UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 205 



serve as cradles ; and very little honey is col- 

 lected, until an ample store of bee-bread has 

 been laid up for their food. This is composed 

 of the pollen or dust of the anthers of flowers, 

 which the workers are constantly employed in 

 gathering. They fly from flower to flower, to 

 collect it in the little baskets formed of hair, with 

 which their hind legs are provided ; and having 

 deposited their booty in the hive, they return for a 

 new load. This bee-bread, after it has been re- 

 ceived into the bees' second stomach, is brought 

 up again, changed into a whitish jelly ; and with 

 that substance, the young brood are diligently fed 

 by other bees, till they change into nymphs. 



Bees do not solely confine themselves to 

 flowers j in collecting honey they are fond of the 

 juices of fruits also, and for this reason my aunt 

 recommended this bee enclosure to be placed 

 very near the orchard which Franklin planted. 

 With their tongue, which my aunt says is not a 

 tube, as some people have supposed, but a real 

 tongue, they lap or lick the honey, and convey 

 it into the first stomach, which is called the 

 honey-bag, and which, when full, is much 

 swelled it is never found in the second stomach. 

 How the wax is secreted from the honey, or 

 what vessels are employed for that purpose, is 

 not yet ascertained. But my aunt shewed me 

 the wax-pockets of the bee ; by gently pressing 

 the body, we could perceive on each of its four 



