FOREIGN EEES. 
289 
occasionally by tlie planters, but more generally by 
the negroes and people of colour. The honey is dark- 
coloured, and of a flavour hardly so agreeable as our 
own. The hives they use are small square boxes of 
one story. In size aud colour the Jamaica bee so 
strongly resembles the European, as to suggest the 
probability that it is the same. The only circum- 
stance known to us that raises any doubt of this 
identity is, that though it possesses a sting, it seldom 
uses it, and is apparently of a much less irritable 
temper than ours. As a proof of this greater gentle- 
ness, the apiary is, in many cases, situated directly in 
front of the dwelling-house ; and an instance has 
come to our knowledge of one consisting of not 
fewer than fifty hives, belonging to a gentleman 
in tlie neighbourhood of Savannah-la-Mar, ranged 
close by the door, and under the front windows. W ere 
the exotic insect as testy as ours, visiters would require 
some nerve to face coolly so formidable an outpost. 
The same gentleman has on his estate a row of log- 
wood trees, the blossoms of which are much resorted 
to by the bees. Whether there is any species of the 
insect in this island without stings, we have not been 
able to ascertain precisely ; it seems probable, how- 
ever, there is not. A resident medical gentleman, to 
whom the query was put, had never heard of such ; 
and an intelligent negro, who kept a large stock of 
hives, when asked whether the Jamaica bees had 
stings, seemed surprised at the question, and an- 
swered : “ Hey ! hab tings ? dem ting too trong ! dem 
hab big big ting." The same negro observed that he 
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