252 THE QUEEN BEE. 



derives from character but slender claims on their respect. 

 During the entire period of her life and reign, which is generally 

 estimated at about two or three years, she performs not a single 

 labour for the good of the community, save that of increasing 

 its numbers ; and her bulky body is seldom roused from its 

 wonted state of luxurious indolence, except when her royal 

 spirit is chafed by the influence of vindictive jealousy. 



The queen of the hive, born like the queens of earth, no 

 better than her meaner sisterhood, like them, issues from the 

 egg a helpless grub ; but the chamber of her birth, as compared 

 with theirs, is of right royal dimensions, vertical in position, 

 and of cylindric instead of octagonal form. Ample room is 

 thus afforded for the full expansion and development of all her 

 members, as she progresses towards maturity ; while to hasten 

 and improve her growth, the food supplied by her assiduous 

 nurses and future subjects, is of the most nutritious and delicate 

 description ; not the simple Bee-bread composed of common 

 pollen, and considered good enough for common Bee-infancy, 

 but a rare and curious preparation nicely concocted from flowery 

 juices, and, as reserved expressly for royal nutriment, called 

 by Bee-farmers, " royal jelly." Thus spaciously lodged and 

 delicately fed, the favoured grub, when arrived at full growth, 

 spins within her cell a silken shroud ; therein changes to a 

 nymph or pupa ; and thence, in due time, issues forth in all 

 her dignity of majestic size, in all the resplendency of her 

 golden-ringed body-suit, the more conspicuous for the scantiness 



