BEE 



149 



BEE 



neighbouring hills, it could never have been capable of 

 offering much resistance. While in the possession of 

 Hyder he made it his chief arsenal, and employed many 

 people in making arras and ammunition : much money was 

 coined there during his reign. This chief also held out 

 much encouragement to merchants, so that the trade of the 

 place increased greatly. He likewise attempted to introduce 

 the cultivation of silk, and caused many mulberry planta- 

 tions to be made, but with little or no success, owing, pro- 

 bably, to the dampness of the climate. 



When the town was taken by Hyder Ally, he found in it 

 a considerable amount of treasure, and is said to have con- 

 fessed that to this acquisition he was in a great measure 

 indebted for his future success. Colonel Wilks has esti- 

 mated the spoil which then fell into the conqueror's hands 

 at twelve millions sterling, but this is doubtless a great 

 exaggeration, and seems to partake of the nature of eastern 

 hyperbole. Hyder changed the name of the town to Hyder- 

 nujrgur ; he built a palace outside the citadel, and resided 

 in it for three years. 



In the beginning of 1783 the town was taken by the 

 English, under General Mathews, on which occasion the 

 commandant of the fort, to make a show of offering an obsti- 

 nate resistance, burnt the palace. The attack made upon 

 Bednore by Tippoo Sultan in the month of April following, 

 appears to have taken the English quite by surprise. It is 

 said that nearly all the British troops were at that time dis- 

 persed in every direction in search of spoil, and Tippoo made 

 an easy conquest. The whole town was burnt during an 

 engagement which preceded the capitulation. 



The palace was rebuilt by Tippoo, and the town was 

 partly restored ; but the materials employed, being only 

 timber and mud, could not be expected to last long in a 

 country where the rains are so excessive. At his death the 

 town contained about 1500 houses, and some additions have 

 been made to it since that time. No manufactures are car- 

 ried on here, and the chief support of the place is from trade, 

 for which it is well situated. 



Bednore is 452 miles from Bombay, 1290 from Calcutta, 

 413 from Hyderabad, 445 from Madras, 382 from Poonah, 

 and 187 from Seringapatam, all travelling distances. 



(Renneli's Memoir of a Map of Hindustan ; Mill's His- 

 tory uf British India ; Wilks's History of the South of 

 India; Buchanan's (Hamilton) Journey through Mysore, 

 Canara, and Malabar.) 



BEDSTRAW. [See GALINUS.] 



BEDU1NS. [See ARABIA.] 



BEE, the name common to all the species of a very 

 numerous tribe of insects of the Order Hymenoptera. 



In England alone about two hundred and fifty species 

 have been discovered. Kirby, in his beautiful monograph, 

 " Apum Angliaj,'' divides them into two great groups Apis 

 and Melitlu, which differ principally in the proboscis. In 

 Apis the tongue (fig. 3, c), or central part of the proboscis, 



Fig- 1. 



ui'liT tide of the Heart of one of Ilir Audnruiiln (Wclittn, Kirby), i 

 ing the proboscis, ft, the tongue 



is generally long, and the proboscis itself has two joints, one 

 near the base, and another about the middle ; that at the 

 base directing it outwards, and that in the middle directing 

 it inwards : when folded, the apex of the tongue points 

 backwards. In Melitta the tongue (fig. 1, a) is short, and 

 the proboscis has but one fold, which is near the base ; and 

 when folded, the apex of the tongue points forwards. These 

 two groups are also subdivided by Kirby, and the character 

 of each subdivision is given in detail ; but he did not think 

 proper to give names to these smaller groups. It has, how- 

 ever, since been thought necessary to consider the smaller 

 groups as genera; and hence they have all been named, 

 the greater portion of them by Latreille. When the smaller 

 groups were considered genera, the greater ones becamo 

 families, and are named Apidce and Andrcenidce by Dr. 

 Leach. 



The species of Andrjcnidse, which are very abundant 

 during the spring months, frequent grassy banks ; the males 

 are generally seen (lying about hedges. The females 

 usually construct their nests underground ; for which 

 purpose they generally select a bank in a southern aspect 

 some species choose sandy situations, while others pre- 

 fer a heavier soil. The female having fixed upon a con- 

 venient spot, excavates a cylindrical hole, from live or six 

 inches to a foot in depth, and only just large enough to 

 allow her to enter ; at the bottom it is slightly increased in 

 width, and rendered smooth by being lined with a glutinous 

 substance. The labour of forming these cells is consider- 

 able, for the soil is removed grain by grain, and deposited 

 round the entrance of the hole, so that a little hillock is 

 formed. The cell being completed, her next object is to 

 furnish it with pollen ; this is collected from flowers, and 

 carried on the tibia; of the hinder legs, which are thickly 

 furnished with tolerably long hair, among which the pollen 

 is carried until she arrives at the cell. When a sufficient 

 quantity of pollen is collected, and made into a kind of paste 

 by the addition of a portion of honey, it is formed into a 

 little ball, in which an egg is deposited ; the mouth of the 

 cell is then carefully closed, to prevent the entrance of other 

 insects. The egg soon hatches, and becomes a larva, which 

 feeds upon the pollen until it is all consumed ; the larva 

 then turns to a pupa, and the pupa to the perfect insect. It 

 is remarkable that the Andrcnnidce seldom make their ap- 

 pearance after the spring months and early part of the 

 summer, although the eggs laid at that time have under- 

 gone all their metamorphoses (in many instances) by the 

 autumn. The newly-disclosed insect remains all the inter- 

 mediate time in a torpid state. We believe that the species 

 only live one year, for in the autumn we have found many 

 of them on the ground dead, and the inner part of their 

 body devoured : this is probably done by a spider which is 

 found in the same situations. 



The habits of the species of Apida; are more variable ; 

 many excavate their cells in wood ; some, like the cuckoo, 

 make use of the nests of other species ; others again do not 

 excavate cells, but make use of any hole already formed, or 

 of some other situation, convenient for that purpose. Of 

 this last description, a species of the genus Anthidium has 

 afforded a remarkable instance. This bee is nearly the size 

 of the hive-bee, but is broader in proportion, and is easily 

 distinguished from all the hitherto-discovered British species, 

 by having a series of bright yellow spots on each side of 

 the abdomen. A female of this species has been known to 

 build her nest in the lock of a garden gate. The nest con- 

 sists of a number of cells formed of down collected from the 

 anemone sylvestris, and probably from other woolly-leaved 

 plants, scraped off by the bee with its jaws. 



The flight of this insect is exceedingly swift ; but when 

 it has discovered a flower on which it intends to settle 

 (generally that of the blind nettle), it stops suddenly, poises 

 itself in the air for a few seconds, and then darts upon the 

 (lower, dislodging any bee which may have settled upon it 

 before. 



Sometimes it appears more anxious to dislodge other 

 bees, and to prevent their gathering honey, than to collect 

 for itself, for it flies about from flower to flower, and pounces 

 upon all it meets with. 



Anthuphora retusa is another bee, which, in its flight, 

 very much resembles the one just described. This bee is 

 considerably larger than the hive-bee : the male is brown, 

 sometimes inclining to an ochre colour, and is remarkable 

 for the three long tufts of hair which are attached to the 

 middle leg, two of them to the tip of the tibice (that on the 



