THE BEE. 45 



they are open within and elevated above the surface, 

 and not, as in the antennae, depressed or indented. 

 In like manner they can only be carefully investigated 

 ■when the colouring matter has been removed through 

 the agency of chlorine, and then a high microscopic 

 power reveals similar bundles of fine nerves lead- 

 ing to the vesicles, and connected by a trunk to 

 the central ganglion or nervous mass. These nerves 

 prove the vesicles, as in the former case, to be organs 

 of sense, and Dr. Hicks has attributed to them the 

 function of smell. This inquiry must, however, still 

 be considered an open one ; and here again (not only 

 in the Bee, but in all other insects) an excellent field 

 is presented for the investigations of young naturalists. 

 Beyond these vesicles and the hooks, the wings do 

 not possess any other feature of interest whereon we 

 feel tempted to dwell (the tracheae or respiratory 

 vessels wiU be described hereafter) ; and as the thorax, 

 which has furnished us with its fair share of instruc- 

 tion, has no other appendages than those already 

 described, we shall now proceed to examine the only 

 organ that is visible upon the third or abdominal 

 segment of the body, that is, the sting, and therewith 

 conclude our survey of the external organs and mem- 

 bers of the Hive-Bee. 



If you were ever stung by a Bee, and, after ex- 

 tracting the sting, had the curiosity to examine the 

 weapon that caused you so much pain, you would pro- 

 bably have been puzzled to conjecture how an object 

 apparently so insignificant could produce such a serious 



