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AMERICAM BEE JOURNAL. 



ence of Minorcan bees, as well as African 

 bees, and I can state that the Minorcan 

 bees are as black as the blackest African 

 bees from Algeria and Morocco that I 

 have seen, and blacker than the impure 

 varieties from Tunis. I think from this 

 resemblance there can be little doubt but 

 that they all had the same origin, and 

 my belief is strengthened by the Minor- 

 can bees being called Moriscas' by the 

 natives, thus denoting their African ori- 

 gin. It is further strengthened when 

 we remember that the Carthagenians, 

 who, besides having 300 towns — a de- 

 pendent territory covering half the space 

 between the Lesser and Greater Syrtis — 

 had foreign dependencies in the Balearic 

 isles, besides those in Sicily, Sardinia 

 and Spain. Of the Minorcan bees M. 

 Andreu says : " The race is hardy, gen- 

 tle, great workers and breeders, and 

 from the parent hive I had to cut out 

 nearly two hundred queen cells." {Brit- 

 ish Bee Journal, 1886, page 282.) As* 

 similar language has been used in con- 

 nection with the Funics,, comment is not 

 necessary. 



Now, as to the meaning of the word 

 Punic, Mr. Hewitt says : "All classical 

 scholars know that it means ' belonging 

 to or appertaining to the Phoenicians, a 

 people whose capital was Carthage." 

 The last part of this sentence is given as 

 a quotation, but I am afraid most classi- 

 cal scholars will be startled at this news. 

 It has been usually believed by classical 

 scholars — and I confess that I have 

 shared the belief since I left college — 

 that Punic meant "of, or pertaining to 

 the Carthagenians," and that the chief 

 cities of the Phoenicians were Sidon and 

 Tyre, the latter being the more import- 

 ant, and might be designated the cap- 

 ital. The Phoenicians founded a colony 

 at Carthage, just as they did at Cadiz 

 and other places, and it was to the 

 Carthagenians that Carthage belonged, 

 and that the v/ord Punic is always 

 applied, and not to the Phoenicians. We 

 might just as well speak of anything 

 appertaining to the English, a people 

 whose capital is Toronto; for Canada is 

 just as much a colony of the English as 

 Carthage was that of the Phooenicians, 

 and just as the English colonists in Can- 

 ada have become Canadians, so the 

 Phoenician colonists in Carthage became 

 Carthagenians. Mr. Hewitt's classical 

 knowledge seems to be very vague, and 

 he is apparently approaching a subject 

 he knows little about, or he would not 

 have alluded to the Phoenicians, whose 

 capital was Carthage. 



He further says that he has several 

 times stated where they (the bees) come 



from, but if this is so he has carefully 

 written in some paper that does not 

 reach the eyes of the majority of bee- 

 keepers. For my part I have never 

 seen anything more than that "they 

 come from North Africa, close on the 

 borders of the great Sahara desert" 

 {Bi'itish Bee Journal, June 5), and this 

 has been repeated in several bee-periodi- 

 cals, without stating precisely where 

 they come from. -I have my own views 

 on the subject, and Mr. H. Alley, in 

 writing about them in his paper, has 

 unconsciously let slip a word or two that 

 has enabled me to localize them, but I 

 must say, as I have said all along, that 

 I do not know such a race as Punic, 

 although I know Tunisian bees very 

 well. , 



People who know anything about 

 geography know also that on the north 

 side of the equator the Winter comes 

 at the same time. It is milder in some 

 places than in others, but December is 

 as much Winter in Northern Africa as 

 it is in England. My attention has been 

 called to a gardening paper which I very 

 seldom see — the Journal of Horticulture 

 — and on page 316 I find Mr. Hewitt 

 says his friend, "a Lanarkshire bee- 

 keeper, gives these bees, in their purity, 

 an indififerent report," and further says, 

 "I think he has not exactly treated 

 them fairly, for in all experiments with 

 these bees it must be remembered that 

 their natural months for rest is our 

 Summer, which is their Winter." This 

 will probably be as fresh news to you, 

 Mr. Editor, as it is to me, and it is evi- 

 dent all our former notions about 

 climate and seasons will have to be 

 altered if Mr. Hewitt is to become the 

 authority on such matters. I for one 

 will hesitate to believe that the Winters 

 will ever be Summers on this side of the 

 equator. 



There is one more subject I should 

 like briefly to allude to, although your 

 just rebuke would make any sensitive 

 person smart. On page 526 of the 

 Ameeican Bee Jouenal, Mr. Hewitt 

 has an article on "Correct Nomencla- 

 ture." I hope you will not think that 

 we consider Mr. Hewitt as a correct 

 exponent of the English language, for 

 we do not believe acolony of bee%tomean 

 " a lot, without a queen, depending on 

 the mother, or some other stock, for 

 one." 



However correct "stock" may be, 

 " colony" is equally correct, and we find 

 this word constantly used by ancient 

 writers. Thorley, who wrote in 1744, 

 used the word continually, and so did 

 many other writers, so that the use of 



