242 



THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



or flakes, between the joints of the abdomen, from whence 

 the wax-making Bees take it to build the comb ; the cells 

 of the comb are filled with honey, which is obtained by 

 the Bees (by means of the apparatus shown at fig. 

 23), from the nectaries of flowers in the form of 



PIG. 23. HONEY-LAPPING APPARATUS OP WILD SEA-BEE (Halictus), 



(a, magnified; a b, more highly magnified). 



nectar, and is converted into honey in the honey-bag 

 of the Bee, from whence it is discharged into the cells. 

 Bees also collect the pollen from the flowers they visit, 

 this adheres to the hairs on the Bee, and is scraped and 

 brushed off, and collected into two little lots, which the 

 Bee carries on each hind leg, this pollen is made into 

 bee-bread. By scattering the pollen, flowers are often 

 fecundated, for there are many plants, the female flowers 

 of which are separate from the males, and it is only by 

 insects and the wind, that the females are fecundated, 

 for the Bee, with the pollen adhering to every pait, 

 first visits one flower and then another in search of 

 nectar. 



