HIVE-BEES. 121 



Beside painting and varnishing their cells in this manner, 

 they take care to strengthen the weaker part of their edifice 

 by means of a mortar composed of propolis and wax, and 

 named pissoceros* by the ancients, who first observed it, 

 though Eeanmnr was somewhat doubtful respecting the 

 existence of such a composition. We are indebted to tlie 

 shrewd observations of Huber for a reconcilement of the 

 Eoman and the French naturalists. The details which he 

 has given of his discovery are perhaps the most interesting 

 in his delightful book. 



"Soon," he says, "after some new combs had been 

 finished in a hive, manifest disorder and agitation pre- 

 vailed among the bees. They seemed to attack their own 

 works. The primitive cells, whose structure we had advan- 

 mired, were scarcely recognizable. Thick and massy walls, 

 heavy, shapeless pillars, were substituted for the slight 

 partitions previously built with such regularity. The 

 substance had changed along with the form, being com- 

 posed apparently of wax and propolis. From the persever- 

 ance of the workers in their devastation, we suspected that 

 they proposed some useful alteration of their edifices ; and 

 our attention was directed to the cells least injured. Several 

 were yet untouched ; but the bees soon rushed precipitately 

 on them, destroyed the tubes, broke down the wax, and 

 threw all the fragments about. But we remarked, that 

 the bottom of the cells of the first row were spared ; neither 

 were the corresponding parts on both faces of the comb 

 demolished at the same time. The bees laboured at them 

 alternately, leaving some of the natural supports, other- 

 wise the comb would have fallen down, which was not 

 their object : they wished, on the contrary, to provide it a 

 more solid base, and to secure its union to the vault of the 

 hive, with a substance whose adhesive properties infinitely 

 surpassed those of wax. The propolis employed on this 

 occasion had been deposited in a mass over a cleft of the 

 hive, and had hardened in drying, which probably rendered 

 it more suitable for the purpose. But the bees experienced 

 some difficulty in making any impression on it ; and we 

 * From two Greek words, signifying j^itch and v:ax. 



