200 THE APIARY. 



It is important to mention that bees, in the principal 

 breeding se2ison, require a plentiful supply of water. 

 ChviDg either to their carelessness or eagerness, they are 

 frequently drowned when drinking from any large quan- 

 tity of water ; the bee-keeper should, therefore, place 

 near the hives shallow vessels of water containing peb- 

 bles, on which the bees may alight to take frequent but 

 temperate draughts. 



THE LIGURIAN OR ITALIAN ALP BEE. 



A new, or rather a re-discovered, variety of bee has 

 recently been brought into practical use amongst api- 

 arians in Germany and America, as well as in this 

 country. The ordinary bee is the Apis mellifica of natural- 

 ists ; the new kind is the Apis ligustica. It was also named 

 "the LigurianBee" by the Marquis de Spinola, who 

 found it in Piedmont in 1 805 ; and he considered it to be 

 the principal species known to the Greeks, who speak of 

 the " best kind " of bee as being of a red colour. Lead- 

 ing apiarians agree in pronouncing these bees to be 

 justly entitled to the high character given them. (See 

 coloured engraving, Plate L, figs, i, 2, 3.) Their special 

 advantages are — greater fecundity of the queens, less 

 irascibility, and a more handsome appearance, for, 

 being of a golden colour, they are prettier than our 

 black bees. 



Tennyson most probably refers to these LigTirian 



