Petrified Honey Comb. 



Mr. E. R. Douglass, of Martinsburg, 

 Mo., has sent us another piece of this 

 peculiar stone formation, which he says 

 he picked up in a neighbor's yard, and 

 asks " What is itV" Our friend Prof. 

 Cook very kindly answers this question 

 by the following interesting article : 



Mr. Editor : In your November number, 

 p. 372, you speak of petrified honey comb, 

 trom Seneca Falls, N. Y. We have many 

 such specimens in our museum. In some 

 cases the cells are hardly larger than a pin- 

 head, in others a quarter of an inch in 

 diameter-. 



These are not fossil honey comb as you 

 vpere led to believe, though the resemblance 

 is so striking that no wonder you and the 

 public general ly are deceived. These speci- 

 mens are fossil coral, which the paleontolo- 

 gist places in the genus Favosites ; favosus 

 being a common species in our State. They 

 are very abundant in the lime rock in north- 

 ern Michigan, and are very properly denomi- 

 nated honey-stone coral. The animals of 

 which these were once the skeletons, so to 

 speak, are not insects at all, though often 

 called so by men of considerable informa- 

 tion. It would be no greater blunder to call 

 an oyster or a clam an insect. 



The species of the genus Favosites first 

 appeared in the Upper Silurian rocks, cul- 

 minated in the Devonian, and disappeared 



^^ 



in the early Carboniferous. No insects ap- 

 peared till the Devonian age, and no Hyme- 

 noptera— bees, wasps, etc.— till after the 

 Carboniferous. So the old-time Favosites, 

 reared its limestone columns and helped to 

 build islands and continents untold ages- 

 millions upon millions of years— before any 

 flower bloomed, or any bee sipped the pre- 

 cious nectar. In some specimens of this 

 hon^-stone coral, there are to be seen banks 

 of cells, much resembling the paper cells of 

 some of our wasps. This might be called 

 wasp-stone coral, except that both styles 

 were wrought by the self-same animals. -ii* , 

 I enclose drawings illustrating two speci- 



mens to be seen in our museum, one show- 

 ing the banks or rows of cells. 



A. J. Cook. 



The engravings will give our readers 





a very accurate idea of how these speci 

 mens appear. 



1^ The Rev. L. L. Langstroth writes 

 concerning the National Convention 

 lately held in Kew York : 



" That was a grand Convention. Those of the old 

 style were of very little woi'th. Too much scheming 

 for mere personal interests. Our National re-unions 

 should be the grand arena for the best thoughts and 

 words of our ablest men." 



We hope the next National Conven- 

 tion, in this city, will be even more of a 

 grand success than any that have pre- 

 ceded it. The West has long desired to 

 have such a Convention, and now^ it has 

 been located in Chicago, let the attend- 

 ance be the largest, as well as the pro- 

 ceedings more interesting than ever. 

 Our New York apiarists will be on hand 

 in strong numbers, and those from the 

 Middle and Western States will be fully 

 represented. The Rev. L. L. Langstroth 

 is expected, as well as the ablest living 

 apiarists on the Continent. 



i^°Mr. John M. Putnam, of New 

 Orleans, La., has sent us a flower stem 

 and leaves of the Japan Pear, which 

 was in profuse bloom there all through 

 October, furnishing excellent pasturage 

 for bees. 



