POLLEN. 373 



When a bee has completed her loading, she re- 

 turns to the hive, part of her cargo is instantly 

 devoured by the nursing-bees, to be regurgitated 

 for the use of the larvae, and another part is stored 

 in cells for future exigencies, in the following 

 manner. The bee, while seeking a fit cell for her 

 freight, makes a noise with her wings, as if to 

 summon her fellow-citizens round her ; she then 

 fixes her two middle and her two hind legs upon 

 the edge of the cell which she has selected, and 

 curving her body, seizes the farina with her fore 

 legs, and makes it drop into the cell : thus freed 

 from her burthen, she hurries off to collect again. 

 Another bee immediately packs the pollen, and 

 kneads and works it down into the bottom of the 

 cell, probably mixing a little honey with it, judg- 

 ing from the moist state in which she leaves it ; 

 an air-tight coating of varnish finishes this storing 

 of pollen. 



From the uniform colour of each collection, it 

 is reasonable to suppose that the bee never visits 

 more than one species of flower on the same jour- 

 ney ; this was the opinion of ARISTOTLE, and the 

 generality of modern observers have confirmed it. 

 REAUMUR, however, supposed that the bee ranged 

 from flowers of one species to those of another 

 indiscriminately. MR. ARTHUR DOBBS, in the 

 Philosophical Transactions for 1752, states that 

 he has repeatedly followed bees when collecting 



