106 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUBNAl 



possesses hybrid hives of hoth kinds, and did not 

 permit any want of observations so far as the 

 limited time enabled him to make them, but he 

 met with new unsolvablc riddles. The Italian 

 hybrid mothers have, throughout, completely con- 

 firmed the supposition and produced the most 

 beautiful Italian drones, one almost more beau- 

 tiful than the genuine stocks, the maternal stock 

 itself. Of two German hybrid hives, one also 

 produced only the ordinary black drones; the 

 other the same, but unexpectedly amongst these 

 a few appeared which glittered like gold, and 

 v/cre yellower than any single bee even in the 

 genuine Italian hives. It certainly was possible 

 that even here a beautiful Italian amongst the 

 ■workers, of which a portion had the color of in- 

 digenous bees, and another i^ortion that of the 

 Itahans, might have laid some eggs, from which 

 the few yellow drones might have been produced. 

 Nevertheless, the Silesian Apiarian is not par- 

 ticularly inclined to explain the phenomenon in 

 this way, so as not to expose himself to the sus- 

 picion that only a predilection for his hypothesis 

 led him to have recourse to this explanation, as 

 in point of fact the deposition of eggs by worker 

 bees when a queen is present, is an exceptional 

 occurrence of the rarest kind. Although the 

 vesicle tilled Avith semen does not implant the 

 vital germ for the drone in the egg, may not a 

 peculiar emanation from it nevertheless act in 

 determining the kind and color?" 



Dzierzon is certainly in the wrong, when, for 

 the sake of this one observation which disturbs 

 him, and in order to explain it, he again calls in 

 the aid of the long overthroAvn hypothesis of an 

 imra seminalis. Von Berlepsch has taken the 

 trouble to invalidate the case detailed by Dzier- 

 zon, which is said to speak against his own 

 theory. He very justly observes that in tbe 

 preceding, Dzierzon has not established the fact 

 that those few golden drones were actually pro- 

 duced by the queen, and not by a very fine egg- 

 laying worker; (as thehalf of the workers in this 

 hive consisted of these) for although the presence 

 of an egg-laying worker together with a queen 

 is a case of the very rarest occurrence, yet it can 

 be proved that such exceptions do occur. ^ Ber- 

 lepsch also points out with reason that Dzierzon 

 was never perfectly certain on the point, whether 

 the queen, in whose hive he observed the remark- 

 able yellow drones, was by birth of the true 

 German race, or produced from hybrid brood. 

 Dzierzon himself adds the warning to the state- 

 ment of Ins case, that in such observation great 

 caution i% necessary to avoid erroneous conclu- 

 sions, as on such occasions we must be perfectly 

 sure that the queen belongs by birth to the right 

 race; for if she has been produced from hybrid 

 brood it is impossible for her to produce even pure 

 drones, but she produces half Italian and half 

 German drones. However, I regard this doubt, 

 which had been raised in Dzierzon with regard 

 to his own theory, and by his own observations, 

 as a sutficient reason for getting further informa- 

 tion from Herr Von Berlepsch, who had obtained 

 great experience in breeding Italian bees for the 

 last two years, with regard to the real truth in 

 the production of hybrids taking place between 

 Italian and German bees. On the 2d of March 

 oflast year, (1856) he replied to my questions 



put to him for this purpose, in the following man- 

 ner. In the first place he referred to his obser- 

 vations already published in the Blenenzeiiung^ 

 where he says: ' 'Ail queens wMcli are of a beauti- 

 ful yellow externally only produce Italian drones, 

 even when they produce partly Italian and partly- 

 German workers. A German mother, whicli was 

 fertilized by an Italian drone, produced German 

 and Italian workers, but only German drones. 

 When on the contrary the mother is not of a fine 

 yellow — when she has traces of black in her, the 

 drones also come forth mixed, whether the 

 mother be fertilized by a German or an Italian 

 male; of course because the males only take after 

 the mother." To this Von Berlepsch added the 

 following commentary in his letter: "An Italian 

 queen fertilized by a German drone, or a German 

 queen by an Italian drone, constantly (only one 

 exception has occurred to me) produces females 

 (workers, queens,) of three ditferent colors; a. 

 Tribe Italians, that is to say, as yellow and banded 

 as the female descendants of Italian queens which 

 were fecundated by Italian drones; b. True, Oer- 

 mans, and c. Mongrels. With many mothers 

 the Italian, and with many the German descend- 

 ants predominate; but the mongrels, which as 

 regards color, are intermediate between the Ger- 

 mans and the Italians, are always in the minori- 

 ty, and indeed in the greatest minority, for in 

 many hives avc rarely see a mongrel, and in 

 many none at all. Now as the queens are only 

 workers, otherwise, that is to say, further de- 

 veloped, the same conditions occur in them also, 

 and in hybrid mothers the color of the royal de- 

 scendants depends upon the egg. If the egg 

 would have given a true Italian worker, it also 

 furnishes a genuine Italian queen, &c. The 

 males, iDitliout exception, follow the mother as 

 regards color, and during the last summer 1 was 

 unable to discover with hybrid mothers even a 

 single male which resembled its father, in spite 

 of the most careful observation and closest exam- 

 ination. 



After such imijortant empirical facts, derived 

 from the observation of a great number of pro- 

 ductions of hybrid bees, it must tlierefore be re- 

 garded as certain, that in accordance with Dzier- 

 zon' s theory, bees of pure race are deprived of 

 tli6]:ower of producing hybrid drones. 



[CONCLUDED NEXT MONTH.] 



[For tlie American Bee Jovu'aal ] 



American Bee Plant. 



Over the name of A. A. Terry, on page 58, of 

 the September number of the Bee Journal, 

 volume 3, avc find an article recommending this 

 plant as a great honey-yielding plant in the vi- 

 cinity of Cbicago. Will the writer of that article 

 please favor me with a package of seed of said 

 plant, and I will reciprocate the favor. 



I am passionately fond of bee-culture, and wish 

 to procure the best honey -yielding plants. 



The reason I make this request through the 

 Amekican Bee Journal is, I enclosed some 

 money directed to Mr. Terry at Chicago, (111.,) 

 but received no answer. Chicago may not be 

 his address. A. Salisbury. 



Camakgo, Douglass Co., III. 



