VOL. XLVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. 81 



besides those that appear on the apices of flowers, which afterwards impregnates 

 the fruit. 



Of this inner substance of the farina, diluted with water, after digestion, is 

 formed the bouillee and jelly, which the bees discharge upward by the mouth, 

 into the cells, to nourish the young bees till they become nymphae ; while the 

 husk, or outer coat is discharged by the anus, and becomes the genuine wax. I 

 have frequently, when bees have been swarming, had them alight on my hands 

 andcloaths; and many, at different times, have discharged their faeces on them : 

 this I have taken off, and found it of the consistence of warm wax, with the 

 same glutinous adhering quality, not crumbling like the farina. I have also 

 distinguished it by the smell to be wax; but it had a heavier stronger smell, as 

 it was fresh and warm from the bee. 



What further confirmed me in this fact, was from my observation of the bees 

 when working up their comb in a glass hive; where I have constantly seen (and 

 must believe it impossible not to be observed by so accurate an observer as M.' 

 Reaumur) that several bees, soon after one another, have by hasty steps, walked 

 along a comb then forming, for the length of 2 or 3 cells, bending their tails to 

 the comb, and striking it with a wriggling motion from side to side, in a zigzag 

 way ; which I was convinced was discharging their faeces, or the wax, against 

 the border of the cells, as they ran along, and repeated it as long as they had 

 any to discharge, and then quit it ; which is the reason why the outer border of 

 the cells is so thick and strong : immediately afterwards, other bees came 

 along the cells, and with their fore feet raised up the borders like paste, and 

 thinning it, while other bees were ripping off with their teeth, and pruning 

 away any irregular excrescences, so as to make the divisions of the cells vastly 

 thinner than the borders or edges, which were always thick and strong, from the 

 discharging the faeces or wax upon them. 



M. Reaumur has very justly observed that, besides the 3 transparent smooth 

 eyes which the bee has placed in a triangle between the antennae on the top of 

 its head, the bee has also on each side of its head and eye, or rather a multitude 

 of eyes, formed by a number of distinct lenses each surrounded with short hairs, 

 which are confirmed to be eyes, both from Swammerdam, and his own experi- 

 ments to determine it ; and that, notwithstanding these lenses are lined with a 

 dark opaque substance, yet they assist so miich their vision, that when darkened 

 by paint laid over them, the bees could not find their way to their hive, though 

 at a small distance, but soared directly upwards ; nor could they find their way 

 when the 3 smooth eyes were darkened. 



But there is one observation, which I don't find he has made, which may have de- 

 termined the garden bees to make almost all their cells imperfect hexagons. The ob- 

 servation is this ; that these opaque eyes on each side of the head, consist of many 



VOL. X. M 



