338 OPINION of l'abbe della rocca. 



towns is prejudicial to the whiteness of the combs, for the 

 dense and smoky atmosphere in which the bees carry on 

 their labours, blackens their bodies, and imparts a dingy 

 hue to the combs. 



It was supposed by several naturalists, and particularly 

 by l'Abbe della Rocca, that the whiteness of the combs 

 depends upon the peculiar nature and colour of the farina 

 which the bees collect, and the latter naturalist goes so far 

 as to assert that the wax which is made from the farina of 

 the thyme is the purest in its colour. Now in the first 

 place, we never perceived that the bees collected any farina 

 from the thyme, although it is a plant which is extremely 

 rich in honey, and in the second place, although we have 

 perceived the bees carrying in the farina of every shade, 

 from the white to the dingy brown, and which so assimilated 

 with their own colour as to be scarcely perceptible, yet we 

 never could perceive the slightest difference in the colour 

 of the combs. The elaborating powers of the bee convert 

 the pure farina into one uniform colour, which is white, and 

 whatever may be asserted by certain foreign naturalists, a 

 yellow comb was never yet made by the bees. 



For a further elucidation of the nature of the combs, we 

 must refer our readers to the chapters on wax and propolis. 



