42 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



ordinary bees, has not the same mawkish taste, anil 

 is evidently acescent, or acid. From the first, the 

 royal larva are supplied with it rather profusely, and 

 there is always some left in the cell after their trans- 

 formation. It becomes reddish or brown after re- 

 maining for a time. Schirach, who was secretary 

 to the Apiarian Society in Upper Lusatia, and vicar 

 of Little Bautzen, may be regarded as the discoverer 

 or rather as the promulgator of this fact; and his 

 experiments, which were also frequently repeated by 

 other members of the Lusatian society, have been 

 amply confirmed by those of Huber, Bonner, Dunbar, 

 Golding, and myself (Bevan). Keys was a violent 

 skeptic upon this subject, so likewise was John Hun- 

 ter. But notwithstanding the criticisms and ridicule 

 of the former, and the sarcastic strictures of the lat- 

 ter, the sex of workers is now established beyond all 

 doubt. 



" The fact is said to have been known long before 

 Schirach wrote. M. Vogel, and Signor Monticelli, 

 a Neapolitan professor, have both asserted this. The 

 former states it to have been known upward of fifty 

 years, the latter a much longer period. He says that 

 the Greeks and Turks in the Ionian islands, are well 

 acquainted with it, and that in the little Sicilian island 

 of Favignana, the art of producing queens has been 

 known from very remote antiquity ; he even thinks 

 it was no secret to the ancient Greeks and Romans. 



"Swammerdam was acquainted with the power of 

 making artificial swarms. But the result of Schi- 

 rach's experiments was, that all workers were origin- 



