278 
BRITISH BEES. 
so placidly and uniformly traversed, and whose termi¬ 
nation who shall predict ? Having completed the re¬ 
quisite store of honey mixed with pollen, this is carried 
to the brush with which the under side of the abdomen 
is furnished, by means of the posterior legs. The honey 
and pollen are gathered from different kinds of thistles, 
whence it acquires a reddish hue and looks almost like 
conserve of roses, and the nest is filled with it to within a 
line of its top ; the egg is then deposited, but the coating 
of leaves, which enclose the cell completely, secures the 
store from lateral absorption, although the mixture is 
rather more fluid, consisting of a relatively greater quan¬ 
tity of honey than is usual, excepting perhaps in the case 
of Ceratina, and although no viscous secretion is used 
to bind the leaves together, which retain their position 
from merely lateral pressure. The cell has now to be 
closed, and the artificer knowing that the transverse 
section of the cylinder is circular, again flies forth, and 
without compass, but with all the accuracy with which 
Leonardo da Vinci struck a circle with his pencil, to 
testifv his masterv, cuts the leaf again in that form, 
and as surely : and, three or four, or five or six times, re¬ 
peats this operation, returning each time with each piece, 
so many having been variously observed. The separa¬ 
tion between the cells being thus consolidated, it is 
further thickened by the lateral, spare, protruding edge 
of the leaf first introduced lapping over it. The whole 
process is again renewed in the same manner as at first, 
the bottom edge of the cutting of the external leaf is 
again curved to form a concave bottom to the next cell, 
and the sides are similarlv formed, and each cell fits 
the preceding like the top of one thimble placed in 
the mouth of another. The repetition of all this is 
