; , : 



THE HONEY-BEE. ~ 



of a more stimulant quality, administered in 

 larger dimensions, should give full development to 

 organs which, by the ordinary treatment, would have 

 remained but partially expanded, we can readily 

 comprehend; but that such extra supplies of food 

 and space should effect an absolute change in the 

 anatomical structure and instinctive propensities, 

 should produce a more slender proboscis, deprive the 

 transformed insect of the downy brushes at the joints 

 of her limbs, and of the basket-shaped cavities in the 

 posterior pair, for retaining the pellets of farina, 

 and, above all, should effect so great an alteration in 

 her instincts, rendering them jn numerous particulars 

 entirely different from those of the worker class, for 

 which she was originally destined, these are cir- 

 cumstances which, notwithstanding all our researches, 

 are still involved in mysterious obscurity, and furnish 

 ample scope for future investigation. 



On the Architecture of Bees. The peculiarities of 

 instinct in the different orders of animals, if pursued 

 through all its variations, would supply us with an 

 inexhaustible fund of admiration and instruction; 

 and in none of the lower animals is this wonderful 

 faculty more worthy of our notice and investigation 

 than in^the Bee. So much, however, has been al- 

 ready written on this particular point, that the sub- 

 ject is pretty nearly exhausted. We should perhaps 

 find, notwithstanding, but little difficulty in treating 

 our readers with an additional disquisition on the same 

 subject, but as we do not pretend to be able to give 

 a more satisfactory elucidation of the mystery of 



