62 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



to the action of the chyle stomach, so that their 

 nutritious contents may be duly appropriated. To 

 enable them to accomplish this, a strong coat of 

 ring muscles is provided, thus equipping the bee 

 with a rudimentary gizzard, beyond which the small 

 intestine lies, somewhat twisted, and not quite 

 uniformly placed in different bees ; its diameter, 

 which varies little throughout its length, is about 

 4*g-in. It is shown in cross section in D, Fig. 14. 

 The muscles supplying it are remarkable, and may 

 be conveniently studied under the microscope after 

 staining with eosin, or even ordinary red ink. The 

 colour of its contents is perceptibly darker than 

 that of the chyle stomach, while the pollen 

 grains, which in the former are but little altered, 

 are here generally damaged in the cellulose cover 

 (see page 10), and are frequently broken up com- 

 pletely, as they have had to pass the mill of the 

 gastric teeth. The small bowel suddenly, and 

 afterwards more gradually, expands into the colon, 

 or large intestine {It, Plate I.), which is often 

 swollen and dark in appearance, because its trans- 

 parent and colourless sides show clearly its contents 

 which have here that disagreeable odour too well 

 known to bee keepers who have given liberty to 

 bees that have endured the confinement and worry of 

 a long journey. At the commencement of the colon 

 are placed six longitudinal, brownish, fleshy plates 

 (/, Plate I.), which appear to be both valvular and 

 glandular in action ; they are protuberant on the 

 inner side, and are formed by an invagination of the 

 intestinal walls, the whole of the layers of which 



