TOL. XLVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 7Q 



Another observation to confirm the same fact is, that bees, in the height of 

 the season, return to their hives with loads of very different magnitudes, some 

 having loads as large as small shot, while others have very small loads ; it cannot 

 be conceived that this difference is from the inactivity or sloth of the bee in col- 

 lecting its load, but rather from the scarcity of the flowers, on which it first 

 began to load. 



Now, if the facts be so, and my observations true, I think that Providence 

 has appointed the bee to be very instrumental in promoting the increase of ve- 

 getables ; but otherwise, might be very detrimental to their propagation ; and 

 at the same time they contribute to the health and life of their own species. 



From the late improvement made by glasses, and experiments made, in ob- 

 serving the works of nature, it is almost demonstrable, that the farina on the 

 apices of flowers, is the male seed ; which entering the pistillum or matrix in the 

 flower, impregnates the ovum, and makes it prolific. It is often necessary to 

 have wind and dry weather to waft this farina to the pistillum, and from flower 

 to flower, to make the seed prolific : and we find in wet seasons, that grain, 

 nuts, and fruit, are less prolific, by the farina's not being properly conveyed to 

 the pistillum ; and also in very hot dry weather, from clammy honey-dews, or, 

 more properly sweet exudations from the plants themselves, which clog the 

 farina, and cause blasts and mildews. Now if the farina of specifically different 

 flowers should take the place of its own proper farina in the pistillum, like an 

 unnatural coition in the animal world, either no generation would happen, or a 

 monstrous one, or an individual not capable of further generation. 



Now if the bee is appointed by Providence to go only, at each loading, to 

 flowers of the same species, as the abundant farina often covers the whole bee, 

 as well as what it loads on its legs, it carries the farina from flower to flower, 

 and by its walking on the pistillum and agitation of its wings, it contributes 

 greatly to the farina's entering into the pistillum, and at the same time prevents 

 the heterogeneous mixture of the farina of different flowers with it ; which, if 

 it strayed from flower to flower at random, it would carry to flowers of a dif- 

 ferent species. 



Besides these visible advantages, it may be of great benefit to thdr own 

 species and society ; for, as this farina is the natural and constant food of the 

 bees, during one half of the year, and from this digested, as accurately observed 

 by M. Reaumur, is the bouillee and jelly formed; which is lodged for the food 

 of the young bees, till they become nymphae : it is also necessary that its stores 

 should be lodged in the cells adjoining to the honey, for their winter provision ; 

 without whicii, M. Reaumur observes, they would be in danger of dying of 

 looseness, their most dangerous malady. 



It seems therefore highly reasonable to believe, that different kinds of farina 



