OR, MANUAI. OF THR APIARY. 143 



oesophagus as we pull the bee's head from the body. The 

 oesophagus (Pig. 61, (£) is about .2 of an inch long and .02 of 

 an inch in diameter. In form and function the oesophagus is 

 not different from the same organ in other animals. It is 

 simply a passageway for the food (Fig. 27, 61 oe). 



The honey-stomach (Fig. 62, k, s) or honey-sac is a sort of 

 a crop or proventriculus. This sac is oval about .1 of an inch 

 in diameter. While this organ is lined with a cellular layer 

 (Fig. 62, HS, E), the cells are not large and numerous as in 



Fig. 63. 



Four pieces forming Stomach- Mouth, after Schiemenz. 

 c Cells. T m Transverse muscles. Hs Longitudinal muscles. 



the true stomach (Fig. 62, S, E). The muscular layers of this 

 sac are quite pronounced (Fig. 62, m), as we should expect, as 

 the honey has to be regurgitated from it to the honey-cells. 

 This is truly a digestive chamber, as the nectar — cane-sugar — 

 is here changed to honey — glucose-like sugar — but this is prob- 

 ably through the ferment received from the glands of Meckel 

 and Ramdohr, and not from any secretion from the organ 

 itself. The pollen is also very slightly digested here, as Schon- 

 feld has shown, through the action of the saliva from the 

 glands of Siebold, or lower head-glands. At the posterior end 

 of this honey-stomach is the stomach-mouth (Fig. 36, 62, s, m, 

 and 61, p) of Burmeister, which is admirably described by 

 Schiemenz. It is really a stomach-mouth. Spherical in form, 

 .02 of an inch in diameter, and, as Schonfeld well says, re- 

 joinds one of a flower-bud. It (Fig. 61 p) can be seen by the 



