SUMMER MANAGEMENT. 183 
combs.” We may add that the majority of authorities 
loug coincided with our author in this view; but the 
question still remained one of the nicest problems 
in the science, whilst the great name of Dzierzon 
was numbered among the upholders of a chemical 
change. Quite recently, however, as Mr. Cheshire 
has kindly informed us, it has been established that 
a certain acid, as yet undefined, is communicated to 
the nectar by the bee. In all other respects it 
would appear that the constituents remain exactly 
as they were, and thus we may say that an inter- 
mediate result has been arrived at. 
Pollen, or Farina.—The hive will be rapidly filled 
with combs, and progressively with an increased 
population, for the eggs, as we have seen in page 
15, are matured in three weeks. In the mean- 
time, the bees will have commenced a new labour— 
that of collecting pollen or farina. This is the 
anther-dust of the stamina of flowers, varying im 
colour according to the source from whence it is 
derived; and it may be remarked that the bees in 
their collection never mix together the pollen of 
different plants, but in each excursion visit only one 
species of flower.* By a peculiar adaptation, they 
are enabled to brush this off, and pack it into the 
spoon-like cavities (or baskets as they have been 
termed), furnished for this object, on the centre 
* This is not the case when it is honey that they are seeking, but 
with the pollen there is, we believe, only a single instance recorded in 
which the two “stockings” of a bee have been observed to differ in 
colour. The fertilisation of the p!ants themszlves (see pp 18, 19) would 
be sadly disarranged were it not for this law being observed by the 
bees. 
