122 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
habitants of the hive than they have done. Indeed, had 
their discoveries borne any proportion to the long tract 
of time asserted to have been employed by some in the 
study of these insects, they ought to have rivalled, and 
even exceeded, those of the Reaumurs and Hubers of 
our own age. 
Numerous, and wonderful for their absurdity, were 
the errors and fables which many of the ancients adopt- 
ed and circulated with respect to the generation and 
propagation of these busy insects. For instance,—that 
they were sometimes produced from the putrid bodies 
of oxen and lions; the kings and leaders from the brain, 
and the vulgar herd from the flesh—a fable derived pro- 
bably from swarms of bees having been observed, as in 
the case of Samson?, to take possession of the dried car- 
cases of these animals, or perhaps from the myriads of 
flies (for the vulgar do not readily distinguish flies from 
bees) often generated in their putrescent flesh. They 
adopted another notion equally absurd; that these in- 
sects collect their young progeny from the blossoms and 
foliage of certain plants. Amongst others, the Cerin- 
thus, the reed, anc the olive-tree, had this virtue of ge- 
nerating infant bees attributed to them>. These speci- 
mens of ancient credulity will suffice. 
But do not think that all the ancients imbibed such 
monstrous opinions. Aristotle’s sentiments seem to have 
been much more correct, and not very wide of what 
some of our best modern apiarists have advanced. Ac- 
cording to him, the kings (so he denominates the queen- 
bee) generate both kings and workers; and the latter 
a Judges xiv. 8, 9. _.© See Aristot. Hist. Animal. |. v. c. 22. 
Virgil. Georgic. |, iv,; and Mouffet, 12—. 
