Pollen, or Bee-Bread. 



107 



The animals of which these were once the skeletons, so to 

 speak, are not insects at all, though often called so by men of 

 considerable information. 



The species of the genus Favosites first appeared in the 

 Upper Silurian rocks, culminated in the Devonian, and disap- 

 peared in the early Carboniferous. No insects appeared till 

 the Devonian age, and no Hymenoptera — bees, wasps, etc. — 

 till after the Carboniferous. So the old-time Favosites reared 

 its limestone columns and helped to build islands and conti- 

 nents untold ages — millions upon millions jaf years — before 

 any flower bloomed, or any bee sipped the precious nectar. 

 In some specimens of this honey- comb coral (Fig. 33), there 



Fig. 33. 



Honey-comb Comal. 



are to be seen banks of cells, much resembling the paper cells 

 of some of our wasps. This might be called waspoomb coral, 

 except that both styles were wrought by the self-same animals. 



POLLEN, OR BEE-BREAD. 



An ancient Greek author states that in Hymettus the bees 

 tied little pebbles to their legs to hold them down. This 



