INTRODUCTION, 



DEMOCRITUS, who died 361 years before Christ, aged 

 109 years, is the first Apiarian whose works have come down 

 to us. The knowledge of the Bee at that age, was con- 

 imed to the speculative knowledge of Natural History, ra- 

 ther than a practical knowledge of the economy and va- 

 lue of this most useful Animal. 



Alexander De Montfort wrote the two first modern 

 Treatises upon the Bee, about the middle of the 17th cen- 

 tury, entitled " the Portrait of the Honey Fly, its virtue* 

 form, &c." Also, " the spring of the Honey Fly," divided 

 into two parts ; in which will be found a curious, true and 

 new history of the admirable and natural conduct of the 

 Bee, &c. De Montfort notices a long catalogue of ancient 

 writers upon Bees, particularly, Aristotle, Columella, Var- 

 ro, &c. and adds the first practical touch to their visionary 

 speculations. Virgil says, that a Bee is a ray of the Divinity ; 

 Plutarch, that it is a magazine of the Virtues ; Quintilian, 

 that it is the chief of the Geometricians ; and De Montfort, 

 the Bee surpasses, in architecture, the skill of Archi- 

 medes. Plato, who flourished about forty years before 

 Democritus, ascribes to the Bee a certain portion of that 

 angry Divinity which inspires Poets, and cautions his Dis- 

 ciples against disturbing either of them. 



At the close of the 17th century, appeared Swammer- 

 dam,Maraldi and Ferchault, all men of science, who open- 

 ed to our view the natural history of the Bee ; but Hodi- 

 erna, of Totria, first disclosed \he fact, that all young 

 swarms spring from the eggs of the Queen Mother. These 

 men laid the foundation of the true Apiarian science, and 

 were translated into every language. 



This interesting subject engrossed the attention of a 

 host of writers through the 18th century, and at the close 

 of it by Huber, (though blind nearly,) most visionary of 

 them all. 



Bonner, a Scotchman, is the first good practical Apiarian 

 that has appeared, and his valuable conversation has great- 

 ly assisted the labours of t "s work, with what success the 

 public must judge. 



