VOL. LXXXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 171 



the months of June, July, &c. at which time they have honey in great plenty. 

 This substance is as common to a hive as any part belonging to the economy of 

 bees. Before they have formed 5 or 6 square inches of comb in a young hive, 

 we find eggs, honey, and bee-bread; and at whatever time of the year we kill a 

 hive, we find this substance; and if a hive is short of honey, and dies in the 

 winter, we find no honey, but all the bee-bread, which was laid up in store for 

 the maggots in the spring. They take great care of it, for it is often covered 

 over with wax, as the honey, and I believe more especially in the winter; proba- 

 bly with a view to preserve it till wanted. In April I have found some of the 

 cells full, others only half full. If we slit down a cell filled with this substance, 

 we commonly find it composed of layers of different colours; some a deep orange, 

 others a pale brown. In glass hives, we often find that the glass makes one side 

 of the cell, and frequently in such we see at once the different strata above men- 

 tioned. This is the substance which they bring in on their legs, and consists of 

 the farina of plants. It is not the farina of every plant that the bee collects, at 

 least they are found gathering it from some with great industry, while we never 

 find them on others: St. John's wort is a favourite plant, but that comes late. 

 The flower of the gourd, cucumber, &c. they seem to be fond of What they 

 do collect must be the very loose stuff, just ready to be blown off to impregnate 

 the female part of the flower; and to show that this is the case, we find bees im- 

 pregnate flowers that have not the male part. It is in common of a yellow 

 colour, but that of very different shades, often of an orange; and when we see 

 bees collecting it on bushes that have a great many flowers, so as to furnish a 

 complete load, it is then of the colour of the farina of that bush. It is curious 

 to see them deposite this substance in the cell. On viewing the hives, we often 

 see bees with this substance on their legs, moving along on the combs, as if 

 looking out for the cell to deposite it in. They will often walk over a cell that 

 has some deposited in it, but leave that and try another, and so on till they fix; 

 which made me conceive that each bee had its own cell. When they come to 

 the intended cell, they put their 2 hind legs into it, with the 2 fore legs and the 

 trunk out on the mouth of the neighbouring cell, and then the tail, or belly, is 

 thrust down into the intended cell; they then bring the leg under the belly, and 

 turning the point of the tail to the outside of the leg, wherein the farina is, they 

 shove it off by the point of the tail. When it is thus shoved off both legs, the 

 bee leaves it, and the 2 pieces of farina may be seen lying at the bottom of the 

 cell: another bee comes almost immediately, and creeping into the cell, con- 

 tinues about '5 minutes, kneading and working it down into the bottom, or 

 spreads it over what was deposited there before, leaving it a smooth surface. 



It is of a consistency like paste; burns slightly, and gives a kind of unusual 

 smell, probably from having been mixed with animal juice in the act of knead- 



z 2 



