becoming established in their new home, is to ascertain
if their queen is among them. This takes but
a short time, and if it should chance to occur,
which it very rarely does, that the queen is not
among them, they leave the hive forthwith in
search of her. Having satisfied themselves that
the queen is among them, they lose no time in
making the hive air and water tight. With a
viscous substance called propolis which they collect
from the leaves of willow, lime, and other trees,
they coat the interior of it in the most perfect
manner. One of the bees, who may be considered
the architect, next lays the foundation of the
plates. These are arranged vertically, and extend
downwards from the roof of the hive, and from
side to side. To economise space one plate serves
as the base for two sets of cells, which are, of
course, built at right angles to it. The shape
of these cells is that which our reason enables
us to perceive allows the very largest number to
be crowded into a given space. The royal cells—
that is to say those which are intended for the
reception of the eggs from one of which the future
queen is to come—are, besides being larger,
different in shape; and, instead of being built on the
plate like the other cells, are attached to the
cells themselves. As by this arrangement the
mouths of several cells are closed and rendered
useless, the royal cells are no sooner abandoned
than they are cleared away, and common cells
built on the spot. The desire to economise
space is exceedingly strong in the bee; not only
are the cells of the form best calculated to gratify
this instinct, but the walls, though very tough,
are wonderfully thin.

All insects are precocious, and the bee is not
an exception. When five days old, the queen
begins to lay eggs, an operation which is
performed with considerable ceremony. Her majesty,
attended by as many workers as can conveniently
witness her proceedings, first examines the
interior of every cell, to ascertain that it is in
proper order, and, having satisfied herself on this
head, she turns round and backs into it, her
attendants ranging themselves before the
entrance, and waiting her exit with respectful
immobility; though Wildman, whose opportunities
of observing bees have been very great, says they
bow the head before her, and caress her with their
feet and trunks while she is engaged in this interesting
duty. The number of eggs which she
deposits on one day differs from another; but,
assuming that she enters on the average two
hundred cells a day, it will be seen that she pays
dearly for the honours accorded her; and, barring,
accidents, this duty is continued from the
commencement of the warm weather until the end of
August. Considering that there is only one
queen in each hive and how much depends on
her preservation, it is not surprising that the
community should be thrown into great confusion
if she disappears. Every bee, as it receives
the announcement that the sovereign is missing,
hastens to spread the news, until, in a short time,
the whole hive is in an uproar. As soon as it
is certain that the sovereign is really absent,
the royal cells are examined to see if there is any
nymph ready to emerge. If so, she is released;
but if the occupants are only in the condition of
larvæ, the bereaved community must wait their
development. It will be said, if the accident
happens to the queen before she has deposited
eggs in the royal cells, how then? Well, even
in that case they have a way of getting over the
difficulty which is most remarkable. They select
certain cells containing larvæ of working bees,
and demolish the cells and occupants of those
immediately adjoining each of these, so as to
enable them to enlarge the cells of the particular
worms they select for conversion from working
bees into queen bees.

The worms selected are fed with a jelly-like
substance for the usual period, after which the
cells are closed, and the development proceeds
in due course, the result being, that instead of a
common working neuter emerging from the cell,
a perfect queen appears in all her glory. In the
event of there being no eggs available for this
particular purpose, it is said that the bees fall into
a state of anarchy, and adopt extreme communistic
principles, each devouring all the honey it
can seize until all has disappeared. Then they
disperse, and either join themselves to other
communities, or lead a vagabond kind of life,
terminated eventually by the cold. Instances of this
occurring are very rare, and a man might keep
bees all his life without meeting with a case of
the kind, but it is open to any bee-keeper to make
the experiment.

Some lovers of bees are so blindly devoted to
them that they will not hear of their faults.
According to these, bees are incapable of stealing,
fighting, or any minor peccadilloes. This, as a
rule, holds good with respect to a colony the
members of which are related to each other; but
it would not be advisable to place two hives in
close proximity which had been brought from
distant parts. As for robbing each other, they
would find that difficult, but there would
probably be more fighting than would be consistent
with the most profitable employment of their
time.

IN A SINKING STATE.

THERE are agencies working gradually but
substantially to undermine the constitution of
Florida, the rich southernmost peninsula of the
Confederacy, more effectually than "secession."
Alarmists might even hold that if the civil war
should last many years longer, the ultimate fate
of the devoted State will cease to be a mere
political question.

The most dangerous enemies of the soil of
Florida are what its inhabitants call "Sinks."
Those absorptions of the earth, though on a
small scale, are, in fact, so numerous, that one
may almost ask: Is Florida slipping between
the fingers of both Federals and Confederates?
and will she ultimately—like those high