200 Honey Bee. INSECTS. Queen Bee. 
tliy weariness, to thy ground cell within the knoll, 
where, as fancy dreams, the fairies dwell, a silent people 
in the land of peace.” 
Hugh Miller,* when a hoy at Cromarty, observed 
the various species of Humble bees. “The wild 
honey bees, in their several species, he observes, had 
peculiar charms for us. There were the buff-coloured 
Carders, that erected over their honey-jars domes of 
moss; the lapidary red-tipped bees, that built amid 
the recesses of ancient cairns, and in old dry stone 
walls, and were so invincibly brave in defending their 
homesteads that they never gave up the quarrel till 
they died; and above all, the yellow-zoned Humble 
bees, that lodged deep in the ground along the dry 
sides of grassy banks, and were usually wealthier in 
honey than any of their congeners, and existed in large 
communities. But the herd-boy of the parish, and 
the foxes of its woods and brakes, shared in my interest 
in the wild Honey bees; and, in the pursuit of some- 
thing else than knowledge, were ruthless robbers of 
their nests.” 
Mr. Darwin believes, from observations made over 
a series of years, that Humble bees are Indispensable 
to the fertilization of the hearts-ease (Viola tricolor), 
as it is the only set of bees which visit that flower. 
He has tried experiments which convince him that the 
visits of bees are, if not indispensable, at least highly 
beneficial to the fertilization of our clovers. He has 
observed that Humble bees alone visit the common 
red clover (^Trifolium pratense), as other bees cannot 
reach the nectar. He adds — “ Hence I have very 
little doubt, that if the whole genus of Humble bees 
became extinct or very rare in England, the hearts-ease 
and red clover would become very rare, or wholly 
disappear. ”f “ Credat Judcexis Apelles, non ego !" 
THE HONEY BEE (Apis mellifica). The most impor- 
tant part of the produce of bees is their wax, which 
was proved by the illustrious and pious Bonnet to be 
secreted by the bees from between the scales or plates 
which cover the body. At one time it was universally 
believed that wax was only the pollen of flowers a little 
altered. But experiments of John Hunter and of Huber, 
continued by the late George Newport, demonstrated 
the accuracy of Bonnet’s statement. Huber showed 
that with honey and water, when the bees were kept 
confined, and could not by any possibility get at flowers, 
these industrious creatures formed their waxy cells, as 
if they had been allowed to wander over the marjoram 
and thyme of the Swiss gardens, or to rob the innocent 
sweet Alpine flowers of their pollen. 
Propolis is collected by the bees from the resinous 
secretions often found exuding from the buds of trees. 
On the “physiological effects” of honey we may 
dwell a little, and with the pharmacologist say, that 
it is “emollient, demulcent, nutritive, and laxative,” 
generally much liked by children — not so much so by 
grown-up people. In ancient times, before the new 
world and the sugar cane were discovered, it was a 
much more important article than it is now. It was 
the chief thing with which the Egyptian, Assyrian, 
Jew, Greek, Roman, and old European sweetened any- 
* My Schools and Schoolmasters, ;i. 65. 
t On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, p. 73. 
thing he ate. Dr. Pereira* recommends patients who 
are troubled with severe coughs, to take warm barley 
water mixed with honey, and sharpened with slices of 
lemon, as a very agreeable and useful demulcent. 
Bees sometimes collect the honey from poisonous 
plants, and instances are recorded of persons having 
died from partaking of this honey. Kirby and Spence 
quote some proofs of this, such as that given by Dr. 
Barton, an American physician, who records, that in 
1790 many persons died in Philadelphia from eating 
honey. Inquiries were instituted, and it was found 
that the honey was derived by the bees chiefly from 
the flowers of the Kalmia latifolia. Xenophon, in 
his “Anabasis,” mentions that some of his soldiers 
were singularly affected by honey which they took 
in Asia Minor. Some of them seemed as if intoxi- 
cated, others were much excited, and others lay on 
the ground as if about to die. The honey of Tre- 
bizond, near which the Greek army encamped on their 
retreat, still retains its deleterious properties. Mr. 
Abbott sent some of it to the Zoological Society in 
1834, and confirmed the account of Xenophon. 
The Honey bee of the mountain districts of Honduras 
is said by Squier to resemble closely the bee of the 
United States. Its honey is largely used by the 
natives, who derive the chief part also of the wax used 
in the pompous ceremonial of the Roman Catholic 
church, from the natural bee-hives of the forest. 
On the curious subject of Parthenogenesis, which has 
excited the attention of scientific men for some time, 
much has been written. An able naturalist J remarks 
that no form of it is “ more remarkable or instructive 
than that which is present in connection with the 
economy of the common Honey bee. Many strange 
mistakes have prevailed from early times as to the 
history of the perfect societies of these insects, ruled 
by laws of instinct which have stimulated the curiosity 
of man, as much as their productive industry has 
served his uses and attracted his observation. But it 
has been only at a comparatively recent period that 
the true characters of the sexes have been anatomically 
fixed ; and these discoveries have not yet succeeded 
in dispelling, among the practical bee-keepers in 
general, either inveterate errors or wild conjectures. 
Yet it is to one of this class, Dzierzon, pastor of 
Carlsmarkt in Silesia, that science ultimately owes 
the discovery of the true physiological relations which 
rule the generation of the race. The main facts are 
these : — The Queen bee, or perfect female, before im- 
pregnation lays eggs which produce males only. After 
impregnation, which takes place but once only in the 
course of her lifetime, the eggs produce male or female 
larvae according to the sort of cells in which they are 
laid. By a delicate and difficult microscopical exam- 
ination, Siebold has proved that the eggs laid in the 
queen’s and workers’ cells have been penetrated by 
one or more zoosperms, which, on the other hand, 
are never found in the eggs deposited in drone cells. 
He concludes, with reason, that the access of the 
* Materia Medica, vol. i., p. 765. 
t States of Central America, p. 219 ; 1858. 
1 A. H. Haliday Esq., in the Natural History Review for 
April, 1857, p. 66. 
