Floating up the Euphrates, between banks of nettled flowers, the Royal Queen heads towards her summer hives, a solemn voyage. The frame in which this picture appears was probably at one time used by a portrait of Victoria, Queen of Steam, who looked well and enjoyed well being glued between the ornamental English flower strips. Some bee fancier cut her out, and replaced the Brittanic head with the full body photograph of an exemplary representative of the bee race (insect species are often dubbed races by their romanticizers).     He had heard that these special bees were both plague-proof, and abundant producers of an unusually clear honey.