"With merry hum the Willow's copse they scale, The fir's dark pyramid, or Poplar pale, Scoop from the Alder's leaf its oozy flood, Or strip the Chesnut's resin-coated bud, Skim the light tear that tips Narcissus' ray. Or round the Hollyhock's hoar fragrance play. Soon temper'd to their will through eve's low beam, And link'd in airy bands the viscous stream. They waft their nut-brown loads exulting home, That form a fret-work for the future comb, Caulk every chink where rushing winds may roar, And seal their circling ramparts to the floor." +Evans.+ As to the bees refusing resinous substances, when presented to them, as substitutes for propolis, +Mr. Knight+ has assured us, in the Philosophical Transactions, that this is not the fact; as he had seen them carry off a composition of wax and turpentine, which had been laid over the decorticated parts of his trees. The bees blend this substance with wax in different proportions, as occasion may require. Among the ancients, it bore different names, according to the quantity of wax it contained. Virgil made this distinction, though +Mr. Martin+ conceives that his _narcissi lachrymæ_, _cera_ [cum quâ]--"spiramenta tenuia linunt,"--and _gluten_, all mean the same thing: this is probably a mistake. It seems much more likely that +Virgil+ should mean _metys_, _pissoceron_ and _propolis_, the three names by which +Pliny+ says that the varieties of propolis were distinguished in his time. I have before alluded to the fortification of the weak places of hives with propolis. M. Reaumur, whose hives consisted of wooden frames and panes of glass, wishing to put this talent of the bees to the test, carelessly fastened the glass of a hive with paper and paste, before putting in a swarm; the bees soon discovered the weakness of his paste-work, and indignantly gnawing to pieces this feeble fence, secured the glass with their own cement. I have already observed, that _the sage bee_ chooses the morning for collecting pollen, on account of the dew's enabling her to compress it better; but, as moisture would render propolis less coherent, she _gathers this substance when the day is somewhat advanced_, and when the warmth of the sun has imparted to it softness and pliancy. These qualities are however soon lost, after it has been detached from the secreting surfaces, and exposed to the oxygenizing power of the air. So rapid is this hardening process, that the bees which store it, oftentimes find some difficulty in tearing it with their jaws from the thighs of its collectors. CHAPTER XXXVIII. IMPORTANCE OF BEES TO THE FRUCTIFICATION OF FLOWERS.