THE PROGRESS OF THE RACE 201 



found in abundant quantities ready prepared, in the vicinity 

 of their dwelling. 



And, indeed, one-half of the science and practice of api- 

 culture consists in giving free rein to the spirit of initiative 

 possessed by the bees, and in providing their enterprising in- 

 tellect with opportunities for veritable discoveries and veri- 

 table inventions. Thus, for instance, to aid in the rearing of 

 the larvs and nymphs, the bee-keeper will scatter a certain 

 quantity of flour close to the hive, when the pollen is scarce 

 of which these consume an enormous quantity. In a state 

 of nature, in the heart of their native forests in the Asiatic 

 valleys where they existed probably before the tertiary epoch, 

 the bees can evidently never have met with a substance of 

 this kind. And yet, if care be taken to " bait " some of 

 them with it, by placing them on the flour, they will touch 

 it and test it, they will perceive that its properties more or 

 less resemble those possessed by the dust of the anthers ; they 

 will spread the news among their sisters, and we soon shall 

 find every forager hastening to this unexpected, incompre- 

 hensible food, which, in their hereditary memory, must be 

 inseparable from the calyx of flowers where their flight, for 

 so many centuries past, has been sumptuously and voluptuously 

 welcomed. 



100 



It is little more than a hundred years ago that Huber'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 



2 c 



