2 INTRODUCTION. 



came Pliny the Elder, from whom we learn these few 

 particulars of the two just named, and whose celebrated 

 " Natural History," which is the work rather of a student 

 than of a master, honours the bee with an elaborate and 

 interesting description. Shortly after him Columella, in 

 his work " On Rustic Matters," gave copious instructions 

 on bee-keeping, which, though reproducing some older 

 , errors, are greatly in^ advance of any that had appeared, 

 and place him, for the accuracy that they display, at the 

 head of the apiarians of antiquity. Theophrastus, Celsus, 

 and Varro must also be ranked among the ancient writers 

 whose attention was drawn to this industrious insect. 

 But perhaps the most renowned of classic works upon 

 the subject is the fourth book of the "Georgics" of 

 Virgil, in which we are presented with a minute treatise 

 upon bees and their culture, with all the sense as well as 

 nonsense that then passed current thereupon, together 

 with that most beautiful passage in the poet's writings, 

 the story of the visit of Orpheus to the shades, which is 

 appended by one of those incidental connecting-links of 

 which ancient poets were wont to avail themselves. 



In more modern times the principal writers have been 

 Swammerdam, the Dutch naturahst ; Maraldi, an Italian 

 mathematician ; Schirach, a Saxon clergyman ; Rdaumur, 

 well known for his thermometer ; Bonnet, a Swiss ento- 

 mologist and jurist; the famous Dr. John Hunter; and 

 above all Francis Huber, of Geneva. The last of these, 

 though totally blind, contrived, principally by the aid of 



