The point at which pollen enters the basket can best be determined by examining the corbiculæ of a bee shortly after it has reached a flower and before much pollen has been collected. Within each pollen basket of such a bee is found a small mass of pollen, which lies along the lower or distal margin of the basket. (See fig 8, _a_.) It is in this position because it has been scraped from the planta of the opposite leg by the pecten comb and has been pushed upward past the entrance of the basket by the continued addition of more from below, propelled by the successive strokes of the auricle. Closer examination of the region between the pecten and the floor of the basket itself shows more pollen, which is on its way to join that already squeezed into the basket. [Illustration: Fig. 8.--Camera drawings of the left hind legs of worker bees to show the manner in which pollen enters the basket. _a_, Shows a leg taken from a bee which is just beginning to collect. It had crawled over a few flowers and had flown in the air about five seconds at the time of capture. The pollen mass lies at the entrance of the basket, covering over the fine hairs which lie along this margin and the seven or eight short stiff spines which spring from the floor of the corbicula immediately above its lower edge. As yet the pollen has not come in contact with the one long hair which rises from the floor and arches over the entrance. The planta is extended, thus lowering the auricle; _b_, represents a slightly later stage, showing the increase of pollen. The planta is flexed, raising the auricle. The hairs which extend outward and upward from the lateral edge of the auricle press upon the lower and outer surface of the small pollen mass, retaining it and guiding it upward into the basket; _c_, _d_, represent slightly later stages in the successive processes by which additional pollen enters the basket. (Original.)] If the collecting bee is watched for a few moments the increase will readily be noted and the fact will be established that the accumulating mass is gradually working upward or proximally from the lower or distal edge of the corbicula and is slowly covering the floor of this receptacle. (See figs. 8, _b_, _c_, and _d_.) In many instances the successive contributions remain for a time fairly separate, the whole mass being marked by furrows transverse to the long axis of the tibia. Sladen (1912, _b_) notes the interesting fact that in those rather exceptional cases when a bee gathers pollen from more than one species of flowers the resulting mass within the corbicula will show a stratification parallel to the distal end, a condition which could result only from the method of loading here indicated.