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neons action of the whorl of hairs on the tip of the tongue 
gradually progressing downwards towards its base. These 
various movements Muller was able to follow by intoxicating 
bees with chloroform, and then immersing the tip of the tongue 
into a solution of sugar. When the bee is flying on a honey- 
seeking expedition, it carries its sucking apparatus stretched 
forwards, so as to be able to put it directly into the opening of 
the nectary ; its tongue being perfectly enclosed between the 
labial palpi and the maxillae, and the delicate whorls of hairs 
thus protected from injury. Bees frequently require to obtain 
the fluid from the cellular tissue itself of the petals, as in the 
hyacinth and some species of orchis, or from nectaries toe 
deep to be reached by the proboscis, as in the heath or clover ; 
for this purpose they sometimes bite the flowers by their man- 
dibles, but more often pierce it by the extremities of the 
maxillae or laminae. Darwin states, in his “ Origin of Species,” 
that the common red clover, although containing abundance of 
honey, is perfectly useless, owing to the length of the corolla- 
tube, to the hive-bee, until the tube has first been bitten 
through by a humble-bee. The honey of Trifolium incar - 
natum , on the other hand, is perfectly accessible to the hive- 
bee. 
H. Muller has described, in a very interesting manner,* the 
mode in which hive- and honey-bees collect pollen. They first 
moisten it with honey before stripping it off with the brushes 
of their feet from the anthers. During this process the maxillae 
and the labium are commonly bent beneath the breast as when 
at rest; the jaws are opened, and a drop of honey is spit out 
upon the pollen. The dry pollen of Plantago lanceolata (fig. 
7, PI. CXIX.) Muller saw collected by a bee in the following 
manner : — The bee maintains itself in the same place, imme- 
diately before the anthers, by very rapid vibrations of its 
wings ; its sucking-apparatus is stretched forwards, but the 
tongue quite enclosed between the laminae and the labial 
palpi ; and a drop of honey is spit out from the tube on to the 
anthers. It then suddenly grasps the anthers with the brushes 
of its anterior legs, and strips off the moistened pollen on 
them ; the dry pollen from the neighbouring anthers being 
also shaken out in a dense cloud. In Plantago lanceolata 
there is no honey ; when pollen is to be collected from nectari- 
ferous flowers, bees retract their sucking-organs, while these 
organs have to be stretched out when the honey is collected. 
They can never therefore suck honey and collect pollen at the 
same time, but perform these actions alternately. There are, 
however, some bees, like Andrena , Osmia , and Megachile , 
“ Nature,” vol. viii. p. 206. 
