In walking through the woods one sometimes becomes conscious of a sickly sweet smell somewhere near us. This proceeds from a hive of bees not very far away, generally in the hollow of a tree. The honey, which is usually excellent, is generally brought for sale to us in the comb by some of the woodmen. Occasionally, however, it is somewhat bitter, through being obtained from the flowers of certain trees or plants. The Madagascar bee, known to entomologists as Apis unicolor, differs but little in appearance from the English species, although it is somewhat smaller, darker, and less hardy. It chooses, if left to nature, the same kind of situation for its hive, and multiplies in the same way. The drones also are idle and are killed off at certain seasons. The Madagascar insect is much more gentle when handled than the English one, but there is great difficulty in hiving the swarms. These bees continue to store honey during the winter months, although that is the dry season, with few flowers; and they work in all weathers, even during a heavy thunderstorm.
DEATH’S-HEAD MOTH
The enemies of the Madagascar bee are, in the first place, rats, then ants and the wax-moth; but the greatest enemy of all is the death’s-head moth (Sphinxatropos), which is very common. He enters the hive fearlessly, for although the bees crowd round him they have no power to stop him, as their stings cannot pierce that downy body, with its tough skin, but merely slip along it harmlessly. As soon as he is within he keeps his wings vibrating with a low humming noise and leisurely sucks his fill—a very long fill. The damage he does is immense, and hives have been known to be sucked dry, and not a drop of honey to be found in them, so that the bees quite give up resisting. Other enemies of the bee are a parasitical solitary wasp, which lays its eggs in the hive; and another wasp which seizes the bees when returning to the hive for the sake of their laden honey-bag, and it also kills them with wonderful celerity.
The Malagasy have a good general idea of the economy of the hive, and of the habits of the bees. They usually find the wild nests by watching the flight of the laden bees, and then by listening during the hot part of the day, when the bees are “playing.” At most places the people know of a number of wild nests, over which they keep supervision. In many villages they make large quantities of mead, more especially when the rite of circumcision is being observed. For bees’-wax there is always a ready sale.[13]
Madagascar, like most tropical countries, is not without a fair share of spiny and prickly plants. Perhaps most in evidence in the interior is the prickly pear (Opuntia ferox), which was universally used in old times as a thick hedge for the defence of the ancient towns and villages. With its large needle-like spines, an inch to an inch and a half long, studding its broad fleshy leaves, and capable of inflicting a wound difficult to heal, and with smaller spines covering the flowers and the fruit, it is easy to see that to a barefooted and lightly clothed people such a hedge presented a very formidable, not to say impassable, barrier. The flowers are large and handsome, yellow and red in colour, and growing at the edge of the leaves—if indeed they can be called such; the fruit, which is about as large as a pear, turns yellow when ripe and is not unpalatable, being something like an unripe gooseberry; but it is exceedingly difficult to get it peeled without being hurt by its hair-like needles. The large spines are the ordinary Malagasy pins, and are very useful for this purpose.
Another very noticeable plant is the Sòngosòngo, a species of Euphorbia, with spiny stems and brilliant scarlet flowers. This is planted on the top of the low earthen banks which form the boundaries between private properties and the roads; but it is not nearly such a formidable defence as the prickly pear. A very common variety of this plant has pale yellow flowers.
Another prickly plant is the Mysore thorn, or Tsiàfakòmby (lit. “impassable by cattle”), which is largely used for fences and stockades. From its numerous hook-like thorns, it also is not a plant which can be easily passed through, when growing thickly. It has a large spike of yellow flowers.
STINGING PLANTS
Another plant or shrub, which grows to the size of a tree, is not prickly, but stinging. This is the Amìana (Urera radula). The large velvety leaves sting like those of a nettle; they are, however, of beautiful and complicated outline, and I have pressed specimens taken from young plants which are as much as two feet across, and which would be admirable patterns for ornamentation. The wood is very soft and, when on fire, smoulders for a long time. The trunk, which is tall and straight, in some specimens is nearly two feet in diameter. Some five different species have been described.
Another stinging plant, the Agy, with fine needle-like hairs, which fall in showers and produce fearful irritation, is described in a [subsequent chapter]. Many trees in the forest are armed with blunt prickles, which injure the hand if they are touched when making one’s way through the dense vegetation. In the extreme south of the island there are trees or shrubs called Fàntsi-òlotra (“nail-edged”?), probably a species of Didierea, whose thorny stems, always turned towards the south, are said to resemble a barricade of elephants’ trunks; the stem, which is as big as a man’s thigh, is entirely covered with large thorns, between which grow the small round leaves. On one of these thorny trees, however, M. Lemaire found a white lemur (Propithecus verrauxii) clinging, which, when dislodged, went leaping across the country on its hind legs, after the fashion of a kangaroo.