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Show BEES AXD THEIR IXSTITU-i TIOX. BV SOPHIE B. HERRICK. I1 CONTINUED. j Miualdi, the inventor ot the glass -hivca, ujeaaured the augle oi the cells of the coruba with great care; he , found them to bo respectively 109 28' and 70 32y. M. Kosnig, a woll ( matheniatician, without any pre-j vioua knowledge of this meaaurement, i 1 was requested to determine by cal- 1 dilation what should be the angles of a hexagonal tube with a pyramidal i biise, iu order that the least possible 1 material abould euior into iia con-etruction. con-etruction. His angles, reached by , the methods of calculus, were . 26' and 70 34'. - In curving their comb, as they aro sometimes forced Io do, and in con- . forming themselves to many adverse circumstances, bees otten show won-derlul won-derlul wisdom and skill in the variation varia-tion of size and shape In their cells. In curved comb, for instance, the 1 shape of every individual cell must be changed from the ordinnry hexagonal tubo with parallel Bide. In this citso the bases of tho double row of cells are of the usual size and shape; the cells on the concave side- ot ihe comb narrow from the base to the open end, while those on the convex side widen. When a transition from worker to drone comb, or vice versa, is necessary, it is efl'octcd by interposing inter-posing Beveral rows of cells of gradually gradu-ally increasing or decreasing size. Tucso irregular cells are used for the storing of provisons, never for food. When brat completed the comb is pure white and very brittle; it is u I tor ward strengthened and somewhat some-what discolored by the addition of propolis. This is a gum collected ln.ni certain trees by the bees, and is utiid to make the hives bolh airtight and watertight. The fragile white comb is sometimes varnished with a thin coaling ot propolis, and at times the bees have been observed pulling down the first built comb, and working the wax over wit an admixture of this gum. ihe propolis is often kepi ready Jor use in a lump placed in an accessible pari of the hivo. In this form it hardens till it is almost like stone; when the bees desire to use it, they have been observed to Bofteu it by the application ol the same saliva with which they imbue the wax. W hen sufficient comb lias been supplied to the hive the workers begin to collect stores; they rove the, bulds for pollen and honey. Tho pulien dust is gathered by the bee with its brushes and packed away in the pollen basket. It is generally collected in the morning, while iho moisture renders it eohHivA pnnmh to be lormed into the liule balls with which they fill iheir baskets. Wheu this is impossible, in consequence ol tne dryness of the air, the beo rolls himself in the pollen, and flies home as dusty as any miller. In the hive Hie larina is collected from hts body and packed away. It hiis been known since tho days ol Aristotle iV.xt these little insects nevtr ttore me pollen of different flowers in the same cell. Each bee cornea home loaded with a homogeneous mass, and o temptation ia uLlicient to induce nim to vi;it more than one kind ol blossom in a single sxcuraion. li the flowers visited by the beo yield bolh pollen and honey, he loads himselt with both on the same trip. The honey is gathered by means of the bee's mouth, which is a mtt complicated organ, The prohoacis penetrates the ncctarium of the tlowtr; by the aid of tho tongue and other portions of the mouin, Ibo bouoy is drawn up aud conveyed into the honey recepude a sort of second stomach surrounded by powerful musclis, which enable the bee to regurgitate its contents when il reaches the hive. Tne saccharine secretion ol il-titers undoubtedly undergie8 wmie change while in tho elomucii of iho bet-, flouey mado irum the cluVi-r, suar aud waler, from fruit juice, dues nut poartess a 'ILvur that would revva! the source from which it had been obumcd. i Tho Lwto is tint, however, wholly (independent of its source: cerUin plants yield much more delicate : nouey than others. The honey ol liounl Ilymt-ltvn, of Nurbouue, "and ol 1'ontuss all owe 11, fir exquisite atul peculiar flavors to Ihe plants frequented fre-quented by Ihe lues, Tuese provisinus stored by the bees have their upecilic nen. The honey is uttod an loud lor tho nmluro bow, aud is the material from which wax is secreted. The pollen funus food ol the larva; aud pupu. Many expori-ments expori-ments have at last proved that pollen has its use also in the tecretion of wax. With pollen aione bee secrete no wax; withuul it and with abundance abun-dance of honey they at first secrets ' il abundantly, Lut soon seem ex-, haunted. As our hivo ia supposed to bo i auppueu wan a periecl, Iwrluo quoeu, it will lie necens.iry to gu b.n k a lulls. An old queen almn.it invariably Ivads ufl tho Bwann. She is therefore ready to begin stocking the comb with bnx-d us soon us tho workers have built it. Soon after our queeu wo hatched iu thu parent swarm, nbo look her first and only flight, with thu exception of that in swarming time. A Shinto fertilization in eullicicnt to impregnate Iho hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of eg tjii laid by thu queen dtinug luir lilu of several years. Li to many oilier innecls alio is fecundated on the wing. Dr. Joseph Leidy, of I'nilath Ipliin, by tho aid of inicroticiipic invustigaiL-u, discovered dis-covered a small sack opening uilo thu oviduct ol the. queen, which is tho permanent receptacle of the sji.-r-mutic fluid. Diii-rznu, Von Siehold, 1 and, iu fuel, all the greatest living I naturalist ol the world, liavo beou forced into tliti rrniarkablo conclusion con-clusion that feinulo bees, workers, ami queens aro produced from fertilized, fer-tilized, and drone from unfertilized, eggs. Tho bcx of tho egg is determined deter-mined iy nevnral eauii; il the queu from any mallorniaiioii of tho wings is tinahlo to lonvu the hive, if mIio I is starved for Uonty lour hours, if she is mibjeeled to lnleii.ic cold fur any longlh oT timo, mid when Bli hn-rnuicH hn-rnuicH old, hIio lays only drone eg's. The microBcopo proves that in each of thcHo cases tho spermatic sack ban withered away, mid ;n no longer perform its funclion of vivilying the egRH as thoy puss it. How thu queen is able to efloct this lerlilizatiou at will, though an ascertained fact, is an unexplained myHtery. TO Itt CONTINUED. |