2o8 THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



more, whereas our Apis melliftca will rear ten or twelve at 

 most. Cheshire tells of a Syrian hive, in no way abnormal, 

 where 120 dead queen-mothers were found, and 90 living, 

 unmolested queens. This may be the point of departure, 

 or the point of arrival, of a strange social evolution, which 

 it would be interesting to study more thoroughly. We 

 may add that as far as the rearing of queens is concerned, 

 the Cyprian bee approximates to the Syrian. And finally, 

 there is yet another fact which establishes still more clearly 

 that the customs and prudent organisation of the hive are 

 not the results of a primitive impulse, mechanically followed 

 through different ages and climates, but that the spirit which 

 governs the little republic is fully as capable of taking note 

 of new conditions and turning these to the best advan- 

 tage, as in times long past it was capable of meeting the 

 dangers that hemmed it around. Transport our black bee 

 to California or Australia, and her habits will completely 

 alter. Finding that summer is perpetual and flowers for- 

 ever abundant, she will, after one or two years, be content 

 to live from day to day, and gather only sufficient honey 

 and pollen for the day's consumption ; and her thoughtful 

 observation of these new features triumphing over hereditary 

 experience, she will cease to make provision for the winter.'^ 

 In fact it becomes necessary, in order to stimulate her 

 activity, to deprive her systematically of the fruits of her 

 labour. 



1 Buchner cites an analogous fact. In the Barbadocs, the bees whose hives are in the 

 midst of the refineries, where they find sugar in abundance during the whole year, will 

 entirely abandon their visits to the flowers. 



