240 THE NORTHERN MICROSCOPIST. 
These few instructions, with now and then a few slight modifica- 
tions, which will readily occur to a quick-witted operator, should 
enable any one of average capacity and skill to mount mosses 
respectably, though they may not attain the same degree of perfec- 
tion as Captain Cunliffe. 
J. L. W. Mites: 
THE BEE’S TONGUE AND GLANDS CONNECTED 
Wi liett? 
By Justin SPAULDING. 
ae present paper is the outcome of an interest in the subject, 
awakened by an article, by Mr. J. D. Hyatt, on the sting of 
the honey bee, in the American Quarterly Microscopical Journal 
for October, 1878, followed by one on the structure of the tongue 
by the same author, in July, 1879. Both bear the impress of 
careful and painstaking interpretation of facts, and a genius in 
manipulation that is truly marvellous. Mr. Chambers’ article, 
published previously to Mr. Hyatt’s, and which he criticises, I 
have not seen, and am indebted to Mr. Hyatt for what knowledge 
I possess of it. His article on the bee’s sting incited me to at- 
tempt to demonstrate for myself if it was indeed the marvellous 
little structure described, and I can add my testimony to the literal 
accuracy of description, drawing, and, as I believe, of his interpreta- 
tion of the bee’s manner of working it. 
My own observation, so far as the ligula is concerned, agrees 
with Prof. Cook’s (see JVaturalist, April, 1880), and I think he 
has given the true solution when he says it consists of a sheath, 
slit below, within which is the grooved rod, and, projecting from 
the edges of the latter to the edges of the sheath, is a thin mem- 
brane, forming, as will be easily understood, when the rod is ex- 
tended or thrown down, an enclosed sac, open only at the top. 
In going over the work of Mr. Hyatt, while examining a mounted 
specimen of mouth parts, my friend, Mr. F. B. Doten, pointed out 
in the mentum, a small spiral tube that gave me a clue, which, 
followed up, has resulted, as I believe, in a slight addition to our 
knowledge of the parts. 
Running the scalpel from the base of one mandible back, across, 
close to the neck and forward to the other mandible, remove the 
brain and salivary glands; cut the cesophagus as far forward as 
possible, turn it back, and if all has been done carefully, one sees 
* Abstract from the American Naturalist, with additions, by the American 
Monthly Microscopical Journal, 
