_The Larva._—The temperature of the perforated tube wherein the egg is deposited must necessarily be higher and more equal than that of the external atmosphere, being secluded from its vicissitudes. The egg is soon hatched, and the larva emerges from its shell to feed ravenously upon the sustenance stored up for its supply. This consists of an admixture of pollen and honey formed into a paste, the quantities varying according to the size of the species. By some species it is formed into little balls; by others, it is heaped irregularly at the bottom of the cell. In the case of _Andrena_ the quantity stored is of about the size of a pea. That it must be exceeding nutritious may be inferred from its very nature, consisting, as it does, of the virile, energetic, and fertilizing powder of plants,—the concentration of their living principle. It is strictly analogous to the fecundating property of the semen in animals, and, like them, produces spermatozoa, a fact corroborated by the researches of Robert Brown, Mirbel, and other distinguished vegetable physiologists.[1] Footnote 1: Might not, by parity of inference, the milt of fishes, such as the herring, mackerel, etc., be a useful food in cases of consumption, both from the iodine necessarily existing in it, and also from its doubtless nutritive nature? We are told that the cells of _Hylæus_, or _Prosopis_, and of _Ceratina_ are supplied with a semifluid honey. It is very doubtful if _Hylæus_ collects its own store, but that _Ceratina_ does, I have the authority of an exact observer (Mr. Thwaites) to verify it, for he has caught this insect with pollen on its posterior legs, which the long hair covering the tibia is intended for. What may be the nature of this semifluid honey? It is questionable if the larva could be nurtured upon honey alone without the admixture of pollen, thus contradicting analogies presumable from ample verification in nature’s processes. How, too, does it become semifluid? It is the property of honey, at a certain temperature, to be very fluid, and this is doubtless the temperature that prevails within the receptacle of the larva during the time of the operations of the bees. Its semifluid consistency could then apparently be produced only by some more solid admixture, which, if not of pollen, of what can it be? This, even in small quantities, might, upon the bursting of its vesicles, have the power of thickening the fluent honey to the necessary consistency.