Arist. Hist. Anim. v. 22. In the Crimea wild bees are found in great abundance in the clefts and caverns of the mountains.—Pallas, Travels in Southern Russia, iii. 324. Among the numerous species of wild bees found in America there is one which pre-eminently deserves to be introduced into Europe and brought under the dominion of man. This bee does not, like the ordinary kind, deposit its honey in combs but in separate waxen cells about the size and shape of a pigeon’s egg. As the honey of this bee is of an excellent quality, many persons in South America have been at the pains to tame its maker, whose labours have proved extremely profitable.—Schneider, Observ. sur Ulloa, ii. 200. ----- When the time of year arrived for robbing the bee, some hives were found to produce five, others ten, others fifteen quarts of honey, still leaving sufficient for winter consumption.[1231] And in determining what quantity would suffice great judgment was required; for if too much remained the labourers grew indolent, if too little they lost their spirits. However, in this latter case the bee-keepers, having ascertained that they were in need of food, introduced a number of sweet figs, and other similar fruit into the hive, as now we do moist sugar in a split cane. Elsewhere the practice was to boil a number of rich figs in water[1232] till they were reduced to a jelly, which was then formed into cakes and set near the hive. Together with this, some bee-keepers placed honey-water, wherein they threw locks of purple wool, on which the bees might stand to drink.[1233] Certain melitturgi, desirous of distinguishing their own bees[1234] when spread over the meadows, sprinkled them with fine flour. Mention is made of a person who obtained five thousand pounds’ weight of honey annually; and Varro[1235] speaks of two soldiers who, with a small country house, and an acre of ground left them by their father, realised an independent fortune. ----- Footnote 1231: Arist. Hist. Anim. ix. 27. 24. In Attica, the honey was taken about the summer solstice; at Rome about the festival of Vulcan, in the month of August.—Winkelmann. Hist. de l’Art, i. 65. But commentators are not at all agreed respecting the meaning of Pliny, whom this writer relies upon. xi. 15. Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 797. Footnote 1232: Arist. Hist. Anim. ix. 27. 19. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 752. Cf. Meurs. Græc. Ludib. p. 13. Footnote 1233: Varro, de Re Rust. iii. 16. Footnote 1234: A gentleman in Surrey desirous of knowing his own bees, when he should chance to meet them in the fields, touched their wings with vermilion as they were issuing from the hive. Being one fine day in summer on a visit at Hampstead, he found them thickly scattered among the wild flowers on the heath. Footnote 1235: De Re Rust. iii. 16. -----