270 The Poets and Nattire. 



Take charge to bear their waxy burthens home, 



Others receive the welcome load ; and some 



Dispose the wax, others the plot contrive ; 



Some build the curious comb, some guard the hive, 



The armed Centinels ; others distreine 



The pure honey from the wax, some traine 



And discipline the young, while others drive 



The sluggish Drones from their deserved hive." Quarles. 



No other insect avails itself so cordially of human 

 co-operation. The silkworm, for instance, is delicate, 

 fastidious, and whimsical. The cochineal is obstinate, 

 implacable, and barbarous in its diet. But the honey-bee 

 asks for nothing from its cultivator but cleanliness, protec- 

 tion from extremes of temperature, and occasional assistance 

 in food and drink. Once put up a hive in a sheltered spot, 

 near water if possible, but in any case within easy flight of 

 pasturage, and the combs will be kept as regularly filled 

 with exemplary honey as if the insects had signed con- 

 tracts for the work, and the queen-bee herself had gone 

 guarantee for their fulfilment. It is not even necessary to 

 pamper Deborah's sweet taste, since the insect knows far 

 better than man can tell it the flowers which pay best, and 

 can give it in wax and honey the fullest returns for its labour. 

 In the waste hedge-strips of the field, the purple corners of 

 spinney and copse, it finds the true bee pastures, ditches 

 filled with teazel, burr-dock, and dandelion, wild cabbage, 

 and wild turnips, banks overgrown with trefoils, rest-harrow, 

 thistle, and nettle. 



Gardens brilliant with all that gardeners delight in will 

 not cause the bee to stop when it is on its way to a field 

 of sainfoin, nor can all the triumphs of horticulture let the 

 colours be never so bright, the perfumes never so dainty 

 tempt it to alight when on the wing towards a hedge 

 that is overgrown with honeysuckle, or a lane entangled 

 in clematis. Nature herself has taken great care of the 

 bee: 



