ENTOMOLOGY. 171 



them, and thus gives a larger crop. When purified which 

 is done by first removing the twfgs, leaves, and all the 

 foreign substances, then breaking it into small pieces, 

 placing them in a canvas bag, which is applied to the 

 fire until the liquid lac passes through its pores, when it 

 is taken off the fire and pressed it is used for making 

 sealing-wax, beads, rings, and various ornaments. 



The Bee also furnishes an article of much importance ; 

 honey, the juice of plants, changed in its properties 

 while in the stomach of the bee, is no small source of re- 

 venue to many individuals. Although most of the honey 

 consumed is obtained from the hive-bee, great quantities 

 are in various countries collected from different species 

 of wild bees. Thus, in South America, much is obtained 

 from nests in the trunks of trees. The beautiful rock- 

 honey is also the produce of wild bees, which form their 

 nests to rocks. Large quantities of hives of a bee differ- 

 ing from our common bee, are carried to different situa- 

 tions on the Nile, as the food of the bees at different 

 places, fails them. The French have learned a lesson from 

 this, and been profited. As the flowers decrease at any 

 particular spot, compelling the bees to go far from their 

 hives, the proprietors of the hives place them on a barge 

 well covered, and they pass down the rivers, collecting the 

 honey on the banks. In Spain the number of bee-hives 

 is very great : Mills relates that a single priest was 

 known to possess five thousand hives. 



Wax, a substance which is secreted from honey, and 

 transpires through the pores of the skin of the bee, and 

 the article of which the bee forms its comb, is to some 

 countries a source of great revenue. Thus we are told, 

 that upwards of eightythree thousand pounds' value are 

 annually sent from Cuba to New Spain ; and that "the whole 

 quantity exported from the same island, has been worth 

 upwards of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds in a 

 year. By those who are never satisfied of the expediency 

 of any object, who would prefer to receive everything of 

 others, rather than make the slightest effort themselves, 

 objections have been advanced as to the probability of our 

 succeeding in rearing bees in New England. Our mild 

 weather continues so short a time, say they, that the 



