358 NATURAL HISTORY OF AFRICA. ' 



more brilliant pages of the book of nature's self, where tb« 

 most successful effort of art is transcended by a feeble 

 insect's wing ; — for the imagination of the poet and the 

 painter cannot boast 



"Amid their gay creation hues like these." 



Several species of bee inhabit Africa. The banded bee 

 (^Apis fascicUa) is an object of domestic cultivation ; and in 

 some parts of the country a particularly delicious honey is 

 derived from the labours of this industrious insect. Wax 

 is an object of considerable consequence in the commerce 

 of Africa. 



Scorpions and centipedes of enormous size and most for- 

 bidding aspect lurk beneath the stones, or glide with nu- 

 merous feet over the sterile soil ; and the poison of these 

 creatures seems to exist in a stronger and more deadly state 

 of concentration than in colder climes. Children frequently 

 die from the bite of the scorpion in less than three da)''s. 

 In regard to the smaller domestic nuisances of the entomo- 

 logical class, we have few data from which to form an opi 

 nion. We doubt not that dirt and indolence produce here 

 as elsewhere their disgusting concomitants. Captain Lyon, 

 however, observed, that although bugs were numerous, 

 there were no fleas in Fezzan. 



We come now to the last class of the animal kingdom, 

 called Zoophytes. These, Professor Jameson has else- 

 where remarked, " although the lowest in the scale of ani- 

 mated beings, are yet highly interesting in the sublime 

 plan of creation. Their numbers exceed all calculation, — 

 the minuteness of many species is such that they are not 

 to be discriminated by the aid of our most powerful micro- 

 scopes, — they form one extremity of the zoological scale of 

 magnitude, of which the other is occupied by the gigantic 

 whale of the Polar Regions. The coral-reefs, rocks, and 

 islands of the tropical seas are formed by very minute zoo- 

 phytes. These reefs, in some regions of the earth, have 

 been traced for a thousand miles in length, forty or fifty 

 miles in breadth, and to depths sometimes unfathomable ; 

 yet they are the work of the most minute animals in 

 the creation. We find, too, whole beds of rocks, even ea 



