to generate a Queen* 605 



as the bees themselves possess the astonishing power of con- 

 verting it, by a process known only to themselves, into a queen 

 bee. Schirach, however, adduces no facts grounded on expe- 

 rience to substantiate this statement ; on the contrary, it was, 

 on his part, merely a broad undemonstrated assertion, leaving 

 it open to all the doubts and objections which could be brought 

 against it : nevertheless, it was productive of this good effect, 

 that it drew the attention of- others to the subject, who, by 

 their skill and perseverance, were most able to confirm its 

 truth or fallacy. Bonner was originally one of the staunchest 

 adherents of Schirach ; but the result of his experiments by 

 no means established satisfactorily to himself the validity of 

 the hypothesis : on the contrary, the last time I visited the 

 worthy apiarian, at Roslin Castle, near Edinburgh, he can- 

 didly avowed, that, although he did actually succeed in one 

 instance, yet he could by no means lay it down as a general 

 rule that the common bee does actually possess th« power, j?^r 

 se [of itself], of generating a queen. 'i 'iiniib ^jyI^c; 



It may not be the least interesting and valuable part of this 

 enquiry, to investigate the different systems relative to the pro- 

 pagation of the bee, as laid down both by the English and 

 foreign apiarians, as from an examination of their different 

 hypotheses a guide may be obtained to the actual truth, ^jd 



The system, as advanced by Schirach, was as follows : — H*e 

 affirms that the hive consists of three kinds of bees: 1. the 

 queen ; 2. the drones, being the males ; and, 3. a middle sex, 

 the working bees, which possess a greater affinity to the female 

 than the male sex ; which, however, are destitute of any pro- 

 creating power, nor do they possess any influence in the mul- 

 tiplication of their species. It may be observed that Schirach 

 was here standing on the very threshold of truth : he, how- 

 ever, departed widely from it in the hypothesis which he 

 founded on the classification just given, as he affirmed that 

 from every egg that would produce a working bee, if it re- 

 mained in the small cell till its maturity and was nourished 

 in the usual manner, a queen would always arise, if the bees 

 gave to such egg an enlargement of the cell, in which the 

 worm and the nymph could properly extend themselves, pro- 

 vided that such worm or nymph was provided with richer 

 food, and in greater profusion. It was a part of his system, 

 that, in the liquid nature of an egg, the parts which belonged 

 to the queen bee lay concealed in imperceptible minuteness ; 

 but that, as soon as they received the necessary space for 

 their expansion, an increase took place in their size ; and the 

 developement of the parts gradually proceeded, until the queen 

 finally attained her full magnitude and beauty. Finally, he 



