CHAPTER LXXIX 



HONE? 



THE bee is diligent: at sunrise it is at work, 

 far from the hive, visiting the flowers one by 

 one. You already know what it is in flowers that 

 attracts insects: I have told you about the nectar, 

 that sweet liquor that oozes out at the bottom of the 

 corolla to entice the little winged people and make 

 them shake the anthers on the stigma. This nectar 

 is what the bee wants. It is its great feast, the great 

 feast also of the little ones and the queen-mother; 

 it is the prime ingredient of honey. How carry 

 home a liquid so that others may enjoy it? The bee 

 possesses neither pitcher, jar, pot, nor anything of 

 the sort. I am wrong : like the ant that carries the 

 plant-lice's milk to the workers, it is provided with a 

 natural can, stomach, paunch, or crop. 



"The bee enters a flower, plunges to the bottom 

 of the corolla a long and flexible trunk, a kind of 

 tongue that laps the sweet liquor. Droplet by drop- 

 Irawn from this flower and that, the crop is filled. 

 The bee at the same time nibbles a few grains of 

 pollen. Moreover, it proposes to carry a good load 

 of it to the hive. It has special utensils for this 

 work: first, the down of its body, then the brushes 

 and baskets that its legs supply. The down and 

 flic brushes are used for harvesting; the baskets 



for carrying. 



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