INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. O 



tation of the hexagonal waxen cells, and the skill of the 

 construction of the comb to their purposes, has occupied 

 the abstruse calculations of profound mathematicians; 

 and since human ingenuity has devised modes of investi- 

 gating, unobserved, the various proceedings of the in- 

 terior of the hive, wonder has grown still greater, and 

 admiration has reached its climax. 



The intimate connection of " Bees " with nature's 

 elegancies, the Flowers, is an association which links 

 them agreeably to our regard, for each suggests the 

 other; their vivacity and music giving animation and 

 variety to what might otherwise pall by beautiful but 

 inanimate attractions. When we combine with this the 

 services bees perform in their eager pursuits, our admi- 

 ration extends beyond them to their Great Originator, 

 who, by such apparently small means, accomplishes so 

 simply yet completely, a most important object of crea- 

 tion. 



That bees were cultivated by man in the earliest 

 conditions of his existence, possibly whilst his yet 

 limited family was still occupying the primitive cradle 

 of the race at Hindoo Koosh, or on the fertile slopes of 

 the Himalayas, or upon the more distant table-land or 

 plateau of Thibet, or in the delicious vales of Cashmere, 

 or wherever it might have been, somewhere widely away 

 to the east of the Caspian Sea, is a very probable sup- 

 position. Accident, furthered by curiosity, would have 

 early led to the discovery of the stores of honey which 

 the assiduity of bees had hoarded; its agreeable savour 

 would have induced further search, which would have 

 strengthened the possession by keener observation, and 

 have led in due course to the fixing them in his imme- 

 diate vicinity. 



B 2 



