The Life of the Bee 
that you were carelessly watching the vener- 
able ancestor to whom we probably owe 
most of our flowers and fruits (for it is 
actually estimated that more than a hundred 
thousand varieties of plants would disappear 
if the bees did not visit them), and possibly 
even our civilisation, for in these mysteries 
all things intertwine. She is nimble and 
attractive, the variety most common in 
France being elegantly marked with white 
ona black background. But this elegance 
hides an inconceivable poverty. She leads 
a life of starvation. She is almost naked, 
whereas her sisters are clad in a warm and 
sumptuous fleece. She has not, like the 
Apide, baskets to gather the pollen, nor, in 
their default, the tuft of the Andrenz, nor 
the ventral brush of the Gastrilegide. Her 
tiny claws must laboriously gather the pow- 
der from the calyces, which powder she 
needs must swallow to take it back to her 
lair. She has no implements other than her 
tongue, her mouth, and her claws; but 
her tongue is too short, her claws are feeble, 
and her mandibles without strength. Un- 
able to produce wax, bore holes through 
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