74 
THE FUNCTIONS OF BEES. 
tlie nature of the insect. And indeed the difficulty, 
we might almost say impossibility of obtaining any 
thing like ocular evidence on the subject, will readily 
account for the diversity of opinion that has hitherto 
prevailed. And we should hope that this difficulty 
alone, and not any preconceived theory or unreason- 
able prejudice, is the cause of that determined per- 
tinacity with which the discoveries and conclusions 
of Huber, on this subject, are still in some instances 
rejected. That justly celebrated Naturalist, insti- 
tuted a set of experiments on the subject of the 
queen’s impregnation, the result of which leads to the 
conclusion that it takes place in tho air. For an ac- 
count of these experiments, we must refer our read- 
ers to his Observations, page 18 . 
Retarded Impregnation . — There is a fact connect- 
ed with this part of the natural history of the mother 
bee which involves great difficulties. The fact itself 
was discovered by Huber, hut its cause he was unable 
to develope, and no succeeding naturalist has been 
able to free it from the obscurity in which he has left 
it, — we mean the effects of Retarded Impregnation. 
These effects are such as we could hardly credit, were 
not the fact confirmed by numerous experiments. If 
impregnation he delayed longer than twenty days 
from the Queen's birth, the consequence is that none 
hut male eggs are laid, even during the whole of the 
Queen’s life. This phenomenon has baffled every 
attempt to explain its cause. “ There are mysteries,” 
observes Feburicr, " in the operations of nature, both 
in reference to the rational and irrational creation, 
