pointing his little, delicate finger to the object of his curiosity, and exclaim--"Mamma, mamma, what is that?" was most gratifying even to me. Well might the little naturalist inquire--"what is that?" when he was in the presence of royalty, and pointing to one of the most extraordinary monarchs in the world, while I myself--an old practitioner, had not previously observed her. Be it so, I acknowledge my oversight in this instance, and feel it incumbent on me to give the merit of the discovery to him, to whom on that occasion it was so justly due. CHAPTER IX. OBJECTIONS AGAINST PILING BOXES. Having gone through the explanation of my different hives, and of all my Bee-machinery, I will, previously to entering upon other matters, here state my objections to the piling of Bee-boxes one upon another, which is sometimes, and not improperly, called--_storifying_. It is also termed super-hiving, nadir-hiving, or centre-hiving, according to the place occupied by the added box: if an empty box be placed upon a stocked one, it is _super-hiving_;--if put _under_ such box, it is _nadir-hiving_;--and if introduced _between_ two boxes, it is _centre-hiving_. But with whatever term dignified--not to say--mystified, it amounts to, and in effect is--_storifying_. From an old book in my possession I find--that in 1675 a patent was granted to John Gedde, to secure to him for a term of fourteen years the advantages of his invention of boxes for storifying; so that it is at least of a hundred and sixty years' standing. After Gedde it was successively adopted and encouraged by Rusden, Warder, and Thorley, and has been the fashionable or fancy practice down to the present day; for it is a mode of managing Bees that has been recommended by some modern authors,--principally, if I mistake not, by Dr. Bevan; and it is practised by some Bee-masters, who, I am told, consider it to be the most humane mode, and the only humane mode of managing Honey-Bees. I have no wish to depreciate the inventions and labours of others, nor to offend any man, and particularly that man who has exerted himself so much to better the condition of the Honey-Bee. If he has been mistaken in the means to be employed to gain so desirable an end, and in my humble opinion he certainly has been mistaken, every praise is due to him for his good intentions.