1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



11 



the first place I hope, for the general 

 good of bee keeping, that a staid, re- 

 spectable journal like Gleanings Avill 

 never again make the statement that 

 it did a few weeks ago about A'pis dor- 

 sata changing the flora of America. 

 Such a statement appears like a sound 

 from the Dark Ages. What ! even 

 the savage would not believe such a 

 statement. Suppose a fruit grower 

 applies to the Governor of Ohio for 

 protection against the bee keepers of 

 his State, saying the bees mix up his 

 apples and his strawberries, his pears 

 and his persimmons, etc. Why, it 

 pains me to discuss such nonsense. 

 Are the readers of this paper aware 

 that there are some 3,000 species of 

 bees in existence ? These have been 

 working through all the ages, and so 

 far as we can see, have never changed 

 the flora of any country one iota. 



The honey bee has been at work in 

 the United States some time now and 

 I fail to see that it has changed one 

 single flower as yet. I know it would 

 stagger the mind of most of your 

 readers to be told how many 

 species of bees there are in 

 the United States. Now, it is 

 to be hoped this sort of thing will be 

 dropped. Talk about Prof. Wiley's 

 lie — this one knocks it completely in- 

 to the shade. Prof. W. can now poke 

 all the fun he chooses at us. 



Let us discuss a pleasanter subject. 

 Most of your readers who write about 

 Apis dorsata seem to take it for grant- 

 ed that it is the only bee capable of 

 domestication, but this is a mistake, as 

 other species are actually kept by the 

 natives of these eastern countries. We 

 have pretty accurate information of 

 the following bees : 



Apis Dorsata (natives make a busi- 

 ness of its honey). 



Apis Zonata (natives make a busi- 

 ness of its honey). 



Apis Indica (kept in hives). 



Apis Rhonta (kept in hives). 



Apis Unicolor (kept in hives). 



Apis Mellifica (the one we cultivate). 



Some bees of Central and South 

 America have been partially domesti- 

 cated. 1 know I saw notices of several 

 species of Trigona as having been im- 

 ported into the United States, but 

 they were very far removed from the 

 domesticated kind. The Trigona of 

 the West Indias has some 1,000 bees 

 in a nest, while Mr. Stretch, while at 

 Panama, counted a colony of 3Ielipona 

 with at least 100,000 bees in it, as he 

 says almost countless, their nest occu- 

 pying several (6) feet of a large hol- 

 low tree, and having large quantities 

 of honey and wax. The bees were 

 like a black cloud. Gardner says in 

 his travels (giving a long list of 3feli- 

 pond) that in the provinces of Piauhy, 

 and Goyaz, he found bees very num- 

 erous. In every house they have the 

 honey of these bees. Many species, 

 he says, build in the hollow of trees, 

 others in banks, some suspend their 

 nests from branches of trees, while one 

 species makes its nest of clay, the 

 honey of this species being very good. 



Mr. Guerin found one of these nests 

 with six queens {Melipona fidvipes). 

 Bates, no mean observer, brought 

 back from the Amazon 45 species of 

 Melipona, mostly new species. 



I know some editors of bee papers 

 who gravely discuss the uses of Meli- 

 pona and Irigona, who evidently do 

 not know the meaning of " species." 

 I see advertisements in Gleanings like 



