On the Natural History of the Bee, 235 



malous. I was puzzled in seeking for the reasons ; chiefly 

 because all the honey and pollen brought home by the bees, 

 exce{)t the very small quantity appropriated for the queen, 

 is stored in the cells indiscriminately. Although we would 

 naturally be led to suppose that the pollen from the crocus, 

 which we know they are eager to obtain, and which is identi- 

 cally the same and has similar medicinal qualities with saffron, 

 would hardly answer the same purpose as that extracted from 

 the flowers of the cabbage, turnip, or gooseberry bush, it yet 

 seems that nature has rendered the constitution of these in- 

 sects, though perhaps the most tender and delicate in existence, 

 equal and fit for the digestion of them all. To-day, however, I 

 observed a circumstance which seems to throw some light upon 

 the subject. A bee was ranging among the flowers of a holly- 

 hock, all hoary with the peculiar ash-coloured pollen of the 

 plant, and I was greatly interested (while continuing to follow 

 it with my eye) to notice that it went quickly round the bottom 

 of the cup at the junction of the petals, and made a brief stop 

 between each, showing a precise and intimate knowledge of the 

 plant, and of where the hone}'^ was only to be found. This sug- 

 gested the great use and economy of every species of plant hav- 

 ing a certain and arranged division of bees employed for its 

 particular spoliation ; which, I make no doubt, there is : for 

 it requires only a single thought on the matter, to lead any one 

 to this conclusion, who has at all considered the prodigious effect 

 that constant habit and practice have, in the rapid acquirement 

 of unhesitating facility and correctness of execution in whatever 

 is done by the instrumentality of mind or muscle. We can 

 be at no loss to imagine the embarrassment of the spirited 

 little creature, which has, for the first time of its busy life, been 

 employed in foraging among the aromatic branches of a wil- 

 low, where it has been rioting, in gay and glorious luxury, 

 during the ten days of vernal beauty and delight that the 

 (Salix pentandria continues bespangled with her golden and 

 odoriferous palms ; and we can think, only for a moment, of 

 its surprise and mortification, if it were to be ordered off* some 

 morning, with a party destined to collect their burden from a 

 bank of whins. * There every thing is different. The cat- 

 kins of the willow hang open to the sun, and vibrating in the 

 noon tide breeze ; but the close-pent inner flower of the gorse 

 is a box or case opening with a spring, into which the bee 



* It is very seldom that bees collect the pollen of the broom, but thej 

 do collect this narcotic material in small quantities. One at a time may 

 be observed, at long intervals, dropping upon the resting-board of the hive, 

 where it is quite easy to distinguish them, as they are totally covered with 

 the bright yellow powder which they have brought away. What do they 

 want it for ? 



