110 STORIFYING. 



Hives and boxes for storifying, as well as for ob- 

 serving the operations of the bees, have been made 

 of various forms and dimensions, and of different 

 materials : such as straw, osiers, glass, and wood. 



ARISTOTLE, PLINY, and other ancient writers, 

 speak of contrivances for taking honey, and in- 

 specting the operations of the bees. Modern 

 writers, particularly MOUFFET, ridiculed the in- 

 effectual schemes of their brethren of antiquity, 

 and indeed they were very soon abandoned. The 

 way in which they endeavoured to accomplish 

 their objects, was by the introduction of trans- 

 parent substances into the sides of the hives or 

 boxes, such as isinglass, horn (cornu laterna), 

 pellucid stone (lapis specularls), probably talc, 

 which is still used in the Russian navy for cabin 

 windows, on account of its not being liable to 

 break by the percussion of the air during the 

 firing of cannon, or in tempestuous weather. 



Mr. HARTLIB'S Commonwealth of Bees, published 

 in 1655, contains the first account, I have seen, 

 of bee-boxes being employed in this country. He 

 speaks of "an experiment of glassen hives in- 

 vented by Mr. W. MEW, Minister of Easlington 

 in Gloucestershire : his boxes were of an octagon 

 shape, and had a glass window in the back." Soon 

 after, in the year 1675, JNO. GEDDE, Esq. pub- 

 lished, " A new discovery of an excellent method 

 of Bee-houses and Colonies" which was intended to 



