BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



us, our interest intensifies and our minds delight 

 themselves, as they ever must when properly 

 engaged in studying the works of creation. Very 

 much, however, that has passed current as accurate 

 and established, has not borne the test of recent 

 scrutiny ; and it will be in part the object of the 

 following pages to expose mistake, and supply its 

 place, where practicable, by truth. The departure of 

 fable will, however, never leave a void, since human 

 imaginings are always unequal to Nature's resources ; 

 so that here, as everywhere, " fact is stranger than 

 fiction." In treating far more completely than has 

 previously been attempted the anatomy and physio- 

 logy of the insect which has made for itself by far 

 the largest place in literature — the sluggard-rebuking 

 ant not even excepted — the writer will be found 

 frequently to differ from the conclusions of others ; 

 but never has he ventured so to do without the 

 most careful and scrupulous investigation, aided by 

 the most refined microscopical appliances. Again 

 and again he will, in obedience to truth, be forced 

 to show that many time-honoured statements have 

 originated, not in painstaking study, but in crude 

 and daring guessing, or in a carelessness of obser- 

 vation almost equally blameworthy. On the other 

 hand, however, the pleasure will often fall to him of 

 pointing to the discoveries of such men as Siebold, 

 Leydig, and Schiemenz, amongst naturalists, as well as 

 to the achievements of the older apicultural worthies, 

 and the beneficial results of the energy an d per- 

 severance of many still amongst us, whose names 

 are familiar as household words. 



