1-158-950 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

'The Bee', c1851. The central image shows bee skeps and plants on which bees forage, and Indian, American and South European bees. The skep on the right has section cut away showing a piece of honeycomb which has been stood on edge. The bell-shaped object hanging in front of the comb is a new Queen cell. A European worker bee is approaching the entry to the hive, the Queen bee is by the bottom of the cut away section and the drone at the top of it. Surrounding vignettes show (clockwise from top left): eating bread and honey, bee skeps in the garden in the background; taking a swarm of bees, a bee shelter with four skeps in the centre, hives on the right; a wax chandler selling candles and blocks of wax; beeswax candles in a chandelier; a mother and child buying honey, prized for its medicinal properties, from the apothecary; a honey guide bird and ratels indicating to Africans the whereabouts of wild honey; defending a town by placing bee skeps in breach in walls; waxworks; wax flowers. From Graphic Illustrations of Animals and Their Utility to Man published by Thomas Varty. (London, c1850).