73 HUMBLE CREATURES. 



facture of artificial flowers, whicli almost rival nature 

 for perfection of design and colouring; nor yet 

 should its services to the student of anatomy be over- 

 looked, for it is employed not only in the construc- 

 tion of models of the living body, but even to per- 

 petuate the exceptional appearances of disease. 



Thus we see that the humble little Bee, which is 

 merely regarded by the majority of mankind with 

 dread or indifierence, renders us great service even 

 in the production of this one material, which is 

 almost indispensable to us in the arts, sciences, and 

 domestic economy. 



And now we pass on to the consideration of that 

 most agreeable and useful substance, Honey, from 

 which, as before remarked, the wax is elaborated. 



Honey is secreted in the nectaries of flowers, 

 whence it is extracted by the Bee with the aid of its 

 delicate tongue, already described in a preceding 

 chapter. A portion at least of the harvest or gather- 

 ing is retained by the insect in its crop or paunch 

 (to which reference was made when we treated of 

 the digestive organs), and this is ejected iato the 

 cells of the honeycomb, on the Bee's return to the 

 hive, to serve as a store of food in winter. 



This material is so well known, that a descrip- 

 tion of it appears almost superfluous, but we may 

 mention that pure honey is yellow, viscid, granu- 

 lated, and very sweet. It contains two kinds of 

 sugar, the one analogous to that from the grape, the 

 other to that from the sugar-cane ; it also contains 



