THE HONEY-BEE. 
APIS MELLIFICA. PLATE I. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The domestic Honey-Bee lias excited a lively and 
almost universal interest from the earliest ages. The 
philosopher and the poet have each delighted in the 
study of an insect whose nature and habits afford 
such ample scope for inquiry and contemplation ; and 
even the less intellectual peasant, while not insensi- 
ble of the profit arising from its judicious culture, 
has regarded, with pleasure and admiration, its in- 
genious operations and unceasing activity. “ Wise 
in their government,” observes the venerable Kirby, 
“ diligent and active in their employments, devoted 
to their young and to their queen, the Bees read a 
lecture to mankind that exemplifies their oriental 
name Deburah, she that speafceth 
So high did the ancients carry their admiration of 
this tiny portion of animated nature, that one philo- 
sopher, it is said, made it the sole object of his 
study for nearly three-score years ; another retired 
to the woods, and devoted to its contemplation the 
whole of his life j while the great Latin poet, the 
