The Bee's Tongue 



31 



springtime, very likely young ones, examining the " leaves, 

 branches, and even rough wood of the trunk of the tree," 

 as if smelling out the nectar. But when the secret has 

 once been discovered, all who have watched bees know 

 how well it has been remembered. Bees, like all living 

 creatures, control their lives through the exercise of reason. 



The bumble-bee, although belonging to another genus, 

 is very similar to the honey-bee in structure, and while it 

 differs in many ways in its habits, 

 still its methods of gathering nec- 

 tar and pollen are the same, and 

 its large size and good nature 

 make it a pleasant house com- 

 panion. 



It is longer lived when in cap- 

 tivity than the honey-bee, and not 

 so likely to get lost when it has the 

 freedom of the room. If one for- 

 gets to put it up for the night it 

 crawls away into some self-chosen 

 corner and emerges next day, 

 making a great commotion. 



The best way to discover how bees visit flowers is to 

 give the bees a short fast, then introduce the flower to be 

 experimented upon, with no other flowers in the room. 



In this way the writer enjoyed a very amusing exhibition 

 of the bumble-bee's performances with the moccasin flower 

 or pink lady's slipper, — cypripedium acaule. 



A whole afternoon spent in the dim woods with these 

 strange and lovely growths failed to throw any light upon 

 their method of fertilization. 



It is reported that the smaU bumble-bees fertihze them, 

 but at this season — June — there were no small, or worker, 

 bombuses flying. They had not yet come out. 



