170 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



quantity of the food supplied to the larvae, then 

 the action of these glands cannot be over-estimated 

 in importance, and cannot be studied too deeply : 

 they form the very spring and fount of life. Yet 

 is it certain that the influence brought to bear on 

 the young grubs by the nurse-bees is wholly re- 

 stricted to the matter of food ? The worker-bee 

 has several curious organs and gland-systems in 

 various parts of her body, in addition to those 

 already enumerated, to which no rational use has 

 yet been assigned. The more we study her extra- 

 ordinary equipment, the less justification there 

 appears to be for dogmatising about her, limiting 

 or particularising the function of any one gland or 

 implement in the whole unending array. The old 

 adage, that there is nothing invariable about the 

 honey-bee, is like to be as true with regard to her 

 physiology as it is with her habits of life ; and, for 

 all we can tell, to-morrow's knowledge may render 

 obsolete much of the carefully garnered knowledge 

 of to-day. 



If the story of the honey-bee's anatomy has 

 everywhere some of the elements of romance about 

 it — in its unexpected incidents, its adventurous 

 colour, its shadow of a great design — this spirit 

 suffers no abatement when we come, in a last view 

 of it, to consider her as one carrying arms, one 

 bearing such a weapon of offence as never came 

 into human mind to fashion. The long curved 

 scimitar of the queen, which she cherishes so care- 



