The Progress of the Race 
their enterprising intellect with opportuni- 
ties for veritable discoveries and veritable. 
inventions. Thus, for instance, to aid in 
the rearing of the larve and- nymphs, the 
bee-keeper will scatter a certain quantity 
of flour close to the hive when the pollen 
is scarce of which these consume an enor- 
mous quantity. In a state of nature, in 
the heart of their native forests in the 
Asiatic valleys, where they existed prob- 
ably long before the tertiary epoch, the 
bees can evidently never have met with 
a substance of this kind. And yet, if 
care be taken to “bait” some of them 
with it, by placing them on the flour, 
they will touch it and test it, they will 
perceive that its properties more or less 
resemble those possessed by the dust of 
the anthers; they will spread the news 
among their sisters, and we shall soon 
find every forager hastening to this un- 
expected, incomprehensible food, which, 
367 
