The apiary, or, Bees, beehives, and bee culture : being a familiar account of the habits of bees and the most improved methods of management

Front matter

lb

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

From The Journal of Horticulture, February 28, 1865.

Preface To The Third Edition

HE present issue of our handbook may be fairly said to be really a new work. Not that the greater portion of it has been consecutively rewritten, nor yet that the larger half of the former matter has wholly disappeared ; but the additions of entirely new sections and half-sections, the transpositions with a view to facilitating reference, the erasures of what is either out of date or only repetition — in short, the thorough overhauling of the text from beginning to end — are such as to render the form in which it is now presented a new book rather than an ordinary fresh edition.

First as to our own department, the practical appliances. The descriptions of several hives and apparatus that have gone out of use have been removed to make room for the much larger number of new and improved inventions. Of the eighteen hives now described, no less than a half are new introductions, and the same is the case in greater vi PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

or less degree with the supers, the covers, and the bee contrivances of every kind.

The chapter on “Manipulation” has been equally enlarged, having throughout been collated with the chapters on that branch in Mr. Langstroth’s “ Honey Bee.” For very many valuable additions, both large and small, we are therefore indebted to that source, and we have also some obligations to acknowledge to Mr. Cheshire’s “ Practical Bee-keeping.”

It is in reference chiefly to this department that so many transpositions have been made from the arrangement of the matter in former editions. Finding that by giving extensive practical directions under nearly every individual hive we were losing much greatly needed space by repetition, and at the same time giving less complete instructions to each, we have endeavoured when possible to comprise all this in articles of a general character, and to retain under special hives or appliances such only as was strictly peculiar to themselves. The system of references now carried out, together with the numberiug of sections and displaying the numbers in the head-lines of every page, will we trust remove even that small apparent inconvenience which is the accompaniment of a large and substantial gain.

But perhaps more than all has the earlier part of our work been enlarged and emended — that which treats on the insect itself, its natural history, its reproductive economy, its habits, and its structure. For this course

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. vii of improvement we are largely indebted to the very masterly and exhaustive treatise of Baron von Berlepsch, “ Die Biene und ihre Zucht in beweglichen Waben ” (“The Bee and its Culture in Movable Combs ”); after this to Dr. Dzierzon’s latest work, “ Rationelle Bienenzucht ; ” to Schmid and Kleine’s “ Leitfaden ; ” to Samuelson and Hicks’s “Honey Bee;” to Mr. John Hunter’s very comprehensive and readable “ Manual ol Bee-keeping ; ” and to the British and American Bee Journals, the former for letters from correspondents, and the latter also for the very able articles by which that remarkably well-conducted periodical is distinguished. To Mr. Frederick Smith, of the Entomological Department at the British Museum, we have also to acknowledge our indebtedness for courteous personal communications rendered more than once.

Reference should also be made to aid in the translations from the German Treatises before mentioned, as well as to some other literary assistance which we hope has added to the interest of this work.

149. Regent Street, London,

August 1877.

Preface To The First Edition

UR apology for preparing a bee-book is a very simple one. We are so frequently applied to for advice on matters connected with bees and beehives, that it seemed likely to prove a great advantage, alike to our correspondents and ourselves, if we could point to a “ handy book ” of our own which should contain full and detailed replies sufficient to meet all ordinary enquiries. Most of the . apiarian manuals possess some special excellence or other, and we have no wish to disparage any of them ; yet in all we have found a want of explanations relating to several of the more recent improvements.

It has more especially been our aim to give explicit and detailed directions on most subjects connected with the hiving and removing of bees, and also to show how, by judicious application of the “ depriving ” system, the productive powers of the bees may be enormously increased.

I

X

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

We need say little here as to the interest that attaches to the apiary as a source of perennial pleasure for the amateur naturalist. Many of the hives and methods of management are described with a direct reference to this class of bee-keepers, so that, besides plain and simple directions suitable for cottagers with their ordinary hives, this work will be found to include instructions useful for the scientific apiarian, or at least valuable for those who desire to gain a much wider acquaintance Avith the secrets of bee-keeping than is now usually possessed. We would lay stress on the term “acquaintance,” for there is nothing in the management of the various bar-and-frame hives which is at all difficult when frequent practice has rendered the bee-keeper familiar with them. Such explicit directions are herein given as to how the right operations may be performed at the right times, that a novice may at once commence to use the modern hives. The word “ neAV-fangled ” has done good service for the indolent and prejudiced, but Ave trust that our readers will be of a very different class. Let them give a fair trial to the modern appliances for the humane and depriving system of bee-keeping, and they will find offered to them an entirely new field of interest and observation. At present our continental neighbours far surpass us as bee-masters ; but Ave trust that the folloAving season, if the summer be fine, will prove a turning point in the course of English bee-keeping. There is little doubt that a greater number of

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

xi intelligent and influential persons in this country will become bee-keepers than has ever been the case before.

Our task would have lost half its interest did we not hope that it would result in something beyond the encouragement of a refined and interesting amusement for the leisurely classes. The social importance of bee-keeping, as a source of pecuniary profit for small farmers and agricultural labourers, has never been appreciated as it deserves. Yet these persons will not, of themselves, lay aside the bungling and wasteful plan of destroying the bees, or learn without being taught the only proper method, that of deprivation. Their educated neighbours, when once interested in the pursuit, will be the persons to introduce the more profitable system of humane bee-keeping. The clergy especially, as permanent residents in the country, may have great, influence in this respect. There is not a rural or suburban parish in the kingdom in which bee-keeping, might not be largely extended, and the well-being of all but the very poorest inhabitants would be greatly promoted. Not only would the general practice of bee-keeping add largely to the national resources, but that addition would chiefly fall to the share of those classes to whom it would be of most value. Moreover, in the course of thus adding to their income, the uneducated classes would become interested in an elevating and instructive pursuit.

It is curious to observe that honey, whether regarded

b xii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

as a manufactured article or as an agricultural product, is obtained under economical conditions of exceptional advantage. If regarded as a manufactured article, we notice that there is no outlay required for “labour,” nor any expense for “raw material.” The industrious labourers are eager to utilise all their strength ; they never “combine” except for the benefit of their master, they never “strike” for wages, and they provide their own subsistence. All that the master-manufacturer of honey has to do financially is, to make a little outlay for “fixed capital” in the needful “plant” of hives and utensils; no “floating capital” is needed. Then, on the other hand, if we regard honey as an agricultural product, it presents as such a still more striking contrast to the economists’ theory of what are the “ requisites of production.” Not only is there no outlay needed for wages, and none for raw material, but there is nothing to be paid for “ use of a natural agent.” Every square yard of land in the United Kingdom may come to be cultivated, as in China, but no proprietor will ever be able to claim “ rent ” for those “ waste products ” of the flowers and leaves which none but the winged workers of the hive can ever utilise.

The recent domestication in England of the Ligurian or Italian Alp bee adds a new and additional source of interest to bee-culture. We have therefore gone pretty fully into this part of the subject; and believe that what is here published with regard to their intro-

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xiii

duction embodies the most recent and reliable information respecting them that is possessed by English apiarians.*

We are under many obligations for the advice and assistance that we have on many occasions received from Mr. T. W. Woodbury, of Exeter, whose apiarian skill is unrivalled in this country. Our acknowledgments are also due to Mr. Henry Taylor, author of an excellent “Bee-keeper’s Manual,” for his help and counsel during the earlier years of our apiarian experience. Both these gentlemen have frequently communicated to us their contrivances and suggestions, without thought of fee or reward for them. In common with most recent writers on bee-culture, we are necessarily largely indebted to the standard works of Huber and succeeding apiarians. From the more recent volume of the Rev. L. L. Langstroth we have also obtained useful information. But having ourselves, of later years, had considerable experience in the manipulation and practical managemennt of bees, we are enabled to confirm or qualify the statements of others, as well as to summarise information gleaned from various sources.

* Some of our apiarian friends may be inclined to be discouraged from cultivating the Ligurian bees in consequence of the liability of their becoming hybridised when located in proximity to the black bees. We can dispel these fears by staling that we have not unfrequently found that hybrid queens possess the surprising fecundity of the genuine Italian ones, whilst the English stocks in course of time become strengthened by the infusion of foreign blood.

xiv PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Let it be understood that we have no patented devices to push j we are free to choose out of the many apiaiian contrivances that have been offered of late years, and we feel perfectly at liberty to praise or blame as our experience warrants us in doing. It does not follow that we necessarily disparage hives which are not described herein ; we have sought as much as possible to indicate the principles on which good hives must be constructed, whatever their outward size or shape. All through the work, we have endeavoured to adopt the golden rule of “ submission to Nature ” by reference to which all the fancied difficulties of bee-keeping may be easily overcome. In none of the attempts of men to hold sway over natural objects is the truth of Bacon’s leading doctrine more beautifully illustrated than in the power that the apiarian exercises in the little world of bees.

Some persons may consider we have used too many poetical quotations in a book dealing wholly with matters of fact. We trust, however, that the examination of the extracts will at once remove that feeling of objection.

We venture to hope that the following pages contain many valuable hints and interesting statements which may tend to excite increased and renewed attention to the most useful and industrious of all insects.

Although bees have neither reason nor religion for their guide, yet from them man may learn many a

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

xv lesson of virtue and industry, and may even draw from them thoughts suggestive of trust and faith in God.

We beg leave to conclude our preface, and introduce the subject, by the following extract from Shakespeare, who, without doubt, kept bees in that garden at Stratford wherein he used to meditate : —

“ So work the honey-bees ;

Creatures that, by a rule in Nature, teach The art of order to a peopled kingdom.

They have a king and officers of sorts ;

Where some, like magistrates, correct at home ;

Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad ;

Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,

Make boot upon the summer’s velvet buds ;

Which pillage they, with merry march, bring home To the tent royal of their emperor:

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys The singing masons building roofs of gold ;

The civil citizens kneading up the honey ;

The poor mechanic porters crowding in Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate ;

The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,

Delivering o’er to executors pale The lazy, yawning drone.”

Shakespeare’s Henry V., Act i. Scene 2.

Introduction

PAGE

Literature of Bee-keeping . . . i

CHAPTER I. The Bee as an Insect

SEC.

I. Classification . . . . . .7

II. The Queen . . . . . .8

III. The Drone . . . . . 19

IV. The Worker . . . . . *27

VI. Other Foreign Varieties . . . . -45

VII. Faculties and Functions . . . -54

VIII. Eggs and Transformations . . . -59

IX. Reproductive Economy . . . . .62

X. Relation of Sex to Cells . . . . -67

XI. The Rationale of Swarming . . . -72

XII. Increase of Bees . . . . . .82

CHAPTER IE Anatomy and Physiology.

I. Preliminary Remarks . . . . .86

II. The Head and Organs of Sensation . . .88 xvm

CONTENTS.

PAGE

SEC.

III. The Thorax and Organs of Motion . • 97

IV. The Abdomen and Secretive Organs . . • 102

CHAPTER III. Modern Beehives

I. Common Cottager’s Hive .... 108

II. Neighbours’ Crystal Palace Skep . . .109

III. The Cottager’s Hive . . . . .110

IV. An Improved Cottager’s Hive. . . .112

V. Neighbours’ Improved Cottager’s Hive . . 113

VI. The Ladies’ Observatory Hive. . . .120

VII. Nutt’s Collateral Hive .... 123

VIII. Huber’s Hive ...... 127

IX. The Woodbury Frame Hive .... 134

X. Neighbours’ New Frame Hive . . • 1 39

XI. Neighbours’ Cottager’s Frame Hive . . . 142

XII. The Philadelphia Frame Hive . . . 143

XIII. Cheshire’s Frame Hive . . . • r45

XIV. Abbott’s New Frame Hive . . • .146

XV. The Stewarton Hive ..... 146

XVI. The Lanarkshire Hive . .... 155

XVII. Neighbours’ Unicomb Observatory Hive— Outdoor . 157 XVIII. Neighbours’ Unicomb Observatory Hive— Indoor . 162

CHAPTER IV. Fittings and Apparatus

I. Bee-IIouses ...... 166

II. Zinc Covers . . . • • • l7l

III. Wood Covers . . . • • • *72

V. Bell Glasses . . • • • .180

VI. Bar Supers ...... 183

VII. Ekes and Nadirs . . • • .186

CONTENTS.

xix

SEC. l'AGE

VIII. Impressed Wax Sheets .... 187

IX. Comb Foundations ..... 190

X. Cheshire’s Guide-Maker .... 191

XI. Bar-Frame Holder ..... 192

XII. Cheshire’s Transferring Board . . . . 192

XIII. Honey Cutters ..... 193

XIV. The Honey Extractor . . . . . 193

XV. Cheshire’s Nucleus Hive . . . . 197

XVI. Queen-Cages ...... 198

XVII. Queen and Drone Preventer .... 200

XVIII. Bee-Traps ...... 201

XIX. Drone-Traps ...... 201

XX. Bee-Feeders ...... 202

XXI. Fumigators ...... 206

XXII. Bee-Dress or Protector .... 208

CHAPTER V. Bee Manipulation

I. Hiving Swarms ..... 212

II. Transferring Swarms ..... 218

III. Transferring Old Stocks .... 222

V. Uniting Colonies ..... 229

VI. Artificial Swarming ..... 233

VII. Queen-Rearing ..... 243

VIII. Introducing New Queens .... 247

IX. Italianising . . . . . .251

X. General Hints on Frame Hives . . . 254

XI. Removing Bees ..... 259

XII. Supplying Natural Comb . . . .261

XIII. Applying Supers ..... 264

XIV. Removing Supers ..... 266 XV. Removing Frames ..... 268

XX CONTENTS.

SEC. PAGE

XVI. Extracting Honey ..... 274

XVII. Melting Combs down ..... 275

XVIII. Weighing Hives ..... 276

XIX. Feeding ...... 279

XX. Winter Precautions ..... 283

CHAPTER VI Miscellaneous Information

I. Stings : their Prevention and Cure

GO

II. Position of Hives

. 292

III. Pasturage for Bees

• 293

IV. Honey

. 296

V. Pollen, or Bee-Bread .

VI. Propolis, or Bees’ Cement

. 300

VII. Secretion of Wax

• 302

VIII. Robbing

• 305

IX. Diseases of Bees

• 306

X. Bee Enemies .

IX. Bee-keeping in London

. 322

XII. General Remarks

• 332

Appendix

International Exhibition of 1862 . . . . 347

Cases of Acclimatising Bees ..... 349

Philadelphia Exhibition ..... 350

Caledonian Apiarian Society ..... 354

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

PLATE I. (Page 34).

1 . Queen bee.

la. Antenna of ditto.

lb. Hind leg of ditto.

1 c. Front view of head of ditto.

1 d. Mandible of ditto.

2. Worker, or imperfect female.

2a. Antenna of ditto.

2b. Hind leg of ditto, inner side showing the pollen-brushes.

2b * Ditto, outer side showing the pollen-basket.

2 c* Side view of head.

2c. Back view of ditto, showing the junction of the gullet with the thorax, and position of the tongue and its appendages.

2d. Mandible.

3. Male, or drone.

3 a. Antenna of ditto.

3 b. Hind leg of ditto.

y. F ront view of head of ditto.

3 d. Mandible of ditto.

a. Enlarged view of the wing. B. Hind edge of fore wing, showing the thickened margin, and fore edge of hind wing, showing the hooks, which hold on to the thickened margin of the fore wing, and keep them together during flight.

XXI 1

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

PLATE II. (Page 86).

1. Body of a bee divested of antennae, legs, and wings, showing

the anatomy of the thorax and natural position of the stomach.

5*. The eyes. a. The stemmata.

bbb. The muscles that move the wings.

c. The external covering of the thorax. cc. The bases of the wings.

d. The honey-bag, or first stomach.

f. The ventricle, or true stomach, distended with food.

g. The rectum.

It. The biliary vessels.

i. Portion of the membranous tissue lining the inner surface of the segments, and enclosing the stomach and intestines.

2. The stomach emptied of its contents, to show the muscular

contraction of the ventricle. d. The honey-bag. f. The ventricle.

The rectum.

h. The biliary vessels.

3. The ligula, or tongue, and its appendages.

/. The base of the ligula.

m. The paraglossae.

n. The maxillae.

0. The labial palpi.

p. The tongue.

4. The sting and its muscles.

s. Curved base of the outer sheath enclosing the sting. r. Muscles that move the sting.

q. The attachment of the muscles to the outer cover-

ing of the abdomen.

t. Poison-bag.

u. Glands connected with the poison-bag.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES .

XXUl v. Honey-plates covering the muscles r, and to which the sheaths of the sting are attached at s.

** Base of sting connecting with the poison-bag t.

Tip of the same

4* Magnified view of point of sting, showing the serrations on each side.

5. Three hexagonal prisms of a bee’s eye (Swammerdam).

6. Abdominal plates of the bee, detached to show the wax cells.

7. Eggs of bee, natural size, and magnified (from Reaumur).

8. Helminthomorphous or apodal larva of a bee (Reaumur).

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Frontispiece. — -Coloured view of Geo. Neighbour and Sons’ Apiary.

Plate I. — Italian Alp Queen, Drone and Worker Bees, with

Anatomical Drawings . . . Faring page 34

Plate II. — Dissected Bee, with Illustrations of various Members

Faring page 86

Common Cottager’s Hive . . . . .108

Neighbours’ Crystal Palace Sleep .... 109 The Cottager’s Hive . . . . .110

Improved Cottager’s Hive . . . . .112

Improved Cottage Hive (No. 5) . . . . 1 1 3

Improved Cottage Hive (No. 6), no windows . . .119

The Ladies’ Observatory Hive . . . . .120

Nutt’s Collateral Hive . . . . . .123

Woodbury’s Bar-frame Hive (wood) . . . .135

Woodbury’s Single Bar Frame as taken from hive . . 135

Woodbury’s Bar-frame Hive (straw) . . . 136

Woodbury’s Bar-frame Hive (glass) . . . -138

Neighbours’ New Frame Hive (wood) . . . . 1 39

Neighbours’ New Frame Hive (straw), with Frame Super . 142 Neighbours’ Cottager’s Frame Hive (wood) . . .143

Neighbours’ Philadelphia Frame Hive .... 144 Stewarton or Ayrshire Hive ..... 147

PAGE

Neighbours’ Out-door Unicomb Hive . . . -158

Neighbours’ Indoor Unicomb Hive . . . .162

Bee Blouse for two Hives — Front view . . . .166

Bee House for two Hives — Back view . . . .167

Bee House for twelve Flives — Front view . . .169

Bee House for twelve Hives — Back view . . .170

Ornamented Zinc Cover . . . . . 171

Zinc Cover for Cottager’s Hive . . . . .172

Wooden Cover for Frame Hive . . . . 174

Neighbours’ New Frame Hive, with Cover, Stand, and Pair of

Divisional Supers — Back view . . . . 175

Neighbours’ New Frame Hive, ditto — Closed front view . 176 Neighbours’ New Frame Plive and Frame Super (glass), with

large Cover and on Stand— Front view . . . 1 7g

Neighbours’ New Frame Hive — Front view, closed . . 178

Neighbours’ New Frame Hive (No. 81). Wood with Straw Crown, and Large Window in close-fitting Cover and Stand . . . . . . -179

Bell and Flat-shaped Cdasses (5 varieties) . .. . 181

Payne’s Glasses . . . . . . .182

Flap-topped Glass, with Cover for Table . . . 182

Woodbury Glass-sided Bar Super . . . .183

Bar-frame Super — Glass Sides and Top, with Shutters . 184

Neighbours’ New Divisional Super . . . .184

Neighbours’ New Sectional Super . . . . 1S5

Neighbours’ New Bar-frame Plolder .... 192 Honey Cutters . . . . . . . 193

Honey Extractor . . . . . . 194

Neighbours’ Queen and Drone Preventer . . . 200

Neighbours’ Bottle Feeder ..... 203 Neighbours’ New Can Feeders ..... 204 Neighbours’ Round Feeders ..... 205 New Wood Feeder ...... 206

XXVI

ILL USTRA TJONS.

l'AGfe,

Fumigators (2 illustrations) . 207

Bee Dress or Protector 2°9

Contrivance for protecting Queen Cell . 244

Guide Comb Glasses ..•••• 2^3 Weighing Hives ..■••• 27 T

Bees at Exhibition of 1862 . . • • • 34§

Exterior of an Apiary ..•••• 352 Interior of an Apiary ..•••• 353-

ERRATA.

Page 140, fourth line, read seventeen for “ twenty-one inches.”

Page 146, Abbott's New Frame Hive, third line, read movable sides for “ dummies,” and six lines below — The stock hive is of wood although sometimes of straw ,

I

V'ltfjili aoo- ■{}!»*

INTRODUCTION.

LITERATURE OF BEE-KEEPING.

US T a few words at starting on the history of the bee in ancient and modern literature. Our work is not a critical survey, and still less an exhaustive treatise ; but even that popular outline which it is our aim to produce seems defective without some mention of the great bee-students of the past. We find the first definitive description of the insect in Aristotle’s “History of Animals,” written about the middle of the fourth century before Christ, and combining much sound scientific information on our subject with other statements which better information has had to reject. A little before him lived Aristomachus, of Cilicia, who wrote works on agriculture and domestic economy which are lost to us except in a few quotations, but of whom we ■are told that he devoted some fifty-eight years to a continual observance of the habits of bees. One Philiscus, of fhasos, is mentioned as another of their votaries, who betook himself to a forest life in order uninterruptedly to pursue their study. Then just after the Christian era r

I NT R 0 DUCT I ON.

came Pliny the Elder, from whom we learn these few particulars of the two just named, and whose celebrated “ Natural History,” which is the work rather of a student than of a master, honours the bee with an elaborate and interesting description. Shortly after him Columella, in his work “ On Rustic Matters,” gave copious instructions on bee-keeping, which, though reproducing some older errors, are greatly in' advance of any that had appeared, and place him, for the accuracy that they display, at the head of the apiarians of antiquity. Theophrastus, Celsus, and Varro must also be ranked among the ancient writers whose attention was drawn to this industrious insect. But perhaps the most renowned of classic works upon the subject is the fourth book of the “Georgies” of Virgil, in which we are presented with a minute tieatise upon bees and their culture, with all the sense as well as nonsense that then passed current thereupon, togethei with that most beautiful passage in the poet s writings, the story of the visit of Orpheus to the shades, which is appended by one of those incidental connecting-links of which ancient poets were wont to avail themselves.

In more modern times the principal writers have been Swammerdam, the Dutch naturalist ; Maraldi, an Italian mathematician ; Schirach, a Saxon clergyman ; Reaumur, well known for his thermometer ; Bonnet, a Swiss entomologist and jurist; the famous Dr. John Hunter; and above all Francis Huber, of Geneva. The last of these, though totally blind, contrived, principally by the aid of

LITERATURE OF BEE-KEEPING.

his very intelligent and painstaking assistant, Burnens to accumulate a long series of minute observations which have brought about an entire revolution in the science. In connection with Huber must be mentioned Mile. Jurine, who, by her delicate microscopic examinations, rendered him the most important services, and gave more than one valuable discovery to the world. At the same period lived Dr. John Evans, who may be fitly styled the poet-laureate of the bee. His poem, “ The Bees,” from which we shall make numerous quotations, is written with great taste, and combines, with rare felicity, scientific accuracy of detail with a poetic spirit which never flags.* A little later than these, though in part their contemporary, came Dr. Bevan, whose name is still cited as among the highest authorities on the subject, and whose work, “The Honey Bee,” was regarded as its great textbook in our language, till superseded, with the progress of discoveries, by one under the same title from the pen of the Rev. L. L. Langstroth. This last gentleman, who is a Presbyterian minister in Ohio, stands undoubtedly at

* Dr. Evans s poem consisted of four parts, of which only three were ever published. We possess an author’s presentation copy in which is a written memorandum that the manuscript of the remainder had been prepared for the press, and was still in the keeping of the family. We have written numerous letters with a view to tracking it out for publication ; but very recently we have learnt that the only survivor of nine children is unable at present to discover the whereabouts of the document. Dr. Evans was some time a physician at Shrewsbury, but removed into and died in Wales,

INTRODUCTION.

the present day as the foremost apiarian of the English' speaking race. But we are forced to admit that the Germans bear the palm above us, for all the great advances in our knowledge of the bee which have been made for a generation have come from them. To Dr. Dzierzon,* therefore, a Roman Catholic priest of Carlsmarkt in Silesia, to whose acute investigations the great mass . of these are to be ascribed, must be conceded a rank scarcely second to that of Huber ; while Baron von Berlepsch, of Coburg, who is ever ready to follow up and improve upon the researches of the “ great master,” has beyond question earned for himself a position inferior to that of the master alone. Of famous Scotch writers we should allude to Bonner, of Glasgow, who lived in the latter part of the last, century, and the Rev. Dr. Dunbar, who dates at the beginning of this.

Of the mass of other names that press in upon us it will be impossible in such narrow limits to supply any details. The literature of the subject is truly enormous, and all that we can do is to furnish a list in rough chronological order of the more noteworthy of those who have in some way rendered service to our acquaint-

* Pronounced Dzeert-sohn. Some of the above names, it may not be amiss to add, are not always spelt correctly by bee-writers. In particular, nearly all of them, copying ea'ch other, omit the accent in “Reaumur” ( Ray-oh-mewr ), which we find French biographers unanimous in inserting. We have also seen “ Miraldi ” in a recent popular work, while one author had a fancy to write “ Iiuber,” which is evidently a pure mistake.

LITERATURE OF BEE-KEEPING .

ance with the bee. Besides the great naturalists Linnteus and Cuvier we therefore select the following

Seventeenth century.— Butler, Purchas, Goedart, Swammerdam, Sir C. W ren, Hartlib, Gedde, Rusden, Ray (with Willughby and Dr. M. Lister), Dr. Martin John (of Germany).

Nineteenth Century. — Francois Huber (with his son Pierre, and Burnens), Latreille, Mile. Jurine, Spitzner, T. A. Knight, Rev. Dr. Dunbar, Pluish, Dr. Evans (poet), Feburier, Kirby and Spence, Humphrey, Baron von Ehrenfels, Newport, Dr. Bevan, Gundelach, Lord Brougham, Pastor Oettl, Capt. von Baldenstein, Nutt. Payne, Baylor, Golding, Maj. Munn, Woodbury, Quinby (of America), Wagner (ditto).