60. 
apiary, in the winter of 1806. A comb without honey 
was detached; it was cut up by the bees into little morsels, 
as minced and rounded as the finest sand. Insensibly 
this hashed wax disappeared from the bench, without | 
being perceived to have been taken out of the hive. And 
T am well convinced that the bees of the family, had put 
the small waxen morsels of the broken comb to a ne 
use, that is, to the continuation of the construction of their 
cells, which they continued to build during the whole 
winter, from the top to the bottom of the box. ‘These events 
are not rare, but are not attended to; because among the 
amateurs of the culture of bees, there are but few ob- 
SERVEL Ec cir? 1 a ei : ‘ya 
ON PROPOLIS. | 
Srcr. 4.—When a swarm of bees is established in- 
hive, says M. Valmont de Bomare, their first occupation is’ 
_ to stop all the little holes and chinks which they find in it. 
with a material which is glutinous, tenacious, soft at first, 
but afterwards grows hard. ‘This is called propolis. It i 
believed that bees collect this propolis from poplars, pines 
willows, &c. However, M. Reaumur, that indefatigable — 
observer, has not been able to discover them in that em- — 
ployment: and he saw bees using propolis, in countrie: 
where none of those kinds of trees grew. Jt 1s a discover 
to be made, continues M. Bomare. However that may be, — 
propolis is a resin, dissoluble in spirits of wine, and oil of — 
turpentine. It is not always the same in consistence, — 
odour, or colour. When it is warmed, it commonly emit 
an aromatic odour: some of it deserves a place in the rank 
of perfumes. Propolis is of a reddish brown on the out- 
side, and yellowish within. Besides the use which is mad 
of it in medicine, as a digestive, some experiments have — 
convinced M. Réaumur, that, dissolved in spirits of wine 
or oil of turpentine, it might be substituted for the varnish 
which is used to give a golden colour to silver, or to thin ‘ 
plates of steel. If, for example, it was incorporated with — 
mastic or sandarack, it would be very good to make gilt — 
leather. Eerie 
The discovery ito be made, proposed by M. Bomare, is 4 
already made! after reiterated experiments made on bees. 
during their first labours in panniers, where they were 
but just housed. In dissecting numbers of these bees, en: 
