THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE HIVE 77 



foredgn rivals, and partly, it would seem, because 

 she is not black at all, but a rich brown — but all 

 do not know her origin. Probably she came to 

 us from the tropics by easy stages, swarm out- 

 flying swarm, until the most adventurous crossed 

 the English Channel in remote ages, when- it was 

 only a narrow race of water, or even before 

 Great Britain was detached from the mainland. 



It was the black bee, and not the motley- 

 coloured Italian or other varieties, who came to 

 us thus, for the same reason, probably, that the 

 Celts came — because they were a hardy race, lovmg, 

 and being more fitted for the bracing northern 

 atmosphere than the heat and languor of the 

 south. Modern bee-breeders who are trying so 

 hard to acclimatise • in Britain the golden-girdled 

 or silver-fringed bee-races of other lands, might 

 well ponder this fact. No keener contrdversy 

 rages to-day among English bee-masters than this 

 one of the relative merits of native and foreign 

 stocks. But assuredly Nature has not erred in this 

 respect. South Down sheep can be reared in any 

 county, but nowhere so fine as on the Sussex 

 Downs. The like principle holds good with the 

 English bee. The ages have evolved her from 

 her tropic beginnings to make her what she is — a 

 doughty, essentially British creature, thriving 

 against all odds of fickle climate, when her more 

 tender sisters from the south are hard put to it 

 for a living. She has held her own against them, 



