68 LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 
LETTER VII. 
I shall not pretend,, my dear Harriet, to give 
you a full and circumstantial account of all the 
history of bees, but shall only mention such 
things as I consider more particularly worthy of 
attention ; though even the most trivial circum- 
stance shows the wisdom and perfection in which 
all nature is made. 
The principal object of the working bees in 
their excursions, is to obtain three things : the 
nectar of flowers, from which they make honey 
and wax ; the pollen or dust of the anthers in 
flowers, of which they make bee bread, which is 
their food ; and the resinous substance called by 
the ancients propolis, and used in various ways 
in rendering the hive secure, and finishing the 
combs. The first is the pure fluid in the nec- 
taries of flowers, which they lick up with their 
long tongues ; for you must remark the bee's 
tongue is not a tube to suck with, but a real 
tongue, which laps or licks the honey, and 
passes it to the first stomach, which is called the 
