accelerated the production of the young Bees, and added thousands of them to the mother hive. It is not possible that the drones can influence the impregnation of the Queen's eggs, particularly those eggs which are produced after the total destruction of the drones, which generally takes place in August, and sometimes in the latter end of July. These later eggs are hatched, and brought to a state of perfection by the crowded population of the hive at that period: for a sufficient number of common Bees, that is--a well-populated hive, will always bring to perfection the Queen's eggs that have been deposited in the cells, after the total destruction of the drones. This seems to prove, that there is some probable truth in Huber's opinion respecting the agency of the drones in the procreation of Bees, by their sexual union with the Queen. Though I was once inclined to differ in opinion with Huber on this subject, and even went so far as to venture to say with Huish, and in Huish's own words--that the Queen knows not coition, and that she is both virgin and mother,[H] from what I have seen in my observatory-hive this summer (1832) I am led to doubt the accuracy of that remark, and am disposed to lean to Huber's doctrine, and to think, that there _may be_ more truth in his experiments than has hitherto been awarded to them: in short, I see no objection to Huber's theory, although there is no direct proof of the copulation of the Queens with the drones. All apiarians allow that there are male and female in a hive or stock of Bees;--all admit--indeed, it is impossible to deny---that Bees _do increase and multiply_ at a prodigious rate, and so fulfil the Divine injunction; the only question to be solved is this--_How_ is the Queen-Bee impregnated? This secret in nature--if those matters, or natural operations which we cannot clearly explain, which, though in themselves sensible and gross, may, nevertheless, be too subtile, too refined, for our obtuse understandings to comprehend, and for our dull faculties to investigate,--if these may be called secrets in nature, there is a secret of this description respecting the sexual union of Queen and drone Bees, or, at any rate, respecting the manner of the impregnation of the Queen-Bee. I condemn no man who differs from me on this nice subject, as I have no direct proof, either that Huber is right, or that Huish is wrong, in their surmises relative to this disputable matter. Individually they are men deserving the highest respect; their labours and perseverance to throw light upon this mystic branch of apiarian science deserve the utmost praise; as also do the labours of the learned and ingenious Dr. Bevan, whose treatise on Bees I have read with much pleasure; and have occasionally referred to, and shall again make use of it, in this my humble attempt. We have all exerted our best abilities to become the favourites of our patrons and friends.