HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 65 



sembling one, could be found ; the colony had united 

 with another that had a fertile queen. A few weeks 

 after arriving, another colony was observed in the 

 same condition ; a few drones were capped, others 

 in the larva state, but I think they did not possess 

 sufficient vitality to mature. 



Some writers account for their ability to lay eggs, 

 by supposing that the workers accidentally dropped 

 a portion of royal jelly in cells where young workers 

 were advancing, which developed their ovaries suffi- 

 ciently to produce eggs ; but I think facts will dis- 

 prove this theory, when we consider that bees are so 

 skillful and perfect in all their operations, doing 

 nothing at random, and nothing by accident; and 

 when we observe that the queen cells are constructed 

 in a perpendicular form, and isolated, as it were, 

 from the common worker cells, it seems very improb- 

 able, indeed, that it can be so. As I have already 

 intimated, I believe all stages of development, be- 

 tween the worker and the perfect queen, are occa- 

 sionally found in the hive, and the fertile is so 

 little different in appearance from the worker as not 

 to be detected. That such exist there is abundant 

 proof, although Mr. Quinby affects to disbelieve it. 

 This, however, is easily accounted for, when we take 

 into consideration that, when he wrote his work, he 

 used only the square box hive, in which it would be 

 very difficult, indeed almost impossible, to make ob- 

 servations with sufficient care to ascertain the true 

 state of the case, until the bees would dwindle away ; 

 and finally, it would be pronounced a case of lost 



