70 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



between the separating lips, by an inflow of the fluid 

 surrounding the granules. The lips in turn close, but 

 the down-pointing bristles are thrown outwards from 

 the face of the leaflet, in this way revealing their 

 special function, as the pollen is prevented from re- 

 ceding while the nectar passes back into the honey 

 sac, strained through between the bristles aforesaid, 

 the last parts escaping by the loop-like openings 

 seen in the corners of C, Fig. 14. The whole pro- 

 cess is immediately and very rapidly repeated, so 

 that the pollen collects, and the honey is cleared. 

 Three purposes, in addition to those previously enu- 

 merated, are thus subserved by this wondrous me- 

 chanism. First, the bee can either eat or drink from 

 the mixed diet she carries, gulping down the pollen 

 in pellets, or swallowing the nectar, as her necessities 

 demand. Second, when the collected pollen is driven 

 forwards into the chyle stomach, the tube extension, 

 whose necessity now becomes apparent, prevents the 

 pellets forming into plug-like masses just below p, 

 Plate I., for, by the action of the tube, these pellets are 

 delivered into the midst of the fluids of the stomach, 

 to be at once broken up and subjected to the 

 digestive process. And third, while the little gatherer 

 is flying from flower to flower, her stomach-mouth is 

 busy in separating pollen from nectar, so that the 

 latter may be less liable to fermentation, and better 

 suited to winter consumption. She, in fact, carries 

 with her, and at once puts into operation, the most 

 ancient and yet the most perfect and beautiful of all 

 "honey strainers." 



The chyle stomach is lined by an intima, or inner 



