186 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



close; and so they proceed till the cell is filled*/ ^i-^ 

 large portion of the cells of some combs are filled with 

 this bread, which one while is found in insulated cells, 

 at another in cells amongst those that are filled with 

 h,oney or brood. — Thus it is everywhere at hand for use. 

 You have seen how the bees collect and employ two 

 of the materials that I mentioned ; I must now advert 

 to the tliird — the Propolis. Huber was a lon^ tivne un- 

 certain from whence the bees procured this gummy re- 

 sin ; but it at last occurred to him to plant some cut- 

 tings of a species of poplar (before theii" leaves were 

 developed, when their leaf-buds were swelling, and 

 besmeared and filled with a viscid juice,) in some pots, 

 which he placed in the way of the bees that went from 

 his hives. Almost immediately a bee alighted upon a 

 twig, and soon with its mandibles opened a bud, and 

 drew from it a thread of the viscid matter Avhich it 

 contained ; with one of its second pair of legs it took 

 it from the ;nouth, and placed it in the basket : thus li 

 proceeded till it had given them both their load''. I 

 have myself seen bees very busy collecting it from the 

 Tacamahaca {Popiilus hah am if era, L.). But this is an 

 old discovery, confirmed by recent observation ; for 

 Moufl'et tells us from Cordus, that it in collected from 

 the gems of trees, instancing the poplar and the birch *^. 

 Riem observes that it is also collected from the pine and 

 fir. The propolis is soft, red, will pull out in a thread, 

 is aromatic, and imparts a gold colour to white po- 

 lished metals. It is employed in th«- hive not only in 



' (Jompare Uf^auin. 420, ntul Iliiher, ii. ?4, with Wildinnn, 10. 

 " Huber, ii. '261). ' Imccl. T/tcalr. 36. Schirach, 24 1 . 



