ORDER VI. VEIN-WINGED INSECTS. 275 



feet are used in the capacity of hands, with which they 

 collect the pollen, brush it from the head, move it along to 

 the second pair of legs, and thence to the hind legs, which 

 are much longer than the others, and upon each of which 

 is a small triangular cavity, shaped something like a spoon, 

 and hence called a, fossa, which is destined to receive the 

 pollen of flowers, which they thus carry to their hives, for 

 the purpose of famishing food for themselves and the 

 drones, and for the manufacture of wax. Humble-bees 

 have similar baskets, or fossce, in their hind legs. 



It was formerly supposed by many, even by some dis 

 tinguished naturalists, that the bees were blind ; but so ab 

 surd an idea can easily be proved erroneous by covering 

 their eyes with thick varnish, when, being unable to fly 

 around, they rise perpendicularly in the air and disappear, 

 in the same manner as docs a crow, to which a bait be 

 smeared with bird-lime has become fastened on its head. 



Notwithstanding the ingenious Francis Hubcr, of Geneva, 

 tried, by several experiments, to prove that the wax pro 

 ceeds from the honey, and not from pollen, still the previ 

 ous experiments of Keaumure, as well as those of some of 

 the most experienced apiarians since, have distinctly de 

 monstrated the contrary, as is also stated in the &quot; Treatise 

 on Bees, by Kobert Huish, London, 1815.&quot; Rcaumurc says 

 that the bees collect the substance of wax only from flow 

 ers, filling their fossos or leg-cavities with farina, and lick 

 ing from the bottom of the blossoms the nectar, or sweet 

 substance, which they swallow, and afterward disgorge it 

 into the cells. But in the same manner they also gather 

 from other vegetables a viscous substance, which they carry 

 home in their fossce, and with this gluey matter, collected 

 from the poplar, birch, willow, fir, and other trees, and the 

 farina they compose a glutinous aromatic substance called 

 propolis, which is similar to wax, but different in its fabrica 

 tion ; in fact it is wax, but coarser in its constitution. The 



