APIS. 
311 
pollen with the fore feet, and pass it to the interme¬ 
diate ones, whence it is taken by the posterior plantae, 
kneaded into shape, and deposited upon the hind 
shanks. It dries so rapidly that often, upon arriving 
home, the bees which store it have much difficulty in 
V 
tearing it from the legs of these collectors. The hottest 
days only are propitious to its gathering, for all moisture 
is injurious to it, and the hottest period of the day, also, 
is alone occupied in its collection. It is said that they 
have been known to fly as many as from three to five 
miles for it, from the circumstance that suitable plants 
were not to be found within a lesser radius; but this 
may be a mistake, for their ordinary excursions are not 
supposed to range wider than a single mile or something 
more, and bees may be able to find it where we may 
suppose it not to occur. In the abode with which we 
have provided them it is not so urgent a necessity, this 
being already wind-and-water-tight, although in the 
progress of their labours they fiiid it indispensable, and 
use it to fasten the crevices that intervene between the 
bottom of the hive and the bee board, and, as before 
noticed, to strengthen the support of the cakes of comb 
which hang from the roof. The name it still retains is 
that which was applied to it by the ancients, and signi¬ 
fies before the city, as indicative of its use in strength¬ 
ening the outworks. 
Conjoined herewith is the imperative need for the 
construction of cells for every purpose of the hive, 
namely, for the storing of the propolis, and that of the 
pollen, as also the collected honey, as well as for the 
reception of the young brood, for the mature queen is 
waiting impatiently to deposit her eggs. Simultaneously, 
therefore, is the wax being secreted and elaborated by 
