60 PASTURAGE. 



hock, but a balsamic varnish also, (most likely 

 propolis,) From the young blossom buds, and says 

 he has seen a bee rest upon the same bud for ten 

 minutes at least, moulding the balsam with its fore 

 feet and transferring it to the hinder legs. An 

 elegant modern writer, speaking of the fondness 

 of bees in general for the flowers of the hollyhock, 

 observes that " it has been held a gross libel upon 

 animals to say, that a man has made a beast of 

 himself, when he has drunk to such excess as to 

 lose his reason ; but we might without injustice 

 say, that he has made a humble-bee of himself, 

 for those little debauchees are particularly prone 

 to intoxication. Round the nectaries of holly- 

 hocks, you may generally observe a set of deter- 

 mined topers quaffing as pertinaciously as if they 

 belonged to Wilkes's club ; and round about the 

 flower, (to follow up the simile,) several of the 

 bon-vivants will be found lying on the ground 

 inebriated and insensible." I have frequently 

 seen the ground beneath one of my pear-trees 

 strewed over with hive-bees and wasps, in a 

 similar state, after they had banqueted upon the 

 rich juices of the fallen fruit. Mr. Kirby, in his 

 Monographia Apum Anglice^ observes that the 

 male humble-bees, when the thistles are in bloom, 

 are often seen asleep or torpid upon its flowers, 

 and sometimes acting as if intoxicated with the 

 sweets they have been imbibing. 



