BEE 



648 



BEE 



little mass and press down into the cells where 

 oung are. 



For all that the flowers do for them the bees 

 pay well by one very important service which 

 they perform. Many a flower would never 

 come to maturity never yield seed from which 

 its kind may be reproduced did not the bees 

 visit it. As it pushes down into the blossom 

 to find the nectar always hidden in the deep- 

 est corner, the bee brushes off on its hairy legs 

 the pollen, that insignificant, red or brown or 

 yellow dust which is more important than all 

 the gaily colored petals; and on entering an- 

 other flower it shakes off a part of this on the 

 pistil, thus fertilizing the flower (see CROSS- 

 FERTILIZATION). Now if the bee buzzed into 

 all flowers helter-skelter, just as they come 

 a rose, a four-o'clock, a nasturtium it could 

 not fulfill this important mission, for a rose 

 cannot be fertilized with pollen from a pansy 

 nor a lily with that from a morning-glory. 

 But a bee is a systematic worker, visiting in 

 succession all the flowers of one kind which it 

 can find before it passes on to another. 



Very wonderful indeed is the study of flow- 

 ers in their relation to bees and other insects, 

 bringing as it does the realization that not 

 only the nectar but the beautifully-shaped and 

 tinted petals have been developed just to at- 

 tract the pollen-carriers. Certain flowers, as 

 the snap-dragon, cannot be fertilized by flies, 

 and are therefore so made that a fly cannot 

 enter them and steal their honey without do- 



"ing them any service. The curiously-shaped 

 petals are closed until the heavy bumblebee 

 alights on the ledge or "lip," when its weight 

 opens up the blossom and lets it slip in. 



Kinds of Bees. The commonest and most 

 serviceable classification of bees is not made 

 along structural lines, but acco'rding to tlu Mi- 

 methods of life, and with this as a test they 

 are divided into two groups the solitary bees 

 and the social bees. In the former class, each 

 family lives by itself, and does its own work, 

 and though often several families build their 

 homes or nests close together, there is no 

 community life or specialization in the labor. 

 In these solitary bee families there are, as in 

 most other insects and all higher forms of 

 life, but two kinds of individuals male and 

 female. Best known and most interesting of 

 the solitary families are the carpenter-bees, 

 large and small, and the mason bees. See 

 Carpenter-Bee; Mason Bee, in subtitle below. 



The social bees, which stand at the very 

 summit of bee life and often appear to have 

 real intelligence and not mere instinct, live 

 in communities governed by strict laws and 

 conducted with the greatest orderliness. Social 

 bees alone have the power of secreting wax, 

 the solitary bees making their nests by boring 

 into the ground or into wood and walling off 

 cells with mud or cut-up leaves. Of the social 

 bees there are but two families, the bumble- 

 bee and the honeybee, each of which is fully 

 described below. 



The Honeybee 



This is the only insect which makes any 

 contribution to the food of man. It is the 

 most highly developed and intelligent of the 

 insects, and none other except the ant can 

 compare with it in its wonderful community 

 life. The ant does have, apparently, all the 

 rules and regulations necessary to maintain a 

 well-ordered social life, but it does not build 

 so elaborate a home or store its food so sys- 

 tematically. 



The well-known hive-bee is not native to 

 North America, but waw brought from Europe 

 by the early colonist^ and has made itself per- 

 fectly at home. In the eastern hemisphere it 

 has been known and appreciated for thousands 

 of years. The eighteenth chapter of the book 

 of Judges tells of the finding by Samson of a 

 "swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of a 

 lion," and of the fantastic riddle which he 

 evolved out of the circumstance; and the 



classic literature of Greece and Rome has 

 numerous references to honey. In those early 

 days sugar was unknown, and the honey fur- 

 nished by the half-domesticated bees took its 

 place. What its importance was among an- 

 cient peoples may be seen from the frequent 

 use of the expression, "a land flowing with 

 milk and honey," to describe a fertile and 

 attractive country. 



But if bees are not native to America, and 

 were brought thither, in a domesticated state, 

 how are the wild honeybees, which fasten their 

 combs to overhanging rocks and to limbs of 

 trees, to be accounted for? These, it has 

 been determined positively, are not native 

 species which have never been domesticated, 

 but "reverted" swarms, descendants from some 

 which escaped long ago from their man-made 

 hives. 



For physical features and modes of life 



