BEES AND DONKEYS 233 



pression that it acts as a timely warning to the 

 unarmed insect. 



To return to stonecrops : let any one who desires 

 to possess Sedum spurium and spectabile be careful to 

 get the bright-coloured varieties of each. All are 

 equally hardy, grow like chickweed, and are easily 

 and quickly propagated by cuttings or ' pinchings ' ; 

 but there are some worthless, dull-coloured varieties 

 which should be avoided. 



LXXIII 



From bees to donkeys involves a long step in 

 zoology, nor is it often that a donkey Bees and 

 is such an ass as to interfere with bees ; Donkeys 

 nevertheless, bees were lately (1895) the agents in 

 producing one of two spectacles which, it used to be 

 said, nobody had ever seen a dead donkey or a 

 dead postboy. At Culmalzie, in Wigtownshire, a 

 young donkey got into a blacksmith's garden and 

 overturned two hives. The evicted tenantry im- 

 mediately swarmed over the unlucky animal and 

 stung him to death. Its body swelled to an 

 enormous size. 



