BEES AND FLOWERS. 



477 



of (he liind legs, are grouped to form a iiuirveloiis little brush. Little 

 balls of ])ollen gathered together by this covering are received in a 

 little basket-like depression on-tlie outside face of these legs, where 

 they aceunudate and are held by a fringe of curved hairs until the 

 Avorknian, finding his ruffles growing too heavy, goes l)acL to the 

 hi\e to get rid of his burden. Vov the collection of nectar the 

 adaptive modifications are even more perfect and more comjilicated. 

 With the exception of the mandibles, all the buccal appendages are 

 elongated and group(Hl so as to form a proboscis, which at rest is 

 folded twice upon itself, and in action is half as long as the body. 

 Hollowed out on the inner surface and stretched out to their fullest 

 extent the jaw-boxes and the labial feelers are joined to form the 

 sides of this organ; (fig. (3, nos. 3 and 4) in the axis is the tongue, 

 sharp and rough, which is tipped with another tongue in miniature. 



^ Fig. 6.— Buccal apparatuw nf liecs. ( According to H. Miiller.) 



1. Bee with short tongue, carried on a long chin i Ihtliftnx quadririnrtnr). 3. Head and proboscis 

 of Boiiibiis hortorum. ?>. Jaws and lower lip of the common bee {Apis iiiellijica). 4. Cross sec- 

 tion of the proboscis of the Aju'n meUifiva. 



This tip is creased into a narrow gutter on its ventral surface and 

 is entirely covered with little absorbent hairs. Xo more suitable 

 instrument could l)e devised for the collection of the licpiid sugar in 

 the nectaries, for these organs are usually deeply buried in the corolla, 

 sometimes forming a circle at the base of the pistil, as in the 

 Crucifer (fig. 8, no. 2), sometimes relegated to the lower iMid of 

 the floral spur as in the orchid. (Fig. 4.) Thanks to the absorb- 

 ent hairs on the little tongue, the nectar is drawn in through the 

 capillary groove as far as the canal formed by the jawbones and the 

 labial feelers, thence it goes to the upper surface and mounts to the 

 mouth through the impulsion produced by the dilation and backward 

 and forward movement of the tongue. In order to understand this 

 mechanism one should watch l)ees Avhen drinking water. A month 

 ago at the Laboratory of Vegetable Biology I saw a large number 

 thus occupied; gathered on a bit of moss which covered a little raft 



