PROPOLIS. 
129 
18 IT AN ELABORATE OR NATURAL SUBSTANCE ? 
No modern observer has ever been able to detect 
the bees in the act of gathering it. 
iiuber’s opinion. 
Huber tells us, that “ near the outlet of one of his 
hives, he placed some of the branches of the poplar, 
which exudes a transparent juice, the color of garnet. 
Several workers were soon seen perched upon these 
brandies, — having detached some of this resinous 
gum, they formed it into pellets, and deposited them 
in the baskets of their thighs ; thus loaded, they flew 
to the hive, where some of their fellow-laborers in- 
stantly came to assist them in detaching this viscid 
substance from their baskets.” Some of our modern 
apiarians have doubted this account of Huber’s. 
Now, in the absence of anything positive on this sub- 
ject, I am inclined to adopt this theorj'; that it is a 
resin or gum produced by trees. (I cannot say that I 
am exactly satisfied with the story of bringing the 
“branches and laying them by the hive,” &c.) That 
bees gather it in its natural state, is in accordance with 
my own observation. 
FURTHER PROOF. 
Our first swarms that issue in May, or first of June, 
seldom use much of the article pure for soldering and 
plastering ; but instead, a composition, the .most of 
which is wax. I have noticed at this season, when 
old pieces of boards that had been used for hives, 
were left in the sun, that, this old propolis would 
become soft in the middle of the day. Here I have 
frequently seen the bees at work, packing it upon their 
6 * 
