364 FLORA inSTOHICA. 



winter, which is also considerably shortened to 

 them by the aid these flowers give, by enabUng 

 them to subsist without falUng on their store at 

 too early a season. 



The ancients attended their bees with so much 

 care, that the hives were conveyed in the night 

 to distant spots abounding with such plants as 

 afforded the most honey '^^ ; and surely it is easier 

 to plant flowers for the bees than to take the bees 

 to the flowers. These industrious insects have 

 peculiar claims on the care of the peasantry, 

 since they stray into the grounds of the wealthy, 

 where, without committing devastation or fraud, 

 they obtain treasure for their master, and are 

 therefore a kind of licensed flock which feed at 

 freedom, without the fear of giving offence or 

 receiving imprisonment, for they neither break 

 down fences or transgress against the equity of 



laws. 



It may be stated that the demand for honey is 

 much less than in ancient times, but we would 

 ask if both the honey and the wax do not bring 

 as good a price as formerly ; and the bees are 

 therefore as well deserving the attention of the 

 poor now, as they were at any former period. 

 We have frequently remarked that where the hive 



* See y,ulva Florifcra, vol. i. p. 157; and Cultivated Vcgc- 

 tables; vol.ii. p. oSO. 



