202 POLLEN AND BEE BREAD. 



priation. This pollen or farina of flowers after undergoing 

 a certain process, of which swallowing forms a part becomes 

 what is called bee-bread, and constitutes, as such, one of the 

 strongest supports of bee existence, especially before arrived 

 at maturity. After being swallowed, it may perhaps be im- 

 parted at once to some of the infant occupants of the nursery 

 cells ; or, if more is collected than immediate need requires, 

 this, as well as honey, is laid up in store, being diluted and 

 packed for future use. 



"We have seen how our busy gatherer has brought home 

 her quota of pollen or bee-bread, and honey or bee-wine ; but 

 has she contributed to the general magazine her share of 

 wax, that material so indispensable to form the " casks," or 

 caskets wherein both these treasures are preserved ? She has 

 done her part (doubt it not !) in augmentation of this useful 

 commodity ; but on the present occasion she can furnish no 

 wax, because she has given away all her honey. But what 

 has this to do with it ? Might we not say as well, that a man 

 could not furnish wood for a cask because he had given away 

 all his wine ! 



Why a bee could not contribute wax because possessed of 

 no honey is a question, certainly, which people who know 

 little about bees would naturally ask now; and the same 

 query might have been put less than a hundred years ago even 

 by those best acquainted with their habits. The old natu- 

 ralists were not aware of the least inaccuracy in the poetic 



