266 The h'ish Naturalist. December, 



REVIEWS. 



A BOOK ON BEES. 



The Lore of the Honey Bee. Ry Ticknkr Edwardes. Pp. 

 xxii. + 277. 24 illustrations. London: Methiien and Co., 1908, 

 Price, 6.f. 



The impression that this book leaves is that the author loves his bees 

 and has carefully studied their habits. The volume is in no sense of the 

 word a text-book on bee-keeping, nor does it deal with the methods of 

 managing bees for profitable honey-production ; but it contains an 

 account of the history of bee-keeping, of many of the legends connected 

 with bees in ancieut times, and of the salient facts of their life-historv 

 as we know them at present. 



In the introduction the author claims for bee-keeping the right to be 

 called the oldest craft under the sun. In support of this claim he 

 mentions the fact that many nectar-producing plants, such as the apple, 

 pear, blackberry, and plum, flourished in the later Stone Age, while the 

 elm — a famous pollen-producer— is known to have existed even earlier. 

 'Therefore," he states, though we must confess ourselves- unable to 

 follow his logic, " it would be as unreasonable not to infer that the 

 honey bee was ready on the earth with her stores of sweet food for man, 

 as that man did not speedily discover that store.'' He goes on to say that 

 wax was used in the Bronze Age for the casting of ornaments and 

 weapons, while the Egyptians, by their use of the bee in their hierogly- 

 phic symbols as an emblem of royalty, showed some knowledge of the 

 insect. Although Mr. Edwardes cannot trace the actual time when bees 

 were first domesticated, he indulges in some ingenious, if far-fetched, 

 speculations as to man's beginning as a bee-keeper. 



In the first chapter, entitled "The Ancients and the Honey Bee," the 

 author gives us an account of some of the quaint beliefs held by Virgil, 

 Pliny, and others concerning the life-history of the insect. Virgil 

 believed that in windy weather bees carried with them small pebbles as 

 counterpoises, much as ships carry ballast; he also held the extraordinary 

 notion that swarms of bees could be spontaneously generated from the 

 decaying carcases of oxen. This latter belief was widespread among the 

 ancients, and the only explanation oiTered is that drone flies, whose 

 larvae feed on decaying flesh, were mistaken for bees. 



The bee-masters of the Middle Ages, according to Mr. Edwardes, made 

 very little attempt to investigate the life-history of bees owing to the 

 difficulty of observing them in the old-fashioned hives, and it was not 

 until Huber's leaf hive was invented that any real progress in bee- 

 knowledge was made. Coming to our modern knowledge of the life- 

 history of bees, Mr. Edwardes deals, sometimes in rather fanciful 

 language, with the main facts of bee life. He maintains for example 

 that in the way they build their combs and in many other of their 

 actions thev exhibit reason rather than instinct. 



