The Progress of the Race 
combs of foundation-wax been offered to 
the Meliponite? Would they accept them, 
would they make use of them, would they 
conform their habits to this unwonted 
architecture? Questions, these, that we 
put to very tiny creatures; and yet they 
contain the great word of our greatest 
secrets. We cannot answer them, for 
our experience dates but from yesterday. 
Starting with Réaumur, about a hundred 
and fifty years have elapsed since the 
habits of wild bees first received atten- 
tion. Réaumur was acquainted with only 
a few of them; we have since then ob- 
served a few more; but hundreds, thou- 
sands perhaps, have hitherto been noticed 
only by hasty and ignorant travellers. 
The habits of those that are known to 
us have undergone no change since the 
author of the “ Memoirs” published his 
valuable work ; and the humble-bees, all 
powdered with gold, and vibrant as the 
405 
