734 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



anil, in case of need, on mammals. It some- 

 reaches thi' length of seven feet, tin- 

 largest specimens lacing found farthest to the 

 north. It lives solitarily. The American black 

 bear is the Ur^ux americanm*. with black shining 

 hair, and rarely above live feet in length. It is 

 a great climber, is less dangerous than the brown 

 :iul is hunted for its fur and flesh. It is 

 very amusing in captivity. The grizzly bear 

 . or horribilis) is an inhabitant of the 

 Rocky Mountains; it is a ferocious animal, 

 sometimes nine feet in length, and has a bulky 

 and unwieldy form, but is nevertheless capable 

 i rapidity of motion. The extinct cave- 

 >eems to have been closely 



akin to the grizzly. The Siberian bear (Ursus 

 collar is] is perhaps a variety of the brown bear. 

 The polar or white bear (Ursus marittmus} is 

 characterized by its flat head and comparatively 



ek. 



Bee. A well-known family of insects, be- 

 longing to the order Hymenoptera, an order 

 which also includes the wasps, ants, and gall- 

 flies. Man appears from the very earliest ages 

 to have known the value of bees, and to have 

 taken advantage of their produce. The Bible 

 makes mention of honey-bees, and the Latin 

 poet Virgil has celebrated them in the fourth 

 book of his Georgics, where he has summed up 

 all that the ancients knew about them. During 

 the greater part of the year the population of 

 our hives is composed exclusively of two sorts 

 of individuals, namely, the female or mother bee, 

 called also the queen bee, and the working bees 

 or neuters, which are, properly speaking, females 

 imperfectly developed. A third kind of indi- 

 viduals, the males, called also drones, are gener- 

 ally not met with except from May to July. 

 The working bees constitute essentially the bee 

 community: they are recognized by their small 

 size, reddish-brown color, and, above all, by 

 the palettes and brushes with which the hind 

 legs are furnished. The three pairs of legs, 

 which are inserted in the thorax, or chest, of the 

 bee, are its tools. The two hind legs are longer 

 than the other pairs, and present on the exterior 

 a triangular depression, resembling a palette, 

 which is surrounded by stiff hairs, forming the 

 borders of a sort of basket in which the insect 

 deposits the pollen of flowers. To each of these 

 hind legs is jointed a square expanded piece, 

 which might be termed the ankle, smooth on 

 the exterior, but having hairs on its interior sur- 

 face, which has caused it to be named the brush, 

 and which is employed in collecting the pollen. 

 The other tools of the working bee consist of a 

 pair of movable mandibles, which close the 

 mouth on its two sides, and of a trunk, or pro- 

 boscis, which may be considered as a sort of 

 tongue; this latter organ has a hairy surface, 

 to which the honey of flowers adheres, whence 

 it is conveyed to the mouth, and from it to the 

 stomach, to be subsequently disgorged. The 

 males, or drones, are larger and more hairy than 

 the working bees; they emit a buzzing sound, 

 have no palettes, and no sting. The female, 

 or queen, has a longer body than the workers, 

 and the wings shorter in proportion. The only 

 part she has to play is that of laying eggs, and 

 so she has no palettes or brushes. Only one 



queen lives in each hive, of which she is perfect 

 sovereign, all the workers submissively obeying 

 her. The number of males is scarcely 'one-tenth 

 that of the working bees, and they live only 

 about three months. The wax of' which the 

 cells of the honeycomb are constructed is sup- 

 posed to be secreted by an organ situated in the 

 abdomen, or belly, of the bee; but, in addition 

 to wax, another substance, much resembling it, 

 but not identical, called firofxtlix, is elaborated 

 from the juices of certain plants, and employed 

 to line the inner surface of the hive. Ti 

 are hexagonal in shape, that is, having MX equal 

 sides the most economical form as t 

 space and are of two kinds, namely. 

 cells, which are filled with honey, as a reserve 

 store of food, and era. lie-cells, in which P 

 are desposited. At a certain time of ti- 

 the queen leaves the hive, accompanied by the 

 drones, and takes what is called her "nuptial 

 flight" through the air. About forty-eight 

 hours after her return to the hive she begins lay- 

 ing her eggs, at the rate of about two hundred^ 

 day. The eggs which are destined to develop 

 into workers are first laid, then those which are 

 to produce males,, and lastly those which give 

 birth to females. The eggs are not long in being 

 hatched, and the larvce, or caterpillars, which 

 emerge from them are tended by the worker*. 

 and fed by them on a peculiar paste, which is 

 apparently a preparation of pollen. In five or 

 six days the larvae pass into the condition of i>j>a, 

 or chrysalis, and in about seven or eight days 

 after this the perfect insect is hatched. 



Beet (Beta). A genus of plants, distin- 

 guished by its fruit being inclosed in a tough 

 woody or spongy five-lobed enlarged calyx. 

 Two species only are known in general cultivation 

 namely, the sea-beet (Beta inarifiwn) and the 

 garden beet (Beta vulgaris}. The former is a 

 tough-rooted perennial, common on many parts 

 of the British coast and sometimes cultivated 

 for its leaves, which are an excellent substitute 

 for spinach. Of the garden beet, which differs 

 from the last in being of only biennial duration 

 and in forming a tender fleshy root, two principal 

 forms are known to cultivators, the chard beet 

 and the common beet. In the chard beet the 

 roots are small, white, and rather tough, and the 

 leaves are furnished with a broad, fleshy midrib 

 (chard), employed as a vegetable by the I'reiich. 

 who dress the ribs like sea-kale under the name 

 of poirce. Some writers regard this as a peculiar 

 species, and call it Beta cicla or hortenNtx. The 

 common beet includes all the fleshy-roote< 1 va- 

 rieties, such as red beet (with a fleshy large carrot - 

 shaped root), yellow beet, sugar-beet, mangel 

 wurzel, etc. For garden purposes the best is 

 the red beet of Castelnaudary, so called from a 

 town in the southwest of France. The beet re- 

 quires a rich light soil, and being a native of 1 1n- 

 Mediterranean region is impatient of severe cold, 

 requiring to be taken up in the beginning of 

 winter and packed in dry sand, or in pits like 

 potatoes, the succulent leaves having been first 

 removed. Red beet is principally used at, taMe, 

 but if eaten in great quantity is said to be injuri- 

 ous. The beet may be taken out of the ground 

 for use about the end of August, but it does not 

 attain its full size and perfection till the month 



