60 Royal Society, 



In a former paper the author stated his having observed that, se- 

 veral days previous to the settling of a swarm of bees in the cavity of 

 a hollow tree adapted to their reception, a considerable number of 

 those insects were incessantly employed in examining the state of 

 the tree, and particularly of every dead knot above the cavity which 

 appeared likely to admit water. He has since had an opportunity of 

 noticing, that the bees who performed this task of inspection, instead 

 of being the same individuals, as he had formerly imagined, were, in 

 fact, a continual succession of different bees : the whole number in 

 the course of three days being such as to warrant the inference, that 

 not a single labouring bee ever emigrates in a swarm without having 

 seen its proposed future habitation- He finds that the same remark 

 applies not only to the permanent place of settlement, but also to the 

 place where the bees rest temporarily, soon after swarming, in order 

 to collect their numbers. 



The swarms which were the subjects of Mr. Knight's experiments 

 showed a remarkable disposition to unite under the same queen. On 

 one occasion, a swarm which had arisen from one of his hives settled 

 upon a bush, at a distance of about twenty-five yards ; but instead of 

 collecting together into a compact mass, as they usually do, they re- 

 mained thinly dispersed for nearly half an hour, after which, as if 

 tired of waiting, they singly, and one after the other, and not in obe- 

 dience to any signal, arose and returned home. The next morning 

 a swarm issued from a neighbouring hive, and proceeded to the same 

 bush upon which the other bees had settled on the preceding day, 

 collecting themselves into a mass, as they usually do when their 

 queen is present. In a few minutes afterwards a very large assem- 

 blage of bees rushed from the hive from which the former swarm had 

 issued, and proceeded directly to the one which had just settled, and 

 instantly united with them. — The author is led from these and other 

 facts to conclude, that such unions of swarms are generally, if not 

 always, the result of previous concert and arrangement. 



He next proceeds to mention some circumstances which induce 

 him to believe that sex is not given to the eggs of birds, or to the 

 spawn of fishes or insects, at any very early period of their growth. 

 Female ducks, kept apart from any male bird till the period of laying 

 eggs approached, when a musk drake was put into company with 

 them, produced a numerous offspring, six out of seven of which 

 proved to be males. 



The mule-fishes found in many rivers where the common trout 

 abounds, and where a solitary salmon is present, are uniformly of the 

 male sex : hence the spawn must have been without sex at the time 

 it was deposited by the female. 



Mr. Knight states that he has also met with analogous circum- 

 stances in the vegetable world, respecting the sexes of the blossoms 

 of monoecious plants. When the heat is excessive, compared with 

 the quantity of light which the plant receives, only male flowers ap- 

 pear : but if the light be in excess, female flowers alone are produced. 

 At this meeting His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex was elect- 

 ed a Fellow of the Royal Society. 



June 



