CONCLUSION
Although very much more could be written on this interesting subject,
yet there is a limit to all things, and we come now to the end of this
little book.
If you did not know or care much about bees when you began Chapter I.,
I hope that what you have read will help you to understand something
about these wonderful insects. The study of parts of their bodies, or
Anatomy, as it is called, teaches us a great deal, and helps us to
understand all the more clearly how they perform the duties of the
hive, and how they collect their food.
Although the wonders of the hive, the combs, their building and design,
the different workers and their duties, are marvellous, yet the ways
of the bees themselves are far more wonderful, and we cannot fully
understand them. It is not known at the present time whether the bees
are able to think and reason, or whether they simply do these things by
instinct. This alone is a great subject, and one on which there have
been endless discussions among the cleverest scientists in the world,
and yet we get no nearer the truth.
If you are not able to study the habits of the bees in the hive, there
is nothing to prevent you from watching them when they are at work in
the garden or hedgerow. It is always very pleasant to hear the happy
song of the foragers on a summer afternoon as they flit from flower to
flower on their task.
The study of flowers, or Botany, is most interesting, especially when
considered in relation to insects. It was not till comparatively recent
years that it was found they were connected; but one day a young German
botanist, called Sprengel, happened to notice some tiny hairs growing
in the centre of a wood-geranium. He determined to find out what
purpose these hairs served, and ultimately proved that they protected
the nectar of the little flower from the rain. From this apparently
trivial discovery it was found that most plants were fertilised by
insects. It seems almost as though Nature had intended flowers and
insects to fit in with each other, and it is very wonderful to think
of this when we remember that they belong to two different kingdoms. A
great deal has yet to be learned about bees and flowers, for there are
all sorts of curious devices in flowers which we do not yet understand.
It is important to remember that the bees do not know that they are
fertilising the flowers, for they only think of collecting nectar, and
carry the pollen from one plant to another quite accidentally.
Always remember that a bee will not sting you unless it is annoyed, or
unless you hurt it. If it does sting you for this reason, do not kill
it, for it is only doing what it has a right to do, although it may be
a painful right! I knew some boys who used to spend Saturday afternoons
seeing who could kill the most bees. One day they ran to me and told me
that they had actually killed 172 bees between them. Of course I told
them how cruel I thought they were, but they had never thought of it in
this way, and after I had shown them one of my hives and explained a
few of the wonders of the bee-city, they said how sorry they were, and
you may be sure they have never killed a bee since.
THE END
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. Edinburgh & London
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Although Plate IV is referenced in the text, no Plate IV appears
in the original.