144 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OE INSECTS. 



various substances of which they have need. 1 On these oc- 

 casions the principal object of the bees is to furnish themselves 

 with three different materials: — the nectar of flowers, from 

 which they elaborate honey and wax ; the pollen or fertilising 

 dust of the anthers, of which they make what is called bee- 

 bread, serving as food both to old and young ; and the resinous 

 substance called by the ancients Propolis, Pissoceros, &c, used 

 in various ways in rendering the hive secure and giving the 

 finish to the combs. The first of these substances is the pure 

 fluid secreted in the nectaries of flowers, which the length of 

 their tongue enables them to reach in most blossoms. The 

 tongue of a bee, you are to observe, though so long, and some- 

 times so inflated 2 , is not a tube through which the honey 

 passes, nor a pump acting by suction, but a real tongue, which 

 laps or licks the honey, and passes it down on its upper sur- 

 face, as we do, to the mouth, which is at its base concealed 

 by the mandibles. 3 It is conveyed by this orifice through the 

 oesophagus into the first stomach, which we call the honey-bag, 

 and which, from being very small, is swelled when full of it 



1 The following beautiful lines by Professor Smyth are extremely applicable 

 to this part of a bee's labours : — 



" Thou cheerful Bee ! come, freely come, 

 And travel round my woodbine bower ; 



Delight me with thy wandering hum, 

 And rouse me from my musing hour. 



Oh ! try no more those tedious fields, 



Come taste the sweets my garden yields : 



The treasures of each blooming mine, 



The bud, the blossom, — all are thine. 



" And, careless of this noontide heat, 



I'll follow as thy ramble guides ; 

 To watch thee pause and chafe thy feet, 



And sweep them o'er thy downy sides : 

 Then in a flower's bell nestling lie, 

 And all thy envied ardour ply ! 

 Then o'er the stem, tho' fair it grow, 

 With touch rejecting, glance, and go. 



" O Nature kind ! O labourer wise I 



That roam'st along the summer's ray, 



Glean'st every bliss thy life supplies, 

 And meet'st prepared thy wintry day ! 



Go, envied go — with crowded gates 



The hive thy rich return awaits ; 



Bear home thy store, in triumph gay, 



And shame each idler of the day." 



2 Reaum. v. t. xxviii. f. 1, 2. 3 Ibid. f. 7. o. 



