THE FOUNDATION OF THE CITY 95 



these foragers fly, and observe in detail the harvest they 

 gather from the various plants around, we shall find that 

 the workers distribute themselves over the flowers in pro- 

 portion not only to the numbers of one species, but ako 

 to their melliferous value. Nay, more, they make daily 

 calculations as to the means of obtaining the greatest possible 

 wealth of saccharine liquid. In the spring, for instance, 

 after the willows have bloomed, when the fields still are 

 bare, and the first flowers of the woods are the one resource 

 of the bees, we shall see them eagerly visiting gorse and 

 violets, lungworts and anemones. But, a few days later, 

 when fields of cabbage and colza begin to flower in sufficient 

 abundance, we shall find that they will almost entirely for- 

 sake the plants in the woods, though these be still in full 

 blossom, and will confine their visits to the flowers of 

 cabbage and colza alone. In this fashion they regulate, 

 day by day, their distribution over the plants, so as to 

 collect the greatest value of saccharine liquid in the least 

 possible time. 



" It may fairly be claimed, therefore, for the colony 

 of bees that, in its harvesting labours no less than in its 

 internal economy, it is able to establish a rational distribu- 

 tion of the number of workers without ever disturbing the 

 principle of the division of labour." 



But what have we to do, some will ask, with the 

 intelligence of the bees ? What concern is it of ours 

 whether this be a little less or a little more ? Why weigh. 



