XIV 



EVOLUTION APPLIED TO BEES 



This problem of heredity does not stand entirely 

 alone, although it is, perhaps, the greatest difficulty 

 in a very complex case. It forms, as it were, the 

 one outstanding rock in a swirling, foaming sea 

 that appears entirely unnavigable. As we ap- 

 proach nearer, we discover other rocks, some 

 almost as prominent as this, others half-hidden 

 by the breaking waves, while how many are lying 

 in wait, unseen as yet, we cannot tell. 



When you come to think of it, it is a little 

 difficult to account for the honey-bee's existence 

 at all. It would seem that the difficulties in the 

 way of perfecting such a creature would be 

 enormous, if not insuperable, under the accepted 

 rules of " the survival of the fittest " and the 

 " tendency to vary." There are, one can well 

 imagine, plenty of other lines on which the 

 ancestral insect might more favourably have 

 developed. Presumably the bee comes from the 

 same ancestral stock as the wasp. At the same 

 time it has contemporaries coming from the same 

 source which have not the social habit, nor 



