HAWKE'S BAY PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3739, 10 July 1883, Page 2

HAWKE'S BAY PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE.

This Society hold their usual Monthly meeting last night, and we have much pleasure in saying it was very avoll attended by both Toavii and Country Members, several ladies being also present, indeed the room Avas well fillod. The officers of the Society Avero all there, the President the Bishop of Waiapu being in the Chair. There was a very fair show of exhibits,. both animal and vegetable, particularly the latter. Skins of rare birds, and portions of rarer fishes, and a large and varied lot of tho smaller Cryptogamous plants; among theso Avorc several curious and noA-cl Fungi from the forests in the interior, —all in a good state of preservation, and looking quite fresh even to their bright colours. Mr Colenso and Mr Hamilton having made some descriptive obsen'ations on tho several animal specimens, the Hon. Secretary gave an address on some of our smaller indigenous vegetable products,—particularly on the fungus of commerce, the Dandolion (root), and Honey ; aud in so doing brought foi'Avard several important and surprising facts concerning them. He first, hoAvevcr, by Avay of introduction, prefaced his remarks by reading a portion of a highly pleasing- and tasteful letter he had lately recoived from a Country member, relativo to the beauties of Vegetable nature and of our N.Z; forests in particular, and of the state of mind required thoroughly to enjoy them. Which lettcritshould be added, Avas occasioned through his reading Mr Colenso's paper (No. 30,) on Ferns and forest scenery, lately published in Vol. XV. of the "Transactions." Of the Fungus of commerce., (llirncoU polytrichia) —gonci-nlly known by the common name of Fungus—the following v information was given, mainly obtained from official sources, —showing its great commercial value, and tho enormous increase of its export in a few years. " (Wo only giA'c a part.) In 1872,58 tons Avero exported, valued at £1927. In 1875, 112 tons Avero exported, valued at £.7744. In 1877, 220 tons were exported, A-alued at £11,318. Its declared value at the Customs being £44 a ton. At first, the collectors AA-ere paid only a Id per lb. forit; atprcsent they receive about id per lb., and in China, Avhere jt is largely used in soups, kc, it is sold from 10c! to Is per lb. Specimens of this Fungus both Avet and dry were shown ; a fine plant when dry only weighing 2\ drams. While on edible Fungi, reference awis made to an advertisement in tbe Auckland Weekly Ncavs,' calling f_nj '.'several tons of salted Mushrooms" for an' English firm. The common and well-knoAvn Dandelion (taraxacum) was next noticed, and an extract road from a late number of Nature, shoAving that one medical'order mado in India vygs for 200 lbs of the extract from its robt; when, to raise thisquantity quickly, the ground was prppared and tho seed sown and a good crop of the roots soon obtained, and the required extract made. The raising and. drying of the roots of this plant (Uko that of collecting tho fungus) is a very simple and cheap operation. Bespeaking of Honey,—attention -was first ..called to its great and rapid incrcaso of late in this district, (from the introduction of the first- hivo in 1844,) and'to tho quantity exhibited, and sold by Mr Goddard of Hastings, and others, ancl also annually imported from Poverty Bay. Copious and > interesting extracts, descriptive and statistical, Avero also read from a late London paper (Standard) on this subjoct,—show-

ing the enormous quantity at present profitably raised in America at their large Bee-farms (or "ranches "), of which information Aye can only give a very condensed report. Wo learn from an American journal devoted to the "honey trade," that in 1881 the surplus comb-honey of the Transatlantic Bees amounted to 9,4G7,G22 pounds. New York heads the roll of honey producing States ; then folloAV Pennsylvania, Canada, Ohio. Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Louisiana, in the order named ; California, in spite of the size of its "ranches," and the boasted profusion of its flora, barely r.roducing a fortieth part of Avhat the Dominion does. Altogether there arc in N. America about 300,000 colonies of Bees, which yield, it is calculated, over 100,000,000 pounds of honey worth at least .£.300,000 ; for the figures given refer solely to the honey marketed, and even then not over a twelfth of the Bee-keepers make returns of their crops. The scientific Bee-farmer sednlously avoids any rude treatment; of his insects, nnd is careful to pasture them on the best flowers. Hence has arisen the business of farming-out swarms, just as stock-rearers send their sheep to graze in a part of the country where tho herbage is better than in their OAvn district. It is estimated that one aero will support about 25 swarms; and such is the magnitude of this business in some parts of America, that a single firm keeps two steam saAVS constantly employed in cutting up the timber nscd in constructing the boxes for holding the comb-honey. And further, that honey was produced of various qualities, now as in ancient days, OAA-ing to the flowers from which the Bees gathered it,—some being well-knoAvn as highly deleterious ; and that its several qualities Avere known to the professed honeytaster, just as tea, &c., were to the skilled tasters of those articles. The rosemary honey of Narbonne differs in scent and taste from that garnered on the floAvery slopes of Mount Ida. The honey of Guiana is red; that of Madagascar greenish. Much of the S. African honey is poisonous, from tho Bee feeding on a species of spurge; and the honey of Trebizonde causes intoxication to-day just as it did when it made tho heads of the Ten Thousand reel Avith Bubtle virus of the Pontic Azalea.

In fine the modern Bee-shepherd to succeed and prosper must transport his charges from flowery land to flowery land, in the same Avay that the old Greek Bee-masters pursued the blossoms from Achaia to Attica, and from Eubooa to the sunny meads of Scyrus. For at least 20 centuries the Sicilians have been in the habit of carrying their hives to Hybla, just as tho Scottish LoAvlanders send them in the autumn to the blooming Highland moors. In like manner the Italians who live on tho banks of the Po, float their hives up and doAvn the river, and the Egyptians folloAV the same practice on tho Nile,—so that the insects which have begun to starve at homo may luxuriate among the gardens and fields which they pass on their inland voyage. Tho Avhole was wound up with the exhibition of photographs of some eminent Englishmen, lately rcceiA'ed, viz., Dr Darwin, Sir J. D. Hooker, Mr AY. SAvainson, tho Scientific Naturalst (avlio for many years had resided in N.Z.), andDr Colenso, the late Bishop of Natal. Four neAV Members Avere also elected.

reeling remarks Avere also made by the Hon. Secretary on the recent death of Mr Robert Stuart, a member, and one of the earliest of the Society and for some timo its elected President.

The usual votes of thanks to tho providers of the feast concluded the meeting; and thus Avas spent a very enjoyable evening, at which all seemed pleased.