ANATOMF OF THE BEE. 33 



elephant; and that his admiration dwelt "not so much 

 on the clocks as on the watches of creation."* 



The figures i, 2, and 3, Plate I., in the frontispiece, 

 respectively represent the exterior forms of the queen, 

 the worker, and the drone. They are thus coloured to 

 illustrate the Yellow Italian Alp, or Ligurian bee, now 

 deservedly held in such high estimation by bee- 

 keepers, and of whose good qualities we shall, in a 

 subsequent section of this work, have occasion more 

 fully to treat. All the bees constituting a stock may not 

 be of quite so bright a colour as those represented: the 

 old bees differ in appearance from the younger ones ; — 

 darkened bodies and ragged wings, not grey hairs and 

 wrinkled faces, are the signs of old age ; so that with bees 

 (especially Ligurians) , as with the gentler sex of the human 

 race, there is appointed a period both of youth and beauty. 



The anatomical structure of our English bee is much 

 the same as that of the Italian ;f a description of the one 

 will therefore serve for the other. The most apparent 

 difference consists in the colour. The English bee is of a 

 blackish brown ; both varieties have their bodies wholly 

 covered with close-set hairs. These hairs deserve par- 

 ticular attention, because, although so small, each hair is 



* Dr. Bevan. 



•}- Naturalists consider the Italian bee a very superior race, 

 and that the various organs are stronger and of greater capa- 

 city ; it is, however, not easy to define the precise anatomical 

 superiority. 



D 



