POLLEN. 123 



pervious to air." Yet his own description of the cause of 

 the well-known whiteness of the eappings, owing to the air 

 which is left behind and "cannot escape," would prove that 

 these eappings are originally made as air-tight as a thin coat 

 of wax can make them. But it is possible that the thin coat 

 of wax, though evidently air-tight, be, in some circumstances, 

 porous enough to allow moisture to soak through it slowly, 

 like water through leather. 



Pollen. 



263. The pollen, or fertilizing dust of flowers, is gathered 

 by the bees from blossoms, and is indispensable to the nourish- 

 ment of their young — repeated experiments having proved 

 that brood cannot be raised without it. It is very rich in 

 the nitrogenous substances which are not contained in honey, 

 and without which ample nourishment could not be furnished 

 for the development of the growing bee. Dr. Hunter, on 

 dissecting some immature bees, found that their stomachs con- 

 tained pollen, but not a particle of honey. 



We are indebted to Huber for the discovery that pollen is 

 the principal food of the young bees. As large supplies were 

 often found in hives whose inmates had starved, it was evident 

 that, without honey, it could not support the mature bees; 

 and this led former observers to conclude that it served for 

 the building of comb. Huber, after demonstrating that wax 

 can be secreted from an entirely different substance, soon 

 ascertained that pollen was used for the nourishment of the 

 embryo bees. Confining some bees to their hive without any 

 pollen, he supplied them with honey, eggs, and larvae. In a 

 short time, the young all perished. A fresh supply of brood 

 being given to them, with an ample allowance of pollen, the 

 development of the larvae proceeded in the natural way. 



264. We had an excellent opportunity of testing the value 

 of this substance, in the backward Spring of 1852. On the 

 5th of February, we opened a hive containing an artificial 

 swarm of the previous year, and found many of the cells filled 

 with brood. The combs, being examined on the 23d, contained 



