BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



that their secretions are given up only as the tongue 

 is protracted or extended as for sucking (see Figs. 

 1 8 and 19), while the peculiarity of the position of 

 the discharge opening of the chyle gland (No. 1) is 

 just such as my theory requires. There exists upon 

 the worker's tongue, and upon the worker's only 

 (Plate II., and gr, B, Plate III.), a feeding-groove, or 

 narrow trough, on to which honey is brought by the 

 compression of the honey-sac when one bee feeds 

 another. Just at the back of this feeding-groove, when 

 the tongue is retracted (see A, Fig. 19), lies the plate 

 into which the chyle gland (No. 1) opens ; and, by 

 a combination of most extraordinarily complicated 

 muscles, between thirty and forty in number the chyle 

 can then be taken from this feeding-gland, and placed 

 upon the groove at once, for the benefit of the queen ; 

 or it can also, when the tongue is doubled back in 

 repose, be brought into the right position for feeding 

 the larvae from the mouth, as the latter lie at the 

 bottom of the cells. There are yet other considera- 

 tions pointing in the same direction, which must 

 not be anticipated until we come to practical matters. 

 Since I am not conscious of a single fact which 

 appears in any way to throw doubt upon what I have 

 advanced, while every point examined has brought 

 to it additional corroboration, I leave the aro-u- 

 ment to speak for itself, lest this chapter become 

 unduly lengthened. Every advanced bee-keeper will 

 see its practical importance, and that it dispels the 

 shades of many mysteries ; while the naturalist will 

 in delight, realize that his bee is more a wonder of 

 wonders than he has before imagined. 



