Bramble-bees and Others 



parent, brittle, soluble in spirits of wine and 

 burning with a sooty flame and a strong smell 

 of resin. From these characteristics it is evi- 

 dent that the Bee prepares her gum with the 

 resinous drops exuded by the Coniferae. 



I think that I am even able to name the 

 particular plant, though I have never caught 

 the insect in the act of gathering its materials. 

 Near the stone-heaps which I turn over for 

 my collections there is a plentiful supply of 

 brown-berried junipers. Pines are totally ab- 

 sent; and the cypress only appears occasion- 

 ally near houses. Moreover, among the vege- 

 table remains which we shall see assisting in 

 the protection of the nest, we often find the 

 juniper's catkins and needles. As the resin- 

 insect is economical of its time and does not 

 fly far from the quarters familiar to it, the 

 gum must have been collected on the shrub 

 at whose foot the materials for the barricade 

 have been gathered. Nor is this merely a 

 local circumstance, for the Marseilles nest 

 abounds in similar remnants. I therefore 

 regard the juniper as the regular resin- 

 purveyor, without, however, excluding the 

 pine, the cypress and other Coniferae when 

 the favourite shrub is absent. 



310 



