So great is their love of flowers 
and pride in producing honey. 
—Vergil: Georgics 
IX 
TEMPERAMENTS 
T O THE person uninterested in bees any bee 
on a flower is “a honey bee,” whereas it may 
truly be anything from a bumblebee to one of the 
little light-bodied wild bees, which closely resemble 
flies. A visit to the Natural History Museum in 
New York City will show that there are thousands 
of kinds of bees, all labeled and listed there in nu¬ 
merous glass cases. 
Apis Mellifica is the Latin name of our honey bee, 
and the best known races of this genus are the Ital¬ 
ians, the Germans (commonly called “blacks”) and 
the Carniolans. These three races have been most 
widely kept and studied. 
Considered from every standpoint the Italians 
are the most satisfactory. Good honey gatherers and 
easy to handle, one might almost call them the 
“standard” bee of America. They are also consid¬ 
ered more resistant than other races to the diseases 
which sometimes attack the brood, and are very 
attractive bees in appearance—the workers having 
91 
