BEES. C'i 



its slieaths, probes the very bottom of the flowers, through 

 all impediments of foliage or fructification, and drains them 

 of those treasured sweets which without such an apparatus 

 would be completely inaccessible. The proboscis of the 

 bee is not used like that of flies, as it is not tubular like 

 theirs, but serves as a brush or besom to sweep, or as a 

 tongue to lap. Having collected the nectar of Howers in 

 small drops, it deposits its collection upon the tongue, 

 which is protruded for the purpose of receiving it, and 

 having received it, withdrawn again.* 



The reader must guard against the common fallacy of 

 supposing the proboscis to be same thing as the tongue, 

 The proboscis is a collection of several organs, which are 

 to be found variously modified in every insect; but the 

 tongue is an extremely minute organ, and is so small and 

 insignificant that a careful examination with a lens is 

 required to detect it. The proboscis collects the honey, 

 and deposits it in the mouth, from whence by the action of 

 the tongue it is passed to the honey-bag. 



In some cases, the means used by the bees in order to 

 get at the honey are singularly ingenious. The humble- 

 bee, as is well-known to observers, when engaged upon the 

 blossoms of the bean, which are too narrow to admit its 

 bod}', and too long for its trunk to reach to the bottom of 

 the flower where the honey is found, bites a hole just over 

 the part where the honey is found, and through the orifice 

 inserts its proboscis, and extracts the hidden sweets. But 

 it is not so well known that the honey-bee resorts to the 

 same stratagem. It has been repeatedly seen biting* through 

 the flower of the common fuschia, and extracting the honey 

 ]»recisely in the same manner as the humble-bee. It may 

 be as well to remark in this place, that the sweet liquid 

 vv'hen extracted from the flower, is not what we call honey, 

 but appears to gain its consistency and peculiar odour in 

 the crop of the bee. 



Whilst honey is thus being collected for the present 

 nourishment of the workers in the hive, and for future sup- 

 ply in case of need (observe, the sealed stores are never 

 touched except in periods of real distress among the com- 



• Dr. Evans, in Bevan's Honeij-Bee, 



