114 The Bee's Tongue, and Glands connected with it, |February, 
and which he criticises, I have not seen, and am indebted to Mr. 
Hyatt for what knowledge I possess of it. His article on the bee’s 
sting, reading so like a fairy tale, incited me to attempt to demon- 
strate for myself if it was indeed the marvelous little structure 
‘described, and I can add my testimony (which he certainly does 
not need) to the literal accuracy of description, drawing and, as I 
believe, of his interpretation of the bee’s manner of working it. 
That the bee can sting, every boy of ordinary enterprise can tes- 
tify from personal experience, but Mr. Hyatt has spread before us 
the whole villainous apparatus, and initiates us into every motion, 
so that if one could be philosophical (under the circumstances a 
hard thing to do, even deacons are said to forget themselves and 
indulge in a mild form of profanity) the various stages of agony 
could be explained in learned terms, up to and including the final 
jab of the two blades, that leaves the victim to retire, swell up, 
and figure out his net gain from the operation. But to pass to 
the other end of the bee, which directly concerns us in this 
article. 
My own observation, so far as the ligula is concerned, agrees 
with Prof. Cook’s (see Natura.ist; April, 1880), and I think he 
has given the true solution when he says it consists of a sheath 
slit below, within which is the grooved rod, and projecting from the 
edges of the latter to the edges of the sheath, is a thin membrane, 
forming, as will be easily understood, when the rod is extended 
or thrown down, an enclosed sack, open only at the top. For the 
benefit of those who may still doubt as to this structure, I have 
drawn, under the camera, a very fine cross section of the ligula, 
kindly loaned me for the purpose by my friend, Mr. David Fol- 
som. He has succeeded in cutting it from a specimen with the 
rod thrown out of the sheath (see Fig. 5). 
In going over the work of Mr. Hyatt, while examining a 
mounted specimen of mouth parts, my friend, Mr. F. B. Doten, 
pointed out, in the mentum, a small spiral tube that gave me a 
clue, which followed up, has resulted, as I believe, in a slight 
addition to our knowledge of the parts. I am unable to find any 
mention of the glandular structure, a description of which follows. 
The drawing, No. 1, showing the head, is somewhat diagramatic ; 
structures that might confuse being neglected. The specimen 
here represented was taken while fresh, pressed flat, dried under 
pressure, bleached in turpentine and mounted in damar. 
It shows the structure as represented, from the tip of the ligula 
