DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 7 1 



membrane, carrying a cell-layer (c), the cells com- 

 posing which appear to be of two kinds, having 

 distinct functions, one secreting a digestive fluid 

 (gastric juice) from the surrounding blood into the 

 stomach, so that the contents of the pollen grains 

 may be made fit for assimilation, by a transformation 

 not unlike that liquefying gluten in our own case ; 

 the other absorbing the nutrition as prepared, and 

 giving it up into the blood — these cells representing 

 the absorbent vessels of ourselves and the higher 

 animals generally. Outside this cell-layer comes a 

 propria, or outer membrane, and, beyond this, two 

 muscular coats, one (tm 1 ) of ring muscles, the other 

 (lm) of longitudinal muscles, which, by their appro 

 priate contractions, originated by the stomato-gastric 

 nerve system, churn the contained food, and move it 

 onwards past the several constrictions previously men- 

 tioned, and which are commonly twenty-three in 

 number, until the pyloric extremity is reached. The 

 process of absorption continues in the intestines till 

 only waste products and indigestible matters remain, 

 and these are ejected by a muscular action, which 

 can only be effectively employed, in the case of the 

 worker and drone, when the insect is on the wing. 

 The queen presents an exception to this rule, which 

 will, hereafter, require an explanation. 



The view here suggested, that the brood is not 

 nourished by regurgitated material, leads at once to 

 the question, How, then, is it fed ? No satisfactory 

 answer can be given until we study the gland struc- 

 tures. 



