200 



HoNKY Bee. INSECTS. Queen Bee. 



thy weariness, to thy ground cell within the knoll, 

 where, as fancy dreams, the fairies dwell, a silent people 

 in the land of peace." 



Hugh Jliller,* when a boy at Cromarty, observed 

 the various species of Humble bees. "The wild 

 honey bees, in their several species, he observes, had 

 peculiar charms for us. There were the buff-coloured 

 Carders, that erected over their honey-jars domes of 

 moss; the lapidary red-tipped bees, that built amid 

 the recesses of ancient cairns, and in old dry stone 

 walls, and were so invincibly brave in defending their 

 homesteads that they never gave up the quarrel till 

 they died; and above all, the yellow-zoned Humble 

 bees, that lodged deep in the ground along the dry 

 sides of grass}- banks, and were usually wealthier in 

 honey than any of their congeners, and existed in large 

 communities. But the herd-boy of the parish, and 

 tlie foxes of its woods and brakes, shared in my interest 

 in tlie wild Honey bees; and, in the pursuit of some- 

 thing else than knowledge, were ruthless robbers of 

 their nests." 



Mr. Darwin believes, from observations made over 

 a series of years, that Humble bees are indispensable 

 to the fertilization of the hearts-ease ( Viola tricolor), 

 as it is the only set of bees which visit that flower. 

 He has tried experiments which convince him that the 

 visits of bees are, if not indispensable, at least highly 

 beneficial to the fertilization of our clovers. He has 

 observed that Humble bees alone visit the common 

 \eA c\o'VQX {Trifolium pratense), as other bees cannot 

 reach the nectar. He adds — " Hence I have very 

 little doubt, that if the whole genus of Humble bees 

 became extinct or very rare in England, the hearts-ease 

 and red clover would become very rare, or wholly 

 disajipear.""!" " Credat Judccus Apellrs, non ego .'" 



THE HONEY BEE {Apis meUifica). The most impor- 

 tant part of the produce of bees is their wax, which 

 was proved by the illustrious and pious Bonnet to be 

 secreted by the bees from between the scales or plates 

 wliich cover the body. At one time it was universally 

 believed that wax was only the pollen of flowers a little 

 altered. But experiments of John Hunter and of Huber, 

 continued by the late George Newport, demonstrated 

 the accuracy of Bonnet's statement. Huber showed 

 that with honey and water, when the bees were kept 

 confined, and coidd not by any possibility get at flowers, 

 these industrious creatures formed their waxy cells, as 

 if they had been allowed to wander over the marjoram 

 and thyme of the Swiss gardens, or to rob the innocent 

 sweet Alpine flowers of their pollen. 



Propolis is collected by the bees from the resinous 

 secretions often found exuding from the buds of trees. 

 On the "physiological effects" of honey we may 

 dwell a little, and with the pharmacologist say, that 

 it is "emollient, demulcent, nutritive, and laxative," 

 generally much liked by children — not so much so by 

 grown-up people. In ancient times, before the new 

 world and the sugar cane were discovered, it was a 

 much more important article than it is now. It was 

 the chief thing with which the Egyptian, Assyrian, 

 Jew, Greek, Roman, and old European sweetened any- 



• My Schools and Sclioolmasters, p. 65. 

 t On the Ocigin of Species by means of Natural Selection, p. 73. 



thing he ate. Dr. Pereira* recommends patients who 

 are troubled with severe coughs, to take warm barlfy 

 water mixed with honey, and sharpened with slices of 

 lemon, as a very agreeable and useful demulcent. 



Bees sometimes collect the honey from poisonous 

 plants, and instances are recorded of persons having 

 died from partaking of this honey. Kirby and Spence 

 quote some proofs of this, such as that given by Dr. 

 Barton, an American physician, who records, that in 

 1790 many persons died in Philadelphia from eating 

 honey. Inquiries were instituted, and it was found 

 that the honey was derived by the bees chiefly from 

 the flowers of the Kalmia lalifolia. Xenophon, in 

 his "Anabasis," mentions that some of his soldiers 

 were singularly affected by honey which they took 

 in Asia Minor. Some of them seemed as if intoxi- 

 cated, others were much excited, and others lay on 

 the gi-ound as if about to die. The honey of Tre- 

 bizond, near which the Greek army encamped on their 

 retreat, still retains its deleterious properties. Mr. 

 Abbott sent some of it to the Zoological Society in 

 18.34, and confirmed the account of Xenophon. 



The Honey bee of the mountain districts of Honduras 

 is said by Squier ^ to resemble closely the bee of the 

 United States. Its honey is largely used by the 

 natives, who derive the chief part also of the wax used 

 in the pompous ceremonial of the Roman Catholic 

 church, from the natural bee-hives of the forest. 



On the curious subject of Parthenogenesis, which has 

 excited the attention of scientific men for some time, 

 much has been written. An able naturalist J remarks 

 that no form of it is " more remarkable or instnictive 

 than that which is present in connection with the 

 economy of the common Honey bee. Many strange 

 mistakes have prevailed from early times as to the 

 history of the perfect societies of these insects, ruled 

 by laws of instinct which have stimulated the curiosity 

 of man, as much as their productive industry has 

 served his uses and attracted his observation. But it 

 has been only at a comparatively recent period tliat 

 the true characters of the sexes have been anatomically 

 fixed ; and these discoveries have not yet succeeded 

 in dispelling, among the practical bee-keepers in 

 general, either inveterate errors or wild conjectures. 

 Yet it is to one of this class, Dzierzon, pastor of 

 Carlsmarkt in Silesia, that science ultimately owes 

 the discovery of the true physiological relations which 

 rule the generation of the race. The main facts are 

 these : — The Queen bee, or perfect female, before im- 

 pregnation laj's eggs which produce males only. After 

 impregnation, which takes place but once only in the 

 course of her lifetime, the eggs produce male or female 

 larv33 according to the sort of cells in which they are 

 laid. By a delicate and difficult microscopical exam- 

 ination, Siebold has proved that the eggs laid in the 

 queen's and workers' cells have been penetrated by 

 one or more zoosperms, which, on the other hand, 

 are never found in the eggs deposited in drone cells. 

 He concludes, with reason, that the access of the 



* Materia Medica, vol. i., p. 7G5. 

 t States of Central America, p. 219: 185S. 

 I A. H. Haliday Esq., in the Natural History Review for 

 April, 1857, p. 66. 



