Function of Pollen. 161 
vary to quite an extent. As we note that pollen contains 
besides an ash, albuminoids, sugar, starch, and oils, we see 
its excellence as a food; it contains within itself all the 
important food elements, The bees usually obtain it from 
the stamens of flowers; but if they gain access to flour 
when there is no bloom, they will take this in lieu of pollen, 
in which case the former term used above becomes a mis- 
nomer, though usually the bee-bread consists almost wholly 
of pollen. I have also known bees to gather extensively 
for bee-bread from the common raspberry rust. Very 
likely the spores of others of these fungi or low vegeta- 
bles help to supply this nutritious substance. 
As already intimated, the pollen is conveyed in the pollen- 
baskets (Fig. 47) of the posterior legs, to which it is con- 
veyed by the other legs, as already described, page 127, and 
compressed into little oval masses. The motions in this 
conveyance are exceedingly rapid, and are largely per- 
formed while the bee is on the wing. The bees hot infre- 
quently come to the hives not only with replete pollen 
baskets, but with their whole under surface thoroughly 
dusted. Dissection will also show that the same bee may 
have her sucking stomach distended with honey. Thus 
the bees make the most of their opportunities. It is a 
curious fact, noticed even by Aristotle, that the bees, dur- 
ing any trip, almost always gather only a single kind of 
pollen, or only gather from one species of bloom. Hence, 
while different bees may have different colors of pollen, the 
pellets of bee-bread on any single bee will be uniform in 
color throughout. It is possible that the material is more 
easily collected and compacted when homogeneous. It 
seems more probable that they prefer the pollen of certain 
plants, and work on such species so long as they yield the 
desired food. From this fact we see why bees cause no 
intercrossing of species of plants; they only intermix the 
pollen of different plants of the same species. 
The pollen is usually deposited in the small or worker 
cells, and is unloaded by a scraping motion of the posterior 
legs, the pollen baskets being first lowered into the cells. 
The bee thus freed, leaves the wheat-like masses to be 
packed by other bees. The cells, which may or may not 
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