BOOK IX. II. 4-III. I 



But it does not even concern husbandmen when and 4 

 in what country bees first came into existence, whether 

 in Thessaly under Aristaeus," or in the island of 

 Cea,** as Euhemerus writes, or on Mount Hymettus " 

 in the time of Erechtheus,'^ as Euthronius « says, or 

 in Crete in the time of Saturn, as Nicander / says. 

 All this no more concerns farmers than the question 

 whether the swarms of bees produce their offspring, 

 as we see the other animals do, by copulation, or 

 whether they pick up the heir of their race from the 

 flowers, as our own poet Maro ^ affirms, and whether 

 they vomit the liquid honey from their mouths or 

 yield it from some other part. The inquiry into these 5 

 and similar questions concerns those who search into 

 the hidden secrets of nature rather than husband- 

 men. They are subjects more agreeable to the 

 students of literature, who can read at their leisure, 

 than to farmers who are busy folk, seeing that they 

 are of no assistance to them in their work or in the 

 increase of their substance. 



III. Therefore let us return to topics which are The differ- 

 more suitable to those who have charge of bee-hives, ^ees an/ ° 

 namely, how many kinds of bees there are and 7"^^^ 's 

 which of them is the best. Aristotle, the founder of 

 the Peripatetic School, in the books which he wrote 

 about animals,* shows that there are several kinds 



' This name is not otherwise mentioned in Latin literature. 

 We should perhaps read Euphonius ; two agricultural writers 

 of this name are mentioned by Varro (I. 1. 8), one of Athens 

 and the other of Amphipolis. 



■^ Physician, poet and grammarian of Colophon in Asia 

 Minor; he flourished about 150 B.C. His Theriaca and 

 Alexipharmaca have survived. 



" Vergil, Georg. IV. 197 ff. 



* Hist. anim. V. 22 (553". 22 S.). 



431 



