328 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



The domesticated or hive-bee, to which we are in- 

 debted for this article, is the same according to Latreille 

 in every part of Europe, except in some districts of Italy, 

 where a different species (Apis ligustica of Spinola) is kept 

 — the same probably that is cultivated in the Morea and 

 the isles of the Archipelago*. Honey is obtained, how- 

 ever, from many^ other species both wild and domestic. 

 What is called rock honey in some parts of America, 

 which is as clear as water and very thin, is the produce 

 of wild bees, which suspend their clusters of thirty or forty 

 waxen cells, resembling a bunch of grapes, to a rock b : 

 and in South America large quantities are collected from 

 the nests built in trees by Trigona Amalthea, and other 

 species of this genus recently separated from Apis c ; 

 under which probably should be included the Bamburos, 

 whose honey, honest Robert Knox informs us, whole 

 towns in Ceylon go into the woods to gather d . Accord- 

 ing to Azara, one of the chief articles of food of the In- 

 dians who live in the woods of Paraguay is wild honey e . 

 Captain Green observes that, in the island of Bourbon, 

 where he was stationed for some time, there is a bee 

 which produces a kind of honey much esteemed there, 

 It is quite of a green colour, of the consistency of oil, 

 and to the usual sweetness of honey superadds a certain 

 fragrance. It is called green honey, and is exported to 

 India, where it bears a high price f . One of the species 



a Latr. in Humboldt and Bonpland, Ream/ d' Observations de Zoo- 

 hgier&c. (Paris, 1805)300. 



'•> Hill in Swammcrdam, i. 181, note. '' Latr. vbisupr. 300. 



'' Knox's Ceylon, 25. e Voy. dans V ' Amcr. Mcrld. i. 162. 



f M. Latreille appears to have described this bee under the name 

 of Apis unicolor. Man, suv les AbcUles, 8. 39. 



