§ VII.] FACULTIES AND FUNCTIONS. 55 



A remark upon their power of distinguishing colours, and 

 its practical value, will be found in connection with our 

 description of bee-houses for twelve hives (Chap. IV. § i.). 

 On the senses of taste and smell we have some further 

 observations in the sections of Chapter VI. upon "Stings^" 

 "Robbing," and "Bee-keeping in London." 



For the functions and habits of bees we must also refer 

 to the passages already instanced, as well as to the sec- 

 tions above on the "The Queen," etc., that on "The 

 Rationale of Swarming" (page 72), and to those in 

 Chapter VI. on the four substances which bees collect or 

 secrete, as well as (though in a less degree) to those 

 headed " Pasturage " and " General Remarks." Those 

 who will favour our book with a consecutive reading will, 

 we trust, find at the conclusion that all the more impor- 

 tant and interesting facts of this class are in one or other 

 of these places tolerably though briefly described. 



The service that bees perform to flowers is a subject 

 . that has attracted much attention of late years. As 

 every one knows, or should know, a flower has its stamens 

 and pistils, which are respectively its male and female 

 organs, and the pollen contained in the anthers, or little 

 knobs on the summits of the stamens, must be conveyed 

 to the pistils, or no seed will be produced. When the 

 anthers burst; the pollen might happen to fall partly 

 on the pistils, or it might not; but the visits of bees 

 (though they do not roll about in the flower, in the 

 manner that some have stated) are found by experience 



