FOK 3N EEES. 289 



occasionally by the plairws, but more generally by 

 the negroes and people of colour. The honey is dark- 

 coloured, and of a flavour hardly so agreeable as our 

 own. The hives they use are small square boxes of 

 one story. In size and colour the Jamaica bee so 

 strongly resembles the European, as to suggest the 

 probability that it is the same. The only circum- 

 stance known to us that raises any doubt of this 

 identity is, that though it possesses a sting, it seldom 

 uses it, and is apparently of a much less irritable 

 temper than ours. As a proof of this greater gentle- 

 ness, the apiary is, in many cases, situated directly in 

 front of the dwelling-house ; and an instance has 

 come to our knowledge of one consisting of not 

 fewer than fifty hives, belonging to a gentleman 

 in the neighbourhood of Savannah-la-Mar, ranged 

 close by the door, and under the front windows. Were 

 the exotic insect as testy as ours, visiters would require 

 some nerve to face coolly so formidable an outpost. 

 The same gentleman has orr his estate a row of log- 

 wood trees, the blossoms of which are much resorted 

 to by the bees. Whether there is any species of the 

 insect in this island without stings, we have not been 

 able to ascertain precisely ; it seems probable, how- 

 ever, there is not. A resident medical gentleman, to 

 whom the query was put, had never heard of such ; 

 and an intelligent negro, who kept a large stock of 

 hives, when asked whether the Jamaica bees had 

 stings, seemed surprised at the question, and an- 

 swered : " Hey ! hab tings ? dem ting too trong ! dem 

 hab big big ting." _ lie same negro observed that he 



