XX11 INTRODUCTION. 



natural history in general, or to the natural 

 historians of bees in particular : many writers, 

 however, have paid great attention to the do- 

 mestic management of these insects. Their 

 culture is indeed an object highly deserving 

 the attention of the agriculturist as well as 

 of the natural philosopher. In the hands 

 of a judicious and moderately attentive api- 

 arian, they may become a profitable branch 

 of rural ceconomy : even the most humble 

 cottager may be made to participate in the 

 benefit of an improved mode of managing 

 them : and as there is so much to admire in 

 their general ceconomy and peculiar habits, 

 the man of leisure may secure to himself a 

 source of pleasing and rational amusement 

 in the possession of an Apiary ; for the pur- 

 suit of apiarian science, in common with the 

 study of other branches of natural history, 

 leads to a salutary exercise of the mental fa- 

 culties, induces a habit of observation and 

 reflection, and may sometimes prove a valu- 

 able resource for keeping off that ttfdium 

 vittf, but too frequently attendant upon a 

 relinquishment of active life. No pleasure 

 is more easily attainable, nor less alloyed by 



