92 THE APIAEY; OR, 



In gathering pollen from flowers, bees are doing more than 

 merely providing for their own community. Whilst humming 

 through our gardens they are assisting to propogate our flowers, 

 and their merry buzz in our orchards indicates that the blossoms of 

 spring will in autumn fulfil their promise by abundance of fruit. 

 In Mr. Darwin s remarkable work, " The Fertilization of Orchids," 

 the mystery of the fructification of flowers is scientifically explained ; 

 but before the subject was so fully understood, it was quite believed 

 that bees in passing from flower to flower performesd some important 

 service. Owners of fruit trees have noticed, in a season generally 

 unfavourable for the orchard, tJiat if during only one fine forenoon 

 the bees had spread freely amongst the blossoms of a particular 

 tree, that it would prove more fruitful than its fellows. On this 

 account the orchard is a good place for an apiary, for it seems — 

 more abundant the honey, more plentiful will be the fruit. Bees 

 bear the fructifjring matter from one sex of flowers to the other, 

 but they confine their attention to one kind of flower during each 

 excursion : and the careful observer may see how the colour of the 

 pollen on the bodies of the bees will vary from yellow to red and 

 brown, according to the kind of flowers from which it has been 

 gathered. The gathering of pollen, its use iDy the nursing bees, 

 and the storing of it in the cells, afford to the bee-keeper oppor- 

 tunity for observations of exceeding interest. 



PROPOLIS; OR, BEES' CEMENT. 



The old notion that wax is gathered by bees from flowers as 

 they gp-ther honey, has long since been set aside by the discoveries 

 of Hornbostel and Huber. Wax is an oily substance secreted from 

 the honey in the bodies of the bees, on which it forms in thin 

 flakes. But there is " a resinous substance, very tenacious and 

 semi-transparent," which is indispensable for the bees as a cement 

 wherewith to fix their combs and fortify their hives against intruders, 

 and this is " propolis." The bees, in working the propolis, often soften 

 it by blending it with a portion of wax; but they have to extract 

 it in its natural state directly from the bark and buds of certain 

 trees. The bark of the willow, the leaf buds of the poplar and 

 alder, and the unopened blossoms of the hollyhock, are very usual 

 sources of propolis. In the case of a new swarm, as bees must 



