INTRODUCTORY REMARKS,

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tsation of the hexagonal waxen cells, and the skill of thecconstruction of the comb to their purposes, has occupiedtithe abstruse calculations of profound mathematicians;aand since human ingenuity has devised modes of investi-ggatiug, unobserved, the various proceedings of the in-terior of the hive, wonder has grown still greater, andaadmiration has reached its climax.

The intimate connection of '‘Bees 5 ’ with nature’seclogancies, the Flowers, is an association which linkstlthem agreeably to our regard, for each suggests theoother; their vivacity and music giving animation andvvariety to what might otherwise pall by beautiful butiiinanimate attractions. When we combine with this thesiservices bees perform in their eager pursuits, our admi-riration extends beyond them to their Great Originator,uwho, by such apparently small means, accomplishes sosisimply yet completely, a most important object of crea-tition.

That bees were cultivated by man in the earliestc<conditions of his existence, possibly whilst his yetlilimited family was still occupying the primitive cradleoof the race at Hindoo Koosh, or on the fertile slopes oftithe Himalayas , or upon the more distant table-land orp plateau of Thibet , or in the delicious vales of Cashmere ,oor wherever it might have been, somewhere w'idely awayt<to the east of the Caspian Sea, —is a very probable 3up-p position. Accident, furthered by curiosity, would havee early led to the discovery of the stores of honey whichtithe assiduity of bees had hoarded ;—its agreeable savouru would have induced further search, which would haveststrengthened the possession by keener observation, andhhave led in due course to the fixing them in his imme-ddiate vicinity.

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