PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 24, NO. 7-8, OCT. -NOV., 1922 177 



"painful" and even "stinging" is generally referred to in a dis- 

 tinctly complimentary way. It seems obvious that among the 

 hundreds of bees humming throughout poetry, at least 99 per- 

 cent are the honey-bee. Occasionally we find reference to the 

 "wild-bee," but there is no evidence that this refers to the 

 Andrenidae or related families but rather to the honey-bees 

 which have taken up their residence in some tree or wood. 

 Whittier has expressed this specifically in the "Witch of Wen- 

 ham": 



"They say that swarming wild bees seek 

 The hive at her command." 



The identity of the "mountain-bee" (a species peculiar to the 

 poets) also seems difficult of determination, although in the 

 following: 



' 'Twas transport to inhale the bright sweet air; 

 The mountain-bee was revelling in its glare, 

 And roving with his minstrelsy across 

 The scented wild weeds, and enamell'd moss. " 



Thomas Campbell. 



the behaviour of this insect leads us to suspect that it is a female 

 humble-bee looking for a place in which to build, in spite of the 

 supposed gender of this particular bee! In fact, it has been the 

 habit of poets to refer to the honey-bee in the masculine gender 

 as: 



"O velvet bee, you're a dusty fellow." 



of Ingelow and, 



"Thus in a thousand wax-erected forts 

 A loitering race the painful bee supports; 

 From sun to sun, from bank to bank he flies, 

 With honey loads his bag, with wax his thighs." 



Parnell. 



and it is only in very recent verse that we find any recognition 

 of the fact that the worker bees are females. The error of mis- 

 taking the pollen baskets on the hind legs of bees for wax organs, 

 as indicated in the last line of this verse, is another fallacy which 

 poets have shared; but this is excusable, because it is only 

 within comparatively recent years that the manner in which the 

 wax of bees is secreted has been at all well understood. An error 

 of omission which is less explicable, is the complete oversight 

 by the poet of the important agency of the bees in the pollination 

 of blossoms, in view of the fact that Sprengel had discovered the 

 main facts regarding it as early as 1793. That this relation 

 between the bee and the flower is capable of infinitely charming 

 and effective poetic treatment is obvious, and future poets, in 

 their efforts to keep abreast with science, doubtless will utilize 



