BEES. 89 



to take a more laborious method : it was with 

 great satisfaction that I saw them bite open 

 successively every one of the thirty heads in 

 the flower, and scooping out the contents, add 

 them to the increasing ball, that was to be 

 carried home upon the thigh. 



Such, then, is the purpose of nature, in 

 what might appear to us profusion in the 

 abundant quantity of this powder : the Bee 

 wants it, though the plant does not ; and the 

 pains that animal takes to get it cut, never 

 fail to answer the purpose of impregnating 

 the fruit, a vast quantity of it being thus 

 scattered over the organ destined to the con- 

 veying of it thither. 



The making the comb is not the only 

 purpose to which this powder serves the Bee ; 

 it is the natural food of that creature. What is 

 lodged in the hive is eaten by the swarm ; and, 

 after it has been retained in the stomach long 

 enough to be divested of its nutritive matter, 

 it is disgorged in a state just ready for mould- 

 ing further into real and finished wax. 



Our immortal bard Shakespear beautifully 

 I 3 



