CHAPTER IX. 

 Races op Bees. 



545. The honey-bee is not indigenous to America. Thom- 

 as Jefferson, id his ''Notes on Virginia," says: 



"The honey-bee is not a native of our country. Maregrave 

 indeed, mentions a species of honey-bee in Brazil. But this has 

 no sting, and is therefore different from the one we have, which 

 resembles perfectly that of Europe. The Indians concur with 

 us in the tradition that it was brought from Europe; but when- 

 and by whom, we know not. The bees have generally extended 

 themselves into the country, a little in advance of ,the white 

 settlers. The Indians therefore call them the white man's fly." 



"When John Eliot translated the Scriptures into the lan- 

 guage of the Aborigines of North America, no words were 

 found expressive of the terms wax and honey." (A. B. J. 

 July, 1866.) 



Longfellow, in his "Song of Hiawatha," in describing the 

 advent of the European to the New World, makes his Indian 

 warrior say of the bee and the white clover: — 



"Wheresoe'sr they move, before them 

 Swarms t>ie stinging fly, the Ahmo, 

 Swarms the bee, the honey-maker; 

 Wheres'/e'er they tread, beneath them 

 Springs a, flower unknown among us, 

 Springs the White Man's Foot in blossom." 



546. According to the quotations of the A. B. J., common 

 bees were impoTted into Florida, by the Spaniards previous 

 to 1763, for they were first noticed in "West Florida in that 

 year. They appeared in Kentucky in 1780, in New Yorl? 

 in 1793, and West of the Mississippi in 1797. 



289 



