NA TURE 



[Nov. 6, 1884 



having covered it with a blanket, and places it either on 

 a tree near or under the eaves of his house, or in any 

 adjoining place. Each man keeps pots varying in num- 

 ber from one to four. He need not do anything beyond 

 keeping the pots as aforesaid. They store honey between 

 April 15 and June 15 ; and between the latter date and 

 the end of July the keeper gathers it in, lea\H£ a small 

 portion to serve as food for the bees." 



Mr. R. Morgan, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Madras, 

 gives an interesting account of the honey-bees of the 

 Wynaad. He says that the best honey-producing flower 

 of Southern India is the Strobilanthes, of which there are 

 numerous species, which almost all flower once in seven 

 years, dying down entirely, and afterwards a fresh growth 

 springing up from seed. The Strobilanthes is a shrubby 

 genus of Acanthaceas, mostlywith blue or purple flowers, 

 and the statement about their flowering only once in 

 seven years is probably a popular delusion, like that of 

 the Aloe flowering once in a century. The bees build 

 their combs on the ledges of inaccessible precipices, often 

 overhanging rivers, or on lofty horizontal limbs of the 

 largest forest trees, and the combs are usually 3)5 to 4 

 feet in length and 2 feet in diameter. The natives take 

 the honey on dark nights by means of long cane or 

 bamboo ladders, either erected against the tree or rock or 

 suspended from above, and they carry torches, and knives 

 to cut away the combs. The bees are roused by the 

 glare of the torches, but do not sting, although in the day- 

 time they are terribly pugnacious, and many a sportsman 

 and traveller has barely escaped with his life after dis- 

 turbing them. Mr. Morgan states that he can give 

 numerous instances of men, cattle, horses, and even fowls 

 and pigeons being killed by these bees. 



The Deputy Conservator of Forests, East Salween, 

 describes some remarkably large combs, one of which 

 was 7 feet long and 6 feet deep in the widest part. The 

 bees are fond of particular trees, and he states that on 

 one Kanyin tree {Dipterocarpus alatus) he counted no 

 less than thirty-nine combs, some of prodigious size. The 

 trees are here ascended by means of pegs driven in the 

 trunk, as in Borneo, and the bees are partially stupefied 

 by a smoke torch. 



These are samples of the better kind of reports that 

 have been obtained from hundreds of districts in India. 

 There is a monotonous similarity in large numbers of 

 them, and it may be doubted whether the information 

 afforded is worth the labour and cost it has entailed. 



Mr. Harris's little volume on " The Honey-Bee " affords 

 a striking contrast to the preceding work, both in its 

 elegant get-up and excellent illustrations, its wide range 

 of matter, and the clearness and condensation of its style. 

 It treats in a pleasant and well-informed manner not only 

 of bee-keeping but of the bees themselves and all that 

 relates to them. We have a chapter on the literature of 

 bees, from the Egyptian monuments and the Vedas to 

 Shakespeare, Huber, and modern writers. Each subject 

 is treated in a separate short chapter, so that we have 

 chapters on "The Queen Bee," "The Workers," " Wax," 

 " Bee-bread," &c, and even one on "Mead," including 

 its use in ancient times and Queen Elizabeth's receipt for 

 its manufacture. Hives, the^nemies, and the Diseases 

 of Bees are all separately trq^M, as wen as their " Intel 



he^Enemie: 



lect and Instinct," their " Relation to Flowers," and the 

 " Superstitions connected with"Bees." 



From so condensed a work it is difficult to find pas- 

 sages suitable for extract, but the following illustration of 

 the powers of intellect manifested by bees may be taken 

 as a fair specimen of the author's style : — 



"Again, let us revert to the manufacture of queens by 

 the workers. If at the time of the removal or loss of the 

 mother-bee in any way, there should be unhatched prin- 

 cesses in the hive, no attempt will be made to follow the 

 course adopted in the absence of such royal progeny. In 

 the latter case — that is, when there is no royal brood — 

 there must be a distinct conception, first, of their bereave- 

 ment ; secondly, of the hopelessness of a sovereign 

 appearing in the ordinary way. Then a judgment is 

 formed of the proceedings necessary for making a queen, 

 and action immediately follows. Not only so, but as if to 

 secure themselves against the repetition of their calamity, 

 they prepare not one queen, but several, so that, if the 

 first which comes to maturity be lost, there may be others 

 in reserve. A further act of definite judgment appears in 

 this ; for if one only were produced and lost, they would 

 be powerless to repeat the process, as all the rest of the 

 worker brood would, in the meantime, have advanced far 

 beyond the stage at which its transformation would be 

 possible. The bees then, with admirable prevision, for- 

 bear to risk all the future of their community on one hope 

 of a queen." 



In adducing the construction of the cells as a proof of 

 pure instinct of the highest order, Mr. Harris is hardh 

 on secure ground, since he omits to notice the researches 

 of Mr. Darwin proving that the method of cell-building is 

 very simple, and consists, fundamentally, in forming cir- 

 cular cells the size of which is determined by that of the 

 bee's body, and gnawing away all the superfluous wax in 

 the angles till the hexagonal form is produced. He is 

 also hardly justified in the statement that " all these and 

 other circumstances connected with the construction of 

 their dwellings attest the possession of an innate faculty 

 needing no instruction from the eiders of the hive'' The 

 last statement (which we have italicised) is surely un- 

 provable, and as every young bee necessarily begins work 

 in the midst of her elders, and has done so during the 

 countless generations of the past, it seems more probable 

 that a considerable portion, though not perhaps the whole, 

 of the bees' wonderful constructive power, is due to direct 

 imitation and instruction. 



On the whole, we can recommend this little book as a 

 very comprehensive summary of what is known about 

 bees and bee-keeping, at once attractive to the young 

 who wish to learn something about these marvellous little 

 creatures, and at the same time containing all the 

 information necessary for the beginner in apiculture. 

 The illustrations are both well chosen and beautifully 

 executed, and the work is altogether so daintily got up as 

 to render it especially suited for a gift to intelligent boys 

 and girls. A. R. W. 



DR. KLEIN ON MICRO-ORGANISMS 

 Micro-Organisms and Disease. By E. Klein, M.D., 



F.R.S. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1S84.) 



THHERE can be no doubt of the value and excellence 



-*- of this little book. Dr. Klein is one of the very 



few men in this country who are continually working ami 



experimenting with Bacteria and similar forms. His 



