The Life of the Bee 



in their hereditary memory, must be in- 

 separable from the calyx of flowers where 

 their flight, for so many centuries past, 

 has been sumptuously and voluptuously 

 welcomed. 



[98] 

 It is a little more than a hundred years 

 ago that Ruber's researches gave the first 

 serious impetus to our study of the bees, 

 and revealed the elementary important 

 truths that allowed us to observe them 

 with fruitful result. Barely fifty years 

 have passed since the foundation of ra- 

 tional, practical apiculture was rendered 

 possible by means of the movable combs 

 and frames devised by Dzierzon and 

 Langstroth, and the hive ceased to be 

 the inviolable abode wherein all came to 

 pass in a mystery from which death alone 

 stripped the veil. And lastly, less than 

 fifty years have elapsed since the improve- 

 368 



