80 mnz?. 



tlieir father or mother do but hold up the fing-er (as thoy 

 say), they are husht. But the king* being- dead, the subjects 

 are perplexed, the drones lay their young; ones in the bees 

 cells, and all things are out of order." . . . The author 

 then proceeds to remark how bees are of nine orders, each 

 springing- from a different stock. There are lion-bees, bull- 

 bees, cow-bees, and calf-bees. The king'-bees are those 

 which spring- from the brain of the lion, and are endowed 

 with noble qualities according- to the kingly brain fi-om 

 ^vhich they issued. The noble bees spring- from the other 

 parts of the lion, and the canaille from cows, calves, &c. 

 The author here has made the same mistake as did Shak- 

 speare, who flourished about the same time, in considering 

 the queen bee as the father of the hive. He is sadly puz- 

 zled what to m-ake of the drones, and assigns to them the 

 duties of wet nurses — apparently because he found that they 

 did nothing that he could discover, except faring upon the 

 best of the hive during their sojourn in it. It is another 

 great proof of the genius of Shakspeare, that with such false 

 and absurd accounts as these for his only guide, he has in 

 the description of a hive, which has been before quoted, in- 

 stinctively omitted the erroneous accounts, and merely com- 

 mitted the slight error of mistaking the sex of the regal bee. 

 Perhaps it is to be wished that he had known it, as although 

 Dr. Bevan in his preface has chosen a ver}^ elegant com- 

 parison between the queen-bee and our present queen, yet 

 it is hardly possible that Shakspeare would have omitted 

 such an opportunity for introducing a little delicate flattery 

 towards his sovereign, who has already been so often cele- 

 brated in his works. 



We will now briefly consider the anatomy of the hive bee, 

 although this little work is wished to be practical, yet as no 

 work can supply every information, or act as a guide under 

 all the various circumstances which must take place in 

 every apiary, it is necessary that the bee-keeper should have 

 some knowledge of bee-anatomy, as without such know- 

 ledge, it is impossible to understand the physiology of 

 the insect, and unless the physiology is understood, it is 

 almost impossible that the management can he properly 

 carried on. No man thinks himself fit to undertake the 

 charge of stableS; unless he is thoroughly acquainted with the 



