INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
3 
tation of the hexagonal waxen cells, and the skill of the 
construction of the comb to their purposes, has occupied 
the abstruse calculations of profound mathematicians; 
and since human ingenuity has devised modes of investi¬ 
gating, unobserved, the various proceedings of the in¬ 
terior of the hive, wonder has grown still greater, and 
admiration has reached its climax. 
The intimate connection of “Bees” with nature’s 
elegancies, the Flowers, is an association which links 
them agreeably to our regard, for each suggests the 
other; their vivacity and music giving animation and 
variety to what might otherwise pall by beautiful but 
inanimate attractions. When we combine with this the 
services bees perform in their eager pursuits, our admi¬ 
ration extends beyond them to their Great Originator, 
who, by such apparently small means, accomplishes so 
simply yet completely, a most important object of crea¬ 
tion. 
That bees were cultivated by man in the earliest 
conditions of his existence, possibly whilst his yet 
limited family was still occupying the primitive cradle 
of the race at Hindoo Koosh, or on the fertile slopes of 
the Himalayas, or upon the more distant table-land or 
plateau of Thibet, or in the delicious vales of Cashmere, 
or wherever it might have been, somewhere widelv away 
to the east of the Caspian Sea,—is a very probable sup¬ 
position. Accident, furthered by curiosity, would have 
early led to the discovery of the stores of honey which 
the assiduity of bees had hoarded;—its agreeable savour 
would have induced further search, which would have 
strengthened the possession by keener observation, and 
have led in due course to the fixing them in his imme¬ 
diate vicinity. 
b 2 
