No. 129.] 371 



tiful p]ant, flower of single petals, white or pink, and leaves ever- 

 green, said to be deleterious) by the bees in Pennsylvania, justly 

 observes, that there is more of poetry than philosophy in the fol- 

 lowing lines of Pope : 



" ' In the nioe bee wtat sense bo subtly trae, 

 Prom pokonous herbs extracts the healing d«w.'" 



Economy in the expenditure of wax is very important for the 

 bee, on account of its costly manufacture. They accordingly 

 construct their cells of the smallest quantity — giving the hexa- 

 gonal, (six sides) form to it, because that form makes with the 

 smallest material, the largest reservoir that can be made, and the 

 most pi-ofound mathematicians and most skillful geometers have 

 solved the problem relating to the attainment of the preceding 

 objects, as derived from the infinitessimal calculus, to have a sur- 

 prising agreement with the actual measure of the different angles 

 formed by the walls of the cell. 



The true honey bee (apis mellifica) was originally of the Old 

 "World, whence it was transported to America and other countries, 

 where European colonies are established. 



Latreille, the distinguished entomologist says, in his Regne 

 Animal (Animal Kingdom,) that the honey bee of the south and 

 east of Europe, as well as of Egypt, differs specifically from that 

 of western Europe. 



Hunter's observations on the temperature of bee hives are inter- 

 esting. He found the warmth inside a hive at eighty-two degrees, 

 while the air outside was fifty-four degrees : this was in July. 

 And in December, when the air outside was thirty-five degrees, 

 that inside was seventy-three degrees. And thus, what is ex- 

 tremely rare in the lower animals, they maintain their digestive 

 powers, and subsist on the produce of the summer and autumn. 

 Accordingly, they are always ready to take advantage of any fine 

 mild day — go abroad and enjoy the weather — and while abroad, 

 always void tlieir excrement, for they are singularly clean in all 

 their habits; and when purposely confined to the hive, with 

 abundance of food, they have been known to fall a sacrifice to 

 their instinctive repugnance to defile the hive. 



