146 STATEMENT OF FEBURIER. 



and put into it some pieces of comb containing workers' eggs, 

 the same day several cells were enlarged by the bees, and 

 converted into royal cells, and the larva supplied with a 

 profusion of jelly. He then removed these worms from the 

 royal cells, and substituted for them as many common worms 

 from workers' cells. The bees did not seem aware of the 

 change; they watched over the new worms as intently as 

 over those chosen by themselves, and closed them at the 

 usual time. At the proper time, two queens were hatched 

 almost at the same moment, of the largest size and well 

 formed in every respect. Now, how will Mr. Huber account 

 for the following circumstance? He says, that the larvae 

 which he inserted in the hive were duly supplied with a pro- 

 fusion of jelly, without which no queen can be made. He, 

 however, removed those larvae, and substituted others taken 

 from the workers' cells, but to which no jelly whatever had 

 been administered ; nevertheless two queens came forth, by 

 which it would appear that queens can be made either with 

 or without jelly. In every other case, the administration of the 

 jelly is a sine qua non in the theory of Huber; whereas 

 Feburier, who is another very valid authority in the estima- 

 tion of the editor of the "Naturalist's Library," says, "The egg 

 of a common worker placed in a royal cell, only produces 

 an insect, which has its powers more fully developed, in 

 proportion to the ampler space which it occupies, out it 

 acquires no new powers. The germ of the ovary existed 

 originally in the common bee, as well as in the mother bee, 

 but the confined limit of its cell, and the want of the 

 peculiar food provided for the royal race, prevented its de- 

 velopment." On this subject, Feburier and Dunbar are 

 nearly of one accord ; but when was it ever proved that the 

 germ of an ovary existed in the common bee ? The utmost 

 skill of the anatomist has never been able to discover even the 

 rudiments of it ; and if such germ be not actually existing in 

 the common bee, what then becomes of the experiments of 



