering from top to bottom ; then I fitted 
pieces of cork, about half an inch thick, to the inside of the 
tops of the glasses, which could not sink far in, by reason of 
the glasses being less all the way from the top to the 
bottom, as aforesaid. In these corks I cut holes propor¬ 
tional to the roots which I designed to place upon them. 
Some glasses would hold two roots, some but one, and some 
three or four. The corks on the basins had many less holes 
cut in them, in order to place on them a number of smaller 
roots, which might blow together with the more splendour. 
Being thus prepared, which was all my eharge and trouble 
that way, my next business was to get the flower-roots. A 
little before Michaelmas, I accordingly made a small collec¬ 
tion of Polyanthus and Narcissus roots, several sorts of 
Hyacinths, Tulips, Crocuses, Daffs, Jonquils, &c., all large- 
blowing roots, or the labour of rearing them would have 
been lost. These I placed upon the corks in glasses proper 
to their size, tlie Crocuses on the corks in the basins, that 
they might, being of various colours, blow together to make 
the more pleasing object. Before I placed these dry roots 
on the corks, I filled the glasses and basins only just to the 
bottom of the corks, so that the bottoms of the bulbs would 
but just touch the water, of which I take the Thames water 
to be the best, as being strongly impregnated with prolific 
matter, like rich earth well manured for corn or garden use.’ 
(In the present day the richness of the Thames water would 
prohablj prove fatal to the success of these experiments.) 
‘ My dry roots being thus placed in my windows, some of 
them even with the panes, others with their tops only even 
with the bottom of the sash, which, by the way, I kept 
always shut, because my glasses hindered the opening of the 
casement; but, doubtless, a little air in very fine weather, 
when the wind was only in the south or west, and when 
there was no frost, would have been very advantageous to 
the plants—I took particular care that no water should be 
filled up to wet any more than just the bottoms of the bul¬ 
bous roots, for that would certainly have rotted them, and 
have destroyed all my hopes. 
“ In a few days after I had placed my spring flower-roots 
on the corks over the water they threw out their white fibrous 
roots strongly into the water, which was a most diverting 
pleasure to behold. The whole process of that germination 
(if I may so call it) was visible through the glass. When 
the glasses were pretty well filled with these fibrous roots, 
that is, when there were enough to draw sufficient strength 
for the nourishment of the leaves, stalks, and flowers, the 
green buds first appeared, which soon shot into leaves, 
and the stalks with the flower-buds soon followed, all as 
strong, or, I may say, rather stronger than the garden does 
afford. They grew so fast, and yet with a full strength, 
that I had Polyanthuses and Narcissuses blowing out in 
perfection before Christmas-day, with all their perfection 
of colour and perfume. Several Hyacinths followed them in 
the same manner. The Crocuses would have been equally 
early, hut I could not get any roots to my mind till some 
time after Michaelmas, which occasioned their being later 
than the rest of their companions. I at last met with the 
large roots of the great blue Crocus, which blows late, and 
very often not at all. The yellow Crocus and the white- 
striped, or very pale blue, are the forwardest, and the best 
to be chosen for our use. 
“'At a time when the gardens are divested of all their 
beauty, this early production will supply the curious ladies with 
most agreeable perfumes for their chambers and parlours, 
and with nosegays to adorn their bosoms at Christmas, when 
they dress their houses with evergreens. It must he re¬ 
membered that the rooms in which this gardening is carried 
on must have fires in them every day, as I had in my 
chamber, which was kept with reasonable warmth all the 
day and evening, but not in the night. These exceedingly 
forward rarities are certainly most grateful to the exterior 
senses; hut this leads me to a more useful fact, namely, 
that by the same means you can produce, as early as you 
