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which prevented the gathering of pollen, and the blunt sting that could 

 not pierce the human hand. It was, therefore, dependent on the 

 workers for food, which was continually presented to her by at- 

 tendants who, like true courtieis, never turned their backs on her. The 

 neuter, or worker, was principally distinguished by its pollen-collecting 

 apparatus. Though called a neuter, it was in reality an undeveloped 

 female, and occasionally laid eggs, as previously noticed. Perhaps 

 the most important organ of the worker was the marvellously compli- 

 cated muscular tongue with which the honey of flowers was not sucked, 

 but lapped up, and passed along the grooved surface to the mouth, and 

 then to the honey bag. The tongue of the hive-bee was twice folded 

 in repose. The honey was collected from a great number of flowers, 

 of which the lime, heather, and white clover, were perhaps the princi- 

 pal. The proboscis of the hive-bee was not long enough to reach the 

 nectaiy of the red clover, which was visited by the humble-bee. As a 

 great deal of honey was needed to make wax for forming the comb, 

 means had been adopted to empty the combs and return them to the 

 hive. Combs were built most rapidly at night, the bees working during 

 the day at honey collecting. The peculiar structure of the working 

 bee could not but be admired in conjunction with its work of cell 

 building. Their mandibles were endentate and like spoons, and were 

 so used for strengthening and plastering their work, while the brushes 

 on the posterior feet and the little auricle enabled the hind legs to 

 gather up the wax as it was formed, and pass it on to the mouth to be 

 masticated and moulded by the mandibles. The want of spurs on the 

 hind legs (in which the hive-bee differed from the humble-bee), gave a 

 greater freedom and play to the comb of short stiff bristles at the ex- 

 treme edge of the shank. Propolis, an adhesive substance, gathered from 

 the buds of poplar, hollyhock, willow, and other trees, was gathered 

 and used to strengthen the defences of the hive. Propolis was with 

 difficulty kneaded into a ball and brought home in the corbiculas, but 

 it dried so quickly that it was sometimes with difficulty torn by the 

 bees from the legs of the collector. This substance was indispensable 

 for filling up cracks and cementing the hive to its floor boards, which 

 was always done for the sake of keeping out intruders. The eggs of 

 the bee were of a long oval shape, and being covered with a glutinous 

 matter stuck to the bottom of the cell. In three or four days they 

 hatched a little white worm which had fifteen segments, each, except 

 the head and four terminal ones, supplied with a pair of spiracles. It 



