54 THE UPHOLSTERER BEE. 



MRS. C. 



I have been told, by an eminent botanist,* that the best 

 mode of conveying grafts of trees, cuttings of vines, &c. to a 

 distance, is to place them in a tin case or cylinder filled with 

 honey. The honey hermetically excludes the air, and cut- 

 tings so preserved, will vegetate many months after they 

 have been packed. 



MRS. F. 



Wax is still employed, in the East, to cover fish which 

 they wish to transport to a distance; and apples are thus sent 

 from South to North Russia.f 



MARY. 



Look, what a curious leaf this is ! It appears to have little 

 round pieces cut out of it with a pair of scissors. 



MRS. c. 



It is the work of the little Upholsterer Bee,:j: a busy in- 

 mate of my garden. The leaves of the China roses seem 

 peculiarly its favorite; but I have found other serrated leaves, 

 besides those of the roses, cut in the same way. There is 

 an interesting description of the manner in which it pursues 

 its occupation in the u Library of Entertaining Knowledge;"^ 

 but though so many of the leaves in my garden are thus cut, 

 I have never been able to see the little animal at work, nor 

 have I ever discovered one of its nests. 



HENRIETTA. 



How very wonderful that it should cut them so exactly! 



MRS. c. 



"The little rose-leaf cutter, pursuing her work with the 

 nicest mathematical art using no artificial instruments o 



* Professor Gussone. 



t Beekman's History of Inventions, vol. ii. p. 51. 



| Megachile centuncularis (Latreille). 



f Insect Architecture. 



