ioo A PROBLEM OF HEREDITY 



capacity to extract honey from specially inaccess- 

 ible flowers, or for the exceptional colour and 

 beauty of its wax, we take great pains to rear future 

 queens from that colony, knowing that their 

 offspring will assuredly possess the same qualities. 

 And yet, so far as we can trace back through the 

 ages, the queen has never performed any of the 

 duties so pre-eminent in her offspring. At 

 present the matter would appear to be beyond 

 solution. The nearest approach to an explana- 

 tion is that which we have already mentioned, 

 advanced by Grimshaw, that the food supplied 

 by the nurse bees plays its part in the development 

 of both drones and workers. 



That, reasonable as this suggestion may be, it 

 does not approach to anything like a solution of 

 the problem is quite clear. 



