288 
FOREIGN BEES. 
they multiplied in the hollows of the old trees., that 
there was soon sufficient wax for the annual con- 
sumption. In 1 777, fourteen years from their intro- 
duction, 715,000 its. weight of wax were exported 
from the Havannah, of a quality equal to the wax of 
Venice. Including the contraband, Cuba exported 
in 1803, 42,070 arobas of wax, equal to more than 
1900 tons. The price was then from twenty to 
twenty-one piastres per aroba ; but the average price 
in time of peace is only fifteen piastres, or £3, 2s. Gd. 
sterling. A small part of this wax is produced by 
the wild bees of the genus Trigones, which occupy 
the trunks of the Cedrela odor ata ; hut the prin- 
cipal part is the produce of the common honey-bee,* 
originally imported from the old world to America 
—extended to the Southern States, and finally trans- 
ferred to Cuba by the settlers from Florida. t 
In Jamaica, bees are cultivated to some extent, 
* Edinburgh Encyclop. article Cuba. 
M. Feburier states, in a note, that M, Michaux, a French 
botanist, bad been informed by the natives of Florida, that 
bees formerly abounded in that province ; but that in one year 
they had almost all emigrated to Cuba, which is distant twenty- 
five leagues. Upon this, M. Feburier remarks : — As that 
island is covered with orange and lemon trees, the fragrance of 
the blossoms must have been wafted to Florida, and have at- 
tracted the bees ; a strong evidence of the acuteness of their 
sense of smell." We should say, that their strength of wing 
must have equalled their sense of smell. But the truth is, M. 
Michaux had been misinformed ; for it is a well known fact, 
that, as we have already stated, when the British obtained 
possession of Florida, at the peace in 1763, manyof the settlers 
removed to Cuba, and carried their bees along with them. 
