284 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
the hive bee, yet many interesting points in their economy still remain 
undetermined. Of the products of the hive, honey * is by far the 
most important ; and various interesting details as to the production 
of this substance are contained in the 10th letter of Messrs. Kirby 
and Spence’s first volume ; whilst in the 11th and 15th letters will be 
found much information as to the food and mode of feeding of the 
Jarvee, the construction of the waxen+ cells { by the workers, the 
substances employed in building the nest, and the extraordinary ma- 

edition, Dresden, 1793; English edition, 12mo. London, 1808. — Ditto, 
2 vols. Geneva, 1814. (Second volume by P. Huber.) 
Latreille. Mémoire sur un Gateau de Ruche d’Abeille des Grandes Indes, et sur 
les Différences des Abeilles proprement dites, vivant en grande Société, de 
Ancien Continent et du Nouveau. Ann. du Mus. d’Hist. Nat. tom. iv. 
1804. — Ditto, Notice des Espéces d’Abeilles vivant en grande Société, in 
ditto, tom. y. 1804. — Ditto, in Mém. du Mus. d’Hist. Nat. tom. viii. 1822 
(on the Nature of Wax). 
Ramdohr, in Magazin Gesellsch. Naturf. zu Berlin, 1810. 4 band. (Organ of 
Taste in Bees. 1812 (Organs of Hearing and Smell in Bees); also in 
Germar’s Mag. der Entomol. vol. i. 
Hattorf. On Impregnation of Queen Bee, in Abhandl. der Oberlaus. Bienengesel, 
1768-69. 
Garden. On the Proboscis of Bees. Philos. Trans. No. 175. 
Lombard (C. F.). Manuel du Propriétaire d’Abeilles. 8vo, Paris, 1802, — Ditto, 
6th edition, 1825, 8vo. — Ditto, Etat de nos Connaissances sur les Abeilles au 
Commencement du 19me Siécle. 8vo. Paris, 1805. — Ditto, Mémoire sur la 
difficulté de blancher les Cires de France. 8vo. Paris, 1808. 
Mackenzie, in Brewster and Jameson’s Edinb. Philos. Journal, vol. iii. 1820. 
* Propolis, a resinous substance collected by the bees, consists of one part of 
wax and four of pure resin; it is collected from various plants, and is used as a strong 
cement by the bees. (Vauquelin, in Bull. Soc. Philomat. No. 57.; De Loche, in Mém. 
Acad. Turin, tom. ii.) 
+ The true nature of bees’ wax has been the subject of much research. (See 
Latreille, in Mém. du Muséum, tom. viii. ; De Loche, in Turin Trans. vol. ii. ; and 
Treviranus, in Zeitschr. fiir Physiologie, 1828, p. 62.; and Bull. Sci. Nat. Jan. 
1829.) 
+ Dr. Barclay (in Wernerian Trans. vol. ii. p. 260.) has described the partitions 
between the cells as being all double, each cell being an independent structure; but 
this peculiarity does not occur in cells of virgin wax, but only in old comb, in which 
the partitions between the cells do not consist of wax, but of the cocoons spun by the 
previous occupiers of the nest. Such is the explanation given by Mr. G. R. Water- 
house, and its correctness is easily proved by immersing such cells in boiling water, 
when they will not dissolve; but Mr. G. Newport, in a memoir read on the Ist of 
April, 1839, before the same society, adopts a contrary opinion; and moreover 
asserts that virgin cells are lined with a delicate membrane. 
