NATURAL THEOLOGY. 345 



up this precious fluid, inaccessible to every other 

 approach. It is observable also, that the plant is not 

 the worse'" for what the bee does to it. The harm- 

 less plunderer rifles the sweets, but leaves the 

 flower uninjured. The ringlets of which the pro- 

 boscis of the bee is composed, the muscles by which 

 it is extended and contracted, form so many mi- 

 croscopical wonders. The agility also with which 

 it is moved can hardly fail to excite admiration. 

 But it is enough for our purpose to observe, in 

 general, the suitableness of the structure to the 

 use of the means to the end, and especially the 

 wisdom by which nature has departed from its 

 most general analogy, (for animals being fur- 



^ Bees are essential to the fructification of many sorts of plants, 

 for it is by them that the farina is carried from the male to the fe- 

 male flowers ; and as some flowers yield a much greater quantity 

 of honey than others, it might perhaps be imagined that those 

 yielding little, and yet depending upon the bees for their fructifi- 

 cation, might often be barren. No such defects, however, are to be 

 found : the structure of the proboscis varies considerably in diffe- 

 rent species of bees, so that all bees cannot collect indiscriminate- 

 ly from any honej'-yielding plant. One great tribe of bees (the 

 apidce) collect their honey for the most part from bell-shaped 

 flowers, such as the blind-nettle, &c. ; their long proboscis enabling 

 them to reach the bottom of the bells. Another tribe, having the 

 proboscis short, are obliged to collect from flowers of a d'.flerent 

 shape. There is yet another circumstance which leads the diffe- 

 rent sorts of bees to visit a variety of flowers : viz., that they do 

 not feed their larvae on the same substance. If we examine the 

 cells of some (the andrctiiidce,) we find that the food stored up for 

 the young consists of a ball of farina, which has scarcely any ad- 

 mixture of hone}' : these bees would naturally seek those flowers 

 which yield the most farina ; whereas in others (the apida) honey 

 with very little farina is st,ored up for the young. 



