74 THE FUNCTIONS OF BEES. 



the nature of the insect. And indeed the difficulty, 

 we might almost say impossibility of obtaining any 

 thing like ocular evidence on the subject, will readily 

 account for the diversity of opinion that has hitherto 

 prevailed. And we should hope that this difficulty 

 alone, and not any preconceived theory or unreason- 

 able prejudice, is the cause of that determined per- 

 tinacity with which the discoveries and conclusions 

 of Huber, on this subject, are still in some instances 

 rejected. That justly celebrated Naturalist, insti- 

 tuted a set of experiments on the subject of the 

 queen's impregnation, the result of which leads to the 

 conclusion that it takes place in the air. For an ac- 

 count of these experiments, we must refer our read- 

 ers to his Observations, page 18. 



Retarded Impregnation. There is a fact connect- 

 ed with this part of the natural history of the mother 

 bee which involves great difficulties. The fact itself 

 was discovered by Huber, but its cause he was unable 

 to develope, and no succeeding naturalist has been 

 able to free it from the obscurity in which he has left 

 it, we mean the effects of Retarded Impregnation. 

 These effects are such as we could hardly credit, were 

 not the fact confirmed by numerous experiments. If 

 impregnation be delayed longer than twenty days 

 from the Queen's birth, the consequence is that none 

 but male eggs are laid, even during the whole of the 

 Queen's life. This phenomenon has baffled every 

 attempt to explain its cause. " There are mysteries/' 

 observes Feburier, " in the operations of nature, both 

 in reference to the rational and irrational creation, 



