362 APPENDIX. 



The honey is usually pressed from the sacs by the hand. 

 Its consistence is thin, but its flavour is good, although infe- 

 rior to that of the whiter honey furnished by the Spanish bee 

 (probably our Apis mellijica, L.). It does not readily fer- 

 ment, some of that contained in the hive being perfectly sweet 

 and grateful, even after its arrival in England. 



The wax is coarse in quality ; its colour is a dark yellowish- 

 browTi. The whole of it appears to be similar in texture and 

 properties, as well that used in the construction of the cells, 

 as that which is applied to the coarser work of forming honey- 

 sacs and supports ; the only remarkable difference being, that 

 in the former it is apparently paler, probably owing to the 

 layers employed being considerably thinner and more delicate. 

 Of the varnish-like substance known by the name of pro- 

 polis, and used by the European bees to cover the foreign sub- 

 stances with which they frequently come in contact, scarcely 

 any vestige is exhibited, although we have evidence of its ex- 

 istence. The wood of the inside of the hive, except where 

 wax is applied to it, is perfectly naked. 



The hollow of the trunk forming the hive now before us is 

 irregular in its outline, and varies in its breadth in different 

 parts. Its average diameter, however, is about five inches. 

 The length occupied by the cells is more than seven inches ; 

 and the total length between the extremities of the honey-sacs 

 is fifteen inches. The number of its inhabitants, assuming 

 that of the cells as a guide, must have been considerably 

 under a thousand ; a number trifling in comparison with that 

 contained in the hives of the European bee, which commonly 

 amounts to as many as twenty-four thousand. 



The bee by which this nest is constructed is smaller than 

 the European hive bee ; its abdomen, especially, being much 

 shorter than that of our common species. Like all those 

 American bees which approach in their habits to our Euro- 

 pean race, it is readily distinguished from that, and fi*om all 

 other hive bees yet discovered in the Old World, by the form 

 of the first joint of its hinder tarsi, which is that of a triangle, 

 with the apex applied to the tibia. On account of this variation 

 in the form of a part so important to the economy of bees, mo- 



