278 BRITISH BEES. 



so placidly and uniformly traversed, and whose termi- 

 nation who shall predict ? Having completed the re- 

 quisite store of honey mixed with pollen, this is carried 

 to the brush with which the under side of the abdomen 

 is furnished, by means of the posterior legs. The honey 

 and pollen are gathered from different kinds of thistles, 

 whence it acquires a reddish hue and looks almost like 

 conserve of roses, and the nest is filled with it to within a 

 line of its top ; the egg is then deposited, but the coating 

 of leaves, which enclose the cell completely, secures the 

 store from lateral absorption, although the mixture is 

 rather more fluid, consisting of a relatively greater quan- 

 tity of honey than is usual, excepting perhaps in the case 

 of Ceratina, and although no viscous secretion is used 

 to bind the leaves together, which retain their position 

 from merely lateral pressure. The cell has now to be 

 closed, and the artificer knowing that the transverse 

 section of the cylinder is circular, again flies forth, and 

 without compass, but with all the accuracy with which 

 Leonardo da Vinci struck a circle with his pencil, to 

 testify his mastery, cuts the leaf again in that form, 

 and as surely : and, three or four, or five or six times, re- 

 peats this operation, returning each time with each piece, 

 so many having been variously observed. The separa- 

 tion between the cells being thus consolidated, it is 

 further thickened by the lateral, spare, protruding edge 

 of the leaf first introduced lapping over it. The whole 

 process is again renewed in the same manner as at first, 

 the bottom edge of the cutting of the external leaf is 

 again curved to form a concave bottom to the next cell, 

 and the sides are similarly formed, and each cell fits 

 the preceding like the top of one thimble placed in 

 the mouth of another. The repetition of all this is 



