This third volume of Pliny the Elder's Natural History is part of his vast encyclopedic survey of the ancient world. It focuses on insects, bees, honey, wasps, and silk, preserving Roman observations and lore. Listeners can enjoy its curious details and the light it sheds on early natural philosophy.
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Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY. TRANSLATED, WITH COPIOUS NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE LATE JOHN BOSTOCK, M.D., F.R.S., AND H. T. RILEY, Esq., B.A., LATE SCHOLAR OF CLARE HALL, CAMBRIDGE. VOL. III. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCLV.
CONTENTS. OF THE THIRD VOLUME.
BOOK XI. THE VARIOUS KINDS OF INSECTS. CƒĵǙ. Page 1. The extreme smallness of insects 1 2. Whether insects respire, and whether they have blood 3 3. The bodies of insects 4 4. Bees 5 5. The order displayed in the works of bees ib. 6. The meaning of the terms commosis, pissoceros, and propolis 6 7. The meaning of erithace, sandaraca, or cerinthos 7 8. What flowers are used by the bees in their work ib. 9. Persons who have made bees their study 8 10. The mode in which bees work ib. 11. Drones 10 12. The qualities of honey 11 13. Where the best honey is produced 12 14. The kinds of honey peculiar to various places ib. 15. How honey is tested. Ericæum. Tetralix, or sisirum 14 16. The reproduction of bees 16 17. The mode of government of the bees 18 18. Happy omens sometimes afforded by a swarm of bees 19 19. The various kinds of bees 20 20. The diseases of bees 21 21. Things that are noxious to bees 22 22. How to keep bees to the hive 23 23. Methods of renewing the swarm ib. 24. Wasps and hornets: animals which appropriate what belongs to others 24 25. The bombyx of Assyria 25 26. The larvæ of the silk-worm—who first invented silk cloths ib.
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