THEIR RELATION TO PLANTS 29 



tip. This is the structure that is forced down into the 

 very heart of the flower and forms a lapping organ, by 

 means of which every particle of nectar may be secured. 

 The bee is not really a sucking insect at all ; but gets its 

 food by lapping somewhat after the manner in which 

 a dog laps water. 



Only the honey gatherers have tongues of this type. 

 Bees and honey are usually associated, but as a matter 

 of fact many kinds gather no honey at all, and very 

 few of them store it. In the species in which there is no 

 elongated central tongue, this is replaced by a short 

 bladder-like organ, also set with more or less spatulate 

 hair, suited for lapping, but not for getting down into 

 deep flowers. Bees of this sort we find on our shallow 

 flowers like those of the strawberry, blackberry and 

 other Rosacea^, and many of these gather no honey at all. 



It is a delightful pastime, although not always easy, 

 to investigate the domestic economy of the various 

 bees. Some of them make nests or cells of mud gathered 

 from road-side puddles; some bore into twigs, branches 

 or even boards and in the tunnels so chewed out form 

 the cells in which a brood is raised; some make cells of 

 wax in cavities of trees; others seek a cavity under the 

 turf, and in a mass of pollen raise their brood with little 

 attempt at making cells of any kind; and yet others 

 dig down deep underground, five or six feet below the 

 surface a'nd, far from the light, build the homes in which 

 their young are developed. And when we find a bee- 

 home, we can always recognize it by the character of 

 its store. It may be a cake of solid pollen, packed hard 

 in a definite, loaf-like form, or it may be a semi-liquid 

 mass of mixed pollen and honey, so arranged that the 

 larva may feed on, without being imbedded in, it. But 

 always there is pollen, and the pollen gatherer is always 

 also a plant fructifier. 



