yune II, 1874] 



NATURE 



103 



used, is in the conslruclion of a tube, which Trigona ja/y Sni. 

 builds at the entrance of its nest. 



Among European Apids, Apis and Bombiis are the only 

 genera which wet with honey the pollen they are collecting, and 

 in consequence of this habit the hairs on the outside of the Uh'vx 

 of the hind-legs have disappeared. This is also the case wiih 

 our Melipona;, Trigona;, and KugIo;s.x'. Now Centris, Tetra- 

 pedire, Epicharis, and some other bees, collect pollen in the 

 same way ; but notwithstanding, in some .species, the hairs on the 

 tibiix; are developed in an extraordinary degree. This seemed to 

 me rather p'r)ilexing, till I lately observed several species of 

 Centris and a Tetrapedia gathering sand in the large hair- 

 brushes o( the hind-tibia?, which accounts for the conservation 

 and excessive development of the hairs. 



With one of our smallest Trigona? { T. minin n.sp.), of which 

 I have two hives in my garden, I have made a long series of ob- 

 servations on the construction of the combs, in which the young 

 are raised. As in all other species the combs are horizontal and 

 consist of a single layer of hexagonal cells, like those of wasps ; 

 but the cells are vertical. There is always in this species (other 

 species behave differenily) a set of cells constructed at the same 

 time in the circumference of the two or three uppermost combs. 

 When the cells »re ready, they are filled with food, which the 

 bees vomit from their mouths, the cjueen lays an egg into erery 

 cell and these are then immediate 1/ shut. The eggs at first 

 lie horizontally ; but in the course of the first or second day 

 they assume a perpendicular position, with the thicker end turned 

 upwards, dipping but slightly into the semi-fluid fjod. The 

 combs are never used more than once ; as soon as the young bees 

 hive left them (five to six weeks after the laying of the egg-) 

 they are destroyed and new ones built in their place. 



I )nce I assisted at a curious contest, which took plice between 

 the queen and ilie worker bees in one of my hives, and which 

 throws some light on the intellectual faculties of iheie animals. 

 A set of 47 cells had been filled, S on a nearly completed comb, 

 35 on the following, and 4 around the first cell of a new comb. 

 When the queen had laid eggs in all the cells of the two older 

 combs she went several times round their circumference (as 

 she aUvays does in order to ascertain whether she has not for- 

 gotten any cell), and then prepared to reticat into the loiver pirt 

 of the breeding room. l!ut as she fad overlooked the four cells 

 of the new comb the workers ran impatiendy from this part to 

 the queen, pushing her, in an odd manner, with their heads, as 

 they did also other workers they met with. In consequence the 

 queen begin again to go around on the two older combs, bat as 

 s ledid not find any cell wanting an egg .she tried to descend ; 

 but everywhere she was pushed back by the workers. This 

 contest latled fur a rather long while, till at hast the cjueen es- 

 caped without hiving completed her work. Thus the workers 

 knew how to advise the queen that something was as )et to b; 

 done, but they knew not how to sho.v her where it had to be 

 done. In the same hive there appeared to be two poliii:al 

 p\rties among the workers, dissenting about the construction of 

 the combs, one destroying what the other had be^un to build ; 

 bit it would require a very long and tedious exposition to give 

 ^ yju the detai's of the case. 



^^ Our several species of honey-bees differ as much in their 



if menial dispositions as they do in external appearance and size 

 (the smallest species, called Trigona lilliftU by my brother, is 

 only about 25 mm. long). Some rush furiously out of their 

 nest, whenever an enemy approaches it, attacking and perss- 

 cuting the offender ; others are very tame, and permit cl ise 

 observation of all their work. In one large species I could even 

 o'iserve with a lens the act of their sucking a solution of sugar, 

 which 1 had given them, and the-e was no doubt that at least 

 t lese bees really suck, and do not lap, like dogs or cats, as Milne 

 Edwards, Gerstricker, and most entomologists think. 



There is one species [Trigona liom&o Sm., named for my 

 brother by .\Ir. Frederick Smith himscli) which never appears 

 to collect honey or pollen from flowers, on which, at least, I 

 have never seen it. It r jbs other species of their ( rovsions and 

 sometimes takes possession of their nests, killing or txpelling the 

 owners. The hives in my garden have often lieen inv.ided, and 

 two of them destroyed, by these robbers, ami I have seen in the 

 forest several nests, formerly inhabited by other species, occupied 

 by them. 



Together with my brother at Lippsfadt I intended to publish 

 an essay on the natural history of our stingless honey-bees, but 

 it will probably cost some years to give a toleribly complete 

 account of them. Fritz Muller 



Itajahy, Santa Catharina, Brazil, April 20 



Eozonn canadense 



I DESIRE permission to state, in your journal, my entire agree- 

 ment with the explanation of the actual structure of this fossil 

 given by Dr. Carpenter in the Ann. Nat. Hist, for April. 

 Though it may not be necessary to corroborate, in any way, the 

 decisions cf so great an authority on Foraminifera, or to add to 

 illustrations so clear and convincing, my testimony may not be 

 without its value ; since, in addition to work in micro-geology 

 extended over more than th rty years, and some familiarity with 

 modern Foramiiiifera, I have, in the original examination of 

 Bozoiiii, undertaken at the request of Sir William Logan, studied 

 larger suites of specimens of typical Eozoiin, and of ma'erials 

 supposed to resemble it, not only from Canada, but from ether 

 locilities, than any other person. 



I have the more pleasure in bearing testimony to the "tubu- 

 lated primitive chamber-wall," because this was not manifest in 

 my original specimens, and was first made out by Dr. Carpenter 

 in those suljinitted to him from Pclitc Natio)i alter my original 

 description was written. I did not, however, take it for granted 

 even on Dr. C.'s testimony, but satisfied myself of the organic 

 nature of the structure by careful examination and comparison 

 with the Chrysotile and other fibrous minerals occurring in con- 

 nection with some of the .specimens. 



rt ..f a t a'c r=- us Ijn elb o^ Eozoi:,, rn,:niini:r, showing at ,: r, tlie tiilm- 

 lated structure ui the proper wall of the onamher or '• iiuinimiline 

 layer," perfectly difl'erentiated from the ferpentinc chamber-tait on 

 ■vhicli it abuts, and at a' a' a line of flexure of the lubuli, Cotrcsponding 



with that ofte 

 lures : /■, origins of the 

 " intermediate skeleton " c 

 her, precisely as in C'llcai- 

 by cleavage-planes, wliose 1 

 ) be a part of ttie calc 



id oth-^r tubulated calc 

 I system " in irrrguLar lacunsc of the 

 exterior of the proper wall of the cham- 

 ■, c, • intermediate slceleton," travtnsed 



into the ■' numiiiuline layer " proves 



of the serpcutiiio 



a (igu -e given by Dr. Carpenter from the Ann". Nat. Hist, for J 

 It IS not surprising that Eozoiin mets with some opponents. 

 There are few naturalists who have sufficient familiarity with the 

 structures of modern Foraviinifera, and with those strange and 

 gigantic representatives of the Protozoa found in the Piimordial 

 and Silurian rocks, toapfreciate the importance of fie structures 

 it presents. Still fewer hive added to this experience by the 

 study of the structures of the fossils of the more ancient rocks as 

 they appear under the microscope, and of the conditions of mine- 

 ralisation of such fossils. The intelligent appreciation of the 

 claims of j?cs>w/ must, therefore, be of slow grotvth ; and the 

 controversies respecting it wdll be finally .settled only wdien the 

 other organisms of which traces exi t in the Laurentian locks are 

 better understood, and when the Protozoa of the Cambrian and 

 Silurian have been more thoroughly investigated. These deside- 

 rata are gradually being supplie 1 ; and I venture to predict that 

 before many years have passed, pa'ceontologists will be required 

 to extend their belief to several o.her Laurcntian and Pri- 

 mord'al Forainiiii/era be.'id;s Eozoiin canadense and FozoSn 

 In-raricnm. J. W. Dawson 



McG II College, Montreal, May 15 



Proportionality of Cause and Effect 



It does not surprise me ihat Mr. Ilayward gives up in despair 

 the attempt to make Mr. .Spencer conscious of the fallacies in his 

 logic. But asfrom the first I have addressed myself to Mr. Spencer's 

 readers, I must in justice lo myself point out to them the tnie 



