P OP ULAR MIS CELLAXY 



423 



several hundredths of an inch farther than 

 the labial palpi, and is itself provided with 

 a rod and slit which may be made a tube, 

 and a funnel for gathering nectar. This 

 instrument appears to be the only one which 

 is available for use in gathering honey from 

 small tubular flowers ; and the examination 

 of its construction explains why bees are so 

 much longer in gathering from some flow- 

 ers than from others, as those in which the 

 combined tube is available. It is also prob- 

 able that bees lap honey. The measure- 

 ments of the tongues of bees show a uni- 

 formity in the length of those of bees from 

 the same colony or apiary, but considerable 

 difference in those of different breeds. In 

 the same colony, tongue after tongue would 

 show a variation of less than 0'25 of an inch 

 from the base of the mentum to the tip 

 of the ligula. The average length of the 

 American black bee's tongue is about '24 of 

 an inch ; that of the Italian bee is about "02 

 of an inch longer. The longest tongues 

 were found in some Cyprian bees. The 

 difference in the length of the tongue is ac- 

 companied by a corresponding difference in 

 the capacity of the bees for gathering honey. 

 Honey in a vessel covered with fine gauze 

 was placed before some Italian bees till 

 they ceased to eat because they could no 

 longer reach it. It was then placed before 

 the black bees, but they could not reach it. 

 A similar dish was given to the black bees 

 first, and, after they ceased eating, the Ital- 

 ians continued to sip. Many trials gave sim- 

 ilar results. This shows how ^he Italians 

 can gather honey from flowers which fail to 

 attract the black bees because the nectar is 

 beyond their reach. It thus seems proba- 

 ble that the law of natural selection, which 

 raised the Italian bees to their position of 

 superiority, also gave them their longer 

 tongues. Shut up in a narrow basin among 

 the mountains, with only a limited range for 

 food, competition must have been excessive 

 among them, and the variations which gave 

 any of them advantages over the others 

 would come into the fullest play. Similar 

 conditions may have determined the charac- 

 ter of the Cyprian bees and other superior 

 varieties of Europe. 



The Violin : its Construction and Perfec- 

 tion. In a lecture, which he recently de- 

 livered at the Royal Institution in London, 



on the construction, the history, and the 

 sound of the violin, Mr. Haweis called at- 

 tention to the variety in shape and style of 

 instruments of the viol tribe, ancient and 

 modern, as showing the inexhaustible fasci- 

 nation they possessed over the human mind. 

 The wood was selected by the best makers 

 of the old violins with extreme care. At 

 Brescia, they used pear, lemon, and ash ; 

 at Cremona, maple, sycamore, " and, of 

 course, pine. . . . The wood came into the 

 markets of Mantua, Brescia, Cremona, Ven- 

 ice, Milan, from the Swiss southern Tyrol, 

 unlimited in supply, often mighty timbers 

 of great age plentiful then, scarcer now. 

 The makers had their pick ; they tested it 

 for intensity and quality. Cut strips of 

 wood and strike them : you will see how 

 they will vary in musical sound. When a 

 good acoustic beam was found, the maker 

 kept it for his best work. In Joseph 

 Guarnerius and Stradivarius the same pine- 

 tree crops up at intervals of years. A good 

 maker will patch and join and inlay, to re- 

 tain every particle of tried timber. Old 

 wood is oddly vocal. As I sat in my room, 

 surrounded by these instruments, I could 

 not cough or move without ghostly voices 

 answering me from the sixteenth, seven- 

 teenth, and eighteenth centuries ; and even 

 the old-seasoned backs and bellies of un- 

 strung violins are full of echoes." Taking 

 a violin and tearing it open, the lecturer 

 continued : " The violin is made of fifty- 

 eight or seventy pieces. It is a miracle of 

 construction. It is as light as a feather 

 and as strong as a horse. Wood about as 

 thick as a half-crown, by exquisite adjust- 

 ment, resists for centuries a pressure of 

 several hundred-weight. The belly of soft 

 deal, the back of hard sycamore, are united 

 by six ribs of sycamore, supported by twelve 

 blocks with linings. The sound-bar, run- 

 ning obliquely under the left foot of the 

 bridge, is the nervous system of the violin ; 

 the sound-post, supporting the bridge, is 

 the soul; through it pass all the heart- 

 throbs or vibrations generated between the 

 back and the belly ; on its position depends 

 mellowness, tightness, or intensity of sound. 

 The prodigious strain of the strings is re- 

 sisted first by the arch of the belly, then 

 by the ribs, strengthened with the upright 

 blocks, the pressure among which is evenly 

 distributed bv the linings which unite them, 



