An inquisitive eye loves to pry into the inmost recesses of objects, and seldom fails of a reward more 
than proportioned to the trouble of the research. Every one must have observed, that in all flowers there 
is an apparatus in the centre, different from the leafy structure of the verge, which is what strikes the eye at 
first sight; the threads which support the yellow heads in the centre of the rose, and those which serve as 
pedestals to the less numerous, but larger, dusky black ones in the tulip, are of this kind. Formerly, these 
were esteemed no more than casual particles, or the effect of a luxuriance from an abundant share of nour- 
ishment sent up to the leaves of the flower, throwing itself into these uncertain forms, as they were then 
esteemed. But science disclaims the supposition of nature’s having made any thing, even the slightest par- 
ticle of the meanest herb, in vain; and, proceeding on this hypothesis, has discovered that the gaudy leaves 
which were, at one time, supposed to constitute the essence of the flower, are merely a defence to the thready 
matter within; which, despised as it used to be, is indeed the most essential part of the whole — is that for 
which almost the whole has been formed, and that alone on which the continuation of the species depends. 
It has been found that, of the minutest threads in this little tuft, there is not one but has a destined office, 
not one but joins in the common service; and that, though so numerous and apparently indefinite, every 
single flower on the whole tree has precisely the same number to the utmost exactness, and precisely in the 
same situation. Nor is it credible that there ever has been, or ever will be, through successive ages, a tree 
of the same kind every single flower of which will not be formed with the same perfect regularity. 
In the beautiful Almond-tree before me I saw a confirmation of this accurate exactness in the care of 
providence. Not a flower of the millions that crowded upon the sight in every part but contained the pre- 
cise number of thirty little threads ; and not one of these threads but had its regularly-figured head placed 
in the same direction on its summit, and filled with a waxy dust, destined for impregnating the already 
teeming fruit. The fruit showed its downy rudiments in the centre, and sent up a peculiar organ to the height 
of these heads, to receive the fertilising dust when the heads should burst, and convey it to the very centre 
of the embrio fruit. 
Such is the economy of nature in the production of these treasures ; but she has usually more purposes 
than one to answer in the same subject. It was easy to conceive, that one of all these little receptacles of 
dust might have contained enough of it to impregnate the kernel of a single fruit, for each flower produces 
no more. Yet, surely, twenty-nine in thirty had not been created in vain. It was not long before the 
mystery was explained to me. 
The sun shining with unusual warmth, for the season, led forth a bee from a neighbouring hive, who di- 
rected her course immediately to this source of plenty. The little creature first settled on the top of one of 
the branches; and, for a moment, seemed to enjoy the scene as I did. She just gave me time to admire her 
sleek, silky coat, and glossy wings, before she plunged into a full blown blossom, and buried herself among 
the thready honors of the centre. Here she wantoned and rolled herself about, as if in ecstasy, a consi- 
derable time. Her motions greatly disconcerted the apparatus of the flower ; the ripe heads of the thready 
filaments all burst, and shed a subtile yellow powder over the whole surface of the leaves, nor did she cease 
from her gambols while one of them remained whole, or with any appearance of the dust in its cavity. 
Tired with enjoyment, she now walked out, and appeared to have paid for the mischief she had done at 
the expence of strangely defiling her own downy coat. Though some of the dust from the little capsules 
had been spread over the surface of the flower, the far greater part of it had evidently fallen upon her own 
back, and been retained there among the shag of its covering. 
She now stationed herself on the summit of a little twig, and began to clear her body of the newly 
gathered dust, and it was not half a minute before her whole coat was as clean glossy as at first : yet it was 
most singular not a particle of the dust had fallen upon any of the flowers about her, where it must have 
been visible as easily as on the surface of that it was taken from. 
A very labored motion of the fore legs of the bee attracted my eye, and the whole business was then 
immediately explained ; I found she had carefully brought together every particle that she had wiped off 
from her body, and formed it into a mass, which she was now moulding into a firmer texture, and which she 
soon after delivered to the next leg, and from that, after a little moulding more, to the hinder one, where 
she lodged it in a round lump in a part destined to receive it ; and, having thus finished her operation, took 
wing for the hive with her load. 
It was now evident, that what had seemed sport and pastime was business to the insect; that its rolling 
itself about was with intent to dislodge this yellow dust from the little cases that contained it ; and that 
this powder, the abundance of which it was easy to perceive could not be created for the service of the 
plant, was destined to furnish the bee with wax to make its combs, and to serve us for a thousand purposes 
afterwards. 
The return of this single insect to the hive sent out a legion upon the same expedition. The tree was 
in an instant covered as thick almost with bees as with flowers. All these employed themselves exactly as 
the first had done, except that some forced themselves into flowers scarcely opened, in which the reser- 
voirs of this waxy powder were not ripe for bursting. I saw them bite open successively every one of the 
thirty heads in the flower, and, scooping out the contents, add them to the increasing ball that was to be 
carried home upon the thigh. 
