ILLUSTRATIONS. 121 



NOTE 30. 



This deduction is not a legitimate one. Honey might have been made by 

 bees, specifically different from the common honey bee, and this appears to have 

 been the case. Clavigero says, (History of Mexico, rol. 1.) " Thtre are at 

 feast six different kinds of bee?. The first is the same with the common bee 

 of Europe, with which it agrees not only in size, shape, and colour, but also in 

 its disposition and manners, and in the qualities of its honey and wax. The 

 second species, which differs from the first only in having no sting, is the bee 

 of Yucatan and Chiapa, which makes the fine dear honey of Estabentun, of an 

 aromatic flavour, superior to that of all the other kinds of honey with which 

 we are acquainted. The honey is taken from them six times a year, that is, 

 once in every other month ; but the best is that which is got in November, 

 being made from a fragrant white flower, like jessamine, which blows in Sep- 

 tember, called in that country estabentun, from which the honey has derived 

 its name. The third species resembles, in its form, the winged ants, hut is 

 smaller than the common bee, and is without a sting. This insect, which is 

 peculiar to warm and temperate climates, forms nests, in size and shape, 

 resembling sugar loaves, and even sometimes greatly exceeds those in size, 

 which are suspended from rocks, or from trees, and particularly from the oak. 

 The populousness of these hives are much greater than those of the common 

 hpe. The^mphs of this bee, which are eatable, are white, and round like a 

 pearl j the honey is of a grayish colour, but of a fine flavour. The fourth spe- 

 cies is a yellow b*e, smaller than the common one, but like it furnished with a 

 sting. Its honry is not equal to those already mentioned. The fifth is a small 

 bee without a s:ting. which construct* uivrs of an orbicular form, in subterraneous 

 cavities, and the honey is sour and ^onirw hat bitter. The filalpipiolli, which 

 is the sixth specie?, is black and yellow, of the size of the common bee, but has 

 no sting'. 1 ' 



Although thi? account destroys the inference from Cortcz's letter, that the 

 common honey bee of Europe existed in Mexico at the time he wrote it, yet it 

 furm^iiPs vi strong argument in another n-spcct. It apj-i\\rs that it is now in 

 Mexico, and that there are five other kinds of hpfs \vliidi produce honey ; and 

 some of them, honey superior in flavour, and greater in quantity. Now, i.'thi- 

 be the case, what inducement could there have been to import the hoe of Eu-- 

 rope ? 



lu Africa and in Guiana, a bee exists which i*, per'.inps, only a variety of our 

 honey bee ; the difference ia the honey, and the size of tin- bee, may be owing to 

 the difference of food and climate. Adanson, in liis voyage ap the river Aiger, 



