APIS MELLIFICA. 215 



The cells not occupied by the larvae are rilled with honey. The 

 combs are placed parallel to one-another, and the cells of which 

 they are composed are of a hexagonal form constructed with much 

 art and regularity. 



"When deprived of a queen, another is soon produced by 

 the workers rearing one of their own larva?, for this purpose, 

 which, by a particular treatment, becomes a female. This 

 fact has led to the opinion that the neuters or workers are but 

 imperfectly developed females. At a certain period of the year, 

 the males, having fulfilled the purpose of their being, are put to 

 death, along with all their pupse and larvae."* The queen differs 

 considerably in size and appearance from the males and workers. 

 She is about eight lines and a half in length, while the males are 

 seven, and the workers six ; her abdomen is proportionally longer, 

 her wings so short as scarcely to reach past the third segment, and 

 her colour deep brown tinged with yellow. 



The general appearance and qualities of honey are familiar to 

 every one. That which runs from the comb without expression, 

 contains a less proportion of wax, and is considered the best. It 

 is at first thin and limpid, but. when kept, partly crystallizes into 

 little irregular concretions. It is of a whitish or yellowish 

 colour; it has a peculiar fragrant odour, and a sweet acidulous 

 taste. A less pure honey is obtained by cutting the combs in 

 pieces, and exposing them before the fire to render the honey more 

 liquid j and a still inferior kind is obtained by heating the remainder 

 still more in a vessel over the fire, and then squeezed through a 

 canvass bag. The honey which is obtained from young hives that 

 have never swarmed is denominated virgin honey. To purify the 

 wax nothing more is necessary than boiling the empty combs, and 

 those deprived of the honey, in water, and removing the scum 

 which will rise in the successive meltings. Honey is frequently 

 adulterated with flour ; the fraud, as Dr. Thompson observes, is 

 easily detected by mixing it with tepid water, which dissolves the 

 honey, while the flour remains nearly unaltered. 



Honey is evidently a variety of sugar, containing a crystallizable 



* Elements of Natural History, vol. ii.p. 



