Reproduction in the Honey Bee. 551 
efforts in importing into this country two of the most in- 
teresting varieties of the genus Apis, Apis ligustica having 
been imported into England from Switzerland in the 
autumn of 1859, and Apis fasciata from Germany in July, 
1865—from that gentleman I received two or three 
pure Ligurian colonies ; and in propagating this new 
race, and in my numerous and various experiments, I 
soon sound myself surrounded with the most conflicting 
and puzzling anomalies. 
It is, perhaps, necessary here to state, that Mr. Wood- 
bury is a thorough believer in Dzierzon’s theory, though 
I am not certain whether in practice he eliminates from 
his apiary all hybridized queens or not. Mr. Woodbury 
assured me, however, that the colonies I received from 
him were perfectly pure, and that the offspring of the 
queens were equally as well marked as the progeny of 
those he had first imported. Of course, it is essential 
to the accuracy of our experiments in this question and 
the trustworthiness of their results, that the race of bee 
in our posession be pure and uncontaminated, and free 
of all foreign admixture or taint. With this remark, | 
proceed to say that the queens I got from Mr. Wood- 
bury produced beautiful workers but indifferent drones ; 
while, on the other hand, some of the subsequent queens, 
reared from the original ones, bred inferior workers but 
yet produced more beautiful drones. In short, the re- 
sults of all my experiments with the Italian bee were 
very perplexing, and especially in the case when the 
pure queens reared were hybridized by English drones 
the phenomena presented were full of mystery and in- 
explicable. All this created a strong suspicion in my 
mind that there was a taint or flaw somewhere, and that 
probably Dzierzon was in error in supposing that the 
drones of such pure hybridized queens always partook 
and followed the race of the mother; otherwise, I could 
not account for the many anomalies brought out in my 
experiments. 
Indeed, I confess that I do not well see that perfect 
accuracy of results, in this question, could be obtained 
by aid of the Italian bee, inasmuch as the pure Ligurian 
drone sometimes so nearly resembles the English drone, 
that purity is often difficult to determine. I only 
judge from my own experience in the matter, but I 
believe it is also the experience of several apiarians 
both in England and Germany. If colour be the expres- 
