46 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



body downwards,* inserts the lower part of it into the cell : 

 in a few seconds she turns half round upon herself and with- 

 draws, leaving an egg behind her. When she lays a con- 

 siderable number, she does it equally on each side of the 

 comb, those on the one side being as exactly opposite tb 

 those on the other as the relative position of the cells will 

 admit. The effect of this is to produce the utmost -possible 

 concentration and economy of heat for developing the va- 

 rious changes of the brood !" 



Here as at every step in the economy of the bee our minds 

 are filled with admiration as we witness the perfect adap- 

 tation of means to ends. Who can blame the warmest en- 

 thusiasm of the Apiarian in view of a sagacity which seems 

 scarcely inferior to that of man. 



" The eggs of bees," I quote from the admirable treatise of 

 Bevan, " are of a lengthened oval shape, with a slight cur- 

 vature, and of a bluish white color: being besmeared at the 

 time of laying, with a glutinous substance,t they adhere to 

 the bases of the cells, and remain unchanged in figure or 

 situation for three or four days ; they are then hatched, the 

 bottom of each cell presenting to view a small white worm. 

 On its growing so as to touch the opposite angle of the cell, 

 it coils itself up, to use the lauguage of Swammerdam, like 

 a dog when going to sleep ; and floats in a whitish trans- 

 parent fluid, which is deposited in the cells by the nursing- 

 bees, and by which it is probably nourished ; it becomes 



* In this way she is sure to deposit the egg in the cell she has 

 selected. 



t If ever there lived a genuine naturalist, Swammerdam was the 

 man. In his History of Insects, published in 1737, he has given a 

 most beautiful drawing of the ovaries of the queen bee. The sac 

 which he supposed secreted a fluid for sticking the eggs to the base 

 of the cells is the seminal reservoir or spermatheca. 



