Junk r, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST, 
S3 
equally due to you. 1 intended sending a little review of 
Sir Samuel Baker's account of bees, there being, it seems 
to me, several important errors in it, but this morning one 
of our bee-hunters came in with the report that he 
had found bambera upon bambera, and I am off for 
his village, about seven miles away. 
"Thus far I have obtained no additional colonies, 
although I have made very great exertions. I have 
seen many, but they were with one exception, in 
very inaccessible places on high rocks or trees. The 
single exception was a colony located within five 
feet of the ground and which I went after, but 
found that some one had smoked and burned away 
the bees and cut the comb for the sake of the 
honey, but a few hours before my arrival. The 
bambera I have in the frame-hives are doing well ! 
working, &c ! !" 
Later on Mr. Benton was a little more successful 
and he returned to Colombo on Saturday, the 23rd 
instant, with some colonies of the ' ' Bambara " (Apis 
dorsata) as well as of the small Apis Indica, and with 
a full collection of specimens of the combs, nests, 
bees of all kinds, &c. ; but also, as we have said, 
with an alarming attack of jungle fever. All through 
Saturday night our American friend had what he 
called "a bad time," the most terrible experience 
in his life, and something to remind him of the 
dangers of a tropical jungle. Dr. White prescribed, 
and thanks to a vigorous constitution and the mar- 
vellous effect of repeated heroic doses of quinine, the 
rever was so far subdued by Monday morning as to en- 
able Mr. Benton to fulfil his intention of starting back 
for Cyprus by the French mail-steamer. We hope 
to hear of his safe arrival there and complete re- 
covery, and also of the safe arrival of his interesting 
charge, which will then probably be the first introduc- 
tion of the Apis dorsata and Apis Indica to Europe. In 
any case Mr. Benton's expedition to Ceylon and Java 
will be fruitful in information of surpassing interest 
to apiculturists. Nor is it likely to be less fruitful 
of useful results to the East. The Cyprian bees in- 
troduced by him are flourishing well, we learn, 
with Mr. W. H. Wright (at The Aviary) and Muda- 
liyar Jayetilleke (Kurunegala). Both these gentlemen 
have acquired a great amount of practical information 
on bees generally, and as Mr. Benton said there is 
no valid reason why Ceylon should not develop an 
industry of considerable importance (especially to the 
natives) in Apiculture. As already mentioned Mr. Benton 
considers the rainy and dry seasons afford a parallel 
distinction to winter and summer seasons in temperate 
lands. 
Mr. Benton is a capital example of the self- 
made, self-reliant, energetic American. It was very 
amusing to hear his quaintly original remarks on the 
dullness and unhandiness of the people about him in the 
jungle villages. When prostrated with fever he said he 
did not believe there was in all the N. W. Province 
anybody equal to tying a parcel properly ; — he chal- 
lenged a few to try but the rope came off almost as soon 
as the parcel was handled. "Now," he added, "I 
could tie that parcel so that it would travel a 
thousand miles without giving trouble ! " A Western 
man and his health failing in the profession chosen 
for him by his father, Mr. Benton set to work, as 
an adult, to study and qualify himself a9 a school mas- 
ter, passing in succession as teacher in a Village, District 
and County School to the State Agricultural College 
(Michigan) where his position, curiously enough, is that of 
Professor of German, he having acquired a native's 
proficiency in that language, although his parents are 
of English descent. Apiculture he has taken up as 
:i leisure study and employment. One brother he lost 
in the Civil War, while another is the well-known 
American artist, Mr. Dwight Benton, who resides in 
Rome. 
Mr. Benton was very sorry to have to leave with- 
out completing certain work he had sketched out for 
himself in regard to our bees, and he intended writing 
a paper for the local Asiatic Society (which he had 
to take away unfinished), as also making some fur- 
ther contributions to our columns. One of these con- 
tributions — a preliminary sketch — which reached us from 
Kurunegala may be given as it stands, as follows : — 
FROM FAR-OFF INDIA: 
THE BEES OF CEYLON — APIS DORSATA, THE GREAT 
EAST INDIAN BEE. 
From this, the bottom side of the world, 1 send 
greeting to all the bee-friends in dear old America. 
I shall present you here some very "big bee-yarns," 
yet all that I have not seen myself has been drawn 
from very trustworthy sources. [Two paragraphs 
headed respectively, "Off to the Jungles," and 
"Apis Indica (Mee Meso)," are omitted, their sub- 
stance having been given in a previous article in the 
Observer. — Ed.] 
" DANDUAL MESO." 
I did not see the bee which the natives call by 
this name, and which is smaller than that just men- 
tioned, but a piece of its brood-comb which I secured 
is one-half an inch thick and shows hexagonal wax- 
cells, eighty-one to the square inch of worker-comb, 
while the drone-comb has twenty-tive. The workers, 
then, must be about the length of those of Apis Ind- 
ica but much more slender, being, in fact, quite 
wasp-like in shape, although the drones are no doubt 
quite as large, if not slightly larger, than those of 
Apis Indica. This bee is said to build a single comb 
which it attaches to the branch of some tree or to 
a horizontal timber of a building. I think, under 
favourable circumstances, it will, like other species of 
the same genus, build additional combs parallel 
to the first. Very likely it is Apis florea, said to be 
a native of Ceylon, India, China, and Borneo. It must 
have about the size attributed to that species ; more- 
over. I found indications of but four sorts of real 
honey-gatherers in Ceylon, three of which I can identify 
as other species, and the native language recognizes 
four bees only. I would like to secure some of these 
bees, though I do not believe they are worth spending 
muchtimefor. There is "bigger game in the bush." 
THE TOM THUMBS AMONG BEES ! 
I have with me a smsll box containing a colony 
of very curious little bees with their equally curious 
queen and combs. These bees, called by the natives, 
hana mee messo, though belonging to the numerous 
family Apidae, are only distant cousins of our honey- 
bees, not being in the genus Apis, but that known 
as Trigona. The worker of this bee is but three- 
sixteenths of an inch long, has a large head and 
a small, blunt abdomen, the wings being longer than 
the latter. They are black, with one light colored 
ring on the abdomen, which is also light -colored 
underneath, stingless, very active, and gather pollen 
and honey. It is really amusing to see them come 
in laden with pollen, the pellets being larger in pro- 
portion to the leg of the bee, or even to its body. 
The strength of the individual workers is very great. 
The queen is dark yellow, and has an immense 
abdomen, her wings not being strong enough to lift 
her body into the air, when the ovaries are filled 
with eggs. The worker-cells of this bee are about 
half the size, and of the shape of short, plump, 
grains of wheat, and are placed in irregular bunches 
with passages between ; the pollen-cells and the honey- 
cells are fully as large as good-sized peas, and each 
forms a group of its own. I found these bees in a 
smidl hollow tree in the jungle near Kalutara. They 
had built down from the hole of the tree a tube 
about a foot long, a half inch to three-fourths in 
some places in diameter, and composed of particles 
