as many millions as there are of square leagues on the surface of the earth.

Now, every one of these species of plants differs from another, in its size, structure, form, flowers, leaves, fruits, mode of propagation, colour, medicinal virtues, nutritious qualities, internal vessels, and the odours it exhales. They are of all sizes, from the microscopic mushroom, invisible to the naked eye, to the sturdy oak and the cedar of Lebanon, and from the slender willow to the Banian tree, under whose shade 7000 persons may find ample room to repose. A thousand different shades of colour distinguish the different species. Every one wears its peculiar livery, and is distinguished by its own native hues; and many of their inherent beauties can be distinguished only by the help of the microscope. Some grow upright, others creep along in a serpentine form. Some flourish for ages, others wither and decay in a few, months; some spring up in moist, others in dry soils; some turn towards the sun, others shrink and contract when we approach to touch them. Not only are the different species of plants and flowers distinguished from each other, by their different forms, but even the different individuals of the same species. In a bed of tulips or carnations, for example, there is scarcely a flower in which some difference may not be observed in its structure, size, or assemblage of colours; nor can any two flowers be found in which the shape and shades are exactly similar. Of all the hundred thousand millions of plants, trees, herbs, and flowers, with which our globe is variegated, there are not, perhaps, two individuals precisely alike, in every point of view in which they may be contemplated; yea, there is not, perhaps, a single leaf in the forest, when minutely examined, that will not be found to differ, in certain aspects, from its fellows. Such is the wonderful and infinite diversity with which the Creator has adorned the vegetable kingdom.

His wisdom is also evidently displayed in this vast profusion of vegetable nature-in adapting each plant to the soil and situation in which it is destined to flourish-in furnishing it with those vessels by which

it absorbs the air and moisture on which it feeds-and in adapting it to the nature and necessities of animated beings. As the earth teems with animated existence, and as the different tribes of animals depend chiefly on the productions of the vegetable kingdom for their subsistence, so there is an abundance and a variety of plants adapted to the peculiar constitutions of every individual species. This circumstance demonstrates, that there is a pre-contrived relation and fitness between the internal constitution of the animal, and the nature of the plants which afford it nourishment; and shows us, that the animal and the vegetable kingdoms are the workmanship of one and the same Almighty Being, and that, in his arrangements with regard to the one, he had in view the necessities of the other. (To be continued.)

NATURAL HISTORY.

HIVE BEES-INSECT ARCHITECTURE.

BEES have, in all ages of the world, excited the attention of mankind; as well for the honey they produce in such marvellous abundance, as for the indefatigable industry by which they uniformly appear to be animated in their excursions beyond the place of their habitation. Hyliscus, the philosopher, we are informed by Cicero and Pliny, appears to have been one of the first who made the habits of this insect an object of study. For this purpose he retired into the desert. The ancients had a popular notion that bees were endowed with moral qualities. Virgil and others of his day, it is well known, paid great attention to bees. But it may be justly said, that nothing was known of their domestic economy until Réaumur and Huber rendered it the object of their study. The latter could not be said to have made it the object of his contemplation, for, strange to say, he was blind when he took to this pursuit, and only saw through the eyes of an affectionate wife, who attended on all his labours, and participated in his enthusiasm.

we are furnished with To this work we are

In the "History of Insects,' a full account of the hive bee. indebted for the following facts and observations, as well as for the history of the ant tribe, contained in our last number. We must however refer the reader to the work itself-it is replete with interest, and will amply compensate, by way of amusement and instruction, the time devoted to its examination.

The scene presented by the interior of a bee-hive has seldom failed to interest even the most incurious observer, while it fills with astonishment the mind of the enlightened and profound philosopher. When the day is fine, and the sun shining brightly, the habitation of these marvellous little creatures exhibits the aspect of a populous and busy city. The gates are crowded with hundreds of industrious workers-some on the wing in search of sustenance; others returning from the fields laden with food--some earnestly engaged in buildingsome in tending the young-others employed in cleansing their habitation-while four or five may be seen dragging out the corpse of a companion, and, as it would appear, scrupulously paying the last honours to the dead. At one moment the entrances of the little city are comparatively free; at another, crowds of its inhabitants may be seen struggling at the gates, making the best of their way to escape from the rain, which, by some peculiar sensation, they have discovered to be at hand.

A community or swarm of bees consists, first, of workers (fig. 2); these are of no sex; amount generally to many thousands in number, and are easily recogniz ed by their industry, and by the smallness of their size : 2dly, of males (fig. 3); of which several hundreds belong to each community; these are larger than the working bee, and live idly: over all presides a queen, the most important member of the whole of this little commonwealth (fig. 1.) A person may keep hives for

* Natural History of Insects, 1 vol. 18 mo. pp. 292, embellished with numerous wood cuts. This work is an interesting and entertaining number of Harpers' valuable Family Library.

years, and never see this insect, about which more extraordinary things have been seen and written, than the reader would be disposed to believe.

Like every other animal living in society, bees have

a medium of communication. The effects produced upon them by the loss of their queen will furnish proof of this fact. In a well-peopled and thriving hive, each bee is employed in its appropriate avocation, some in attending the young, some in making cells. At first, when the queen has been abstracted, every thing goes on well for about an hour; after this space of time, some few of the workers appear in a state of great agitation; they forsake the young, relinquish their labour, and begin to traverse the hive in a furious manner. In their progress, wherever they meet a companion, they mutually cross their antennæ,* and the one which seems to have first discovered the national loss, communicates the sad news to its neighbour, by giving it a gentle tap with these organs. This one in its turn becomes agitated, runs over the cells, crossing and striking others. Thus in a short time the whole hive is

*Feelers.

VOL. I.-25

thrown into confusion, every thing is neglected, and the humming may be heard at a distance. This agitation lasts from four to five hours, after which the bees are calmed, and begin to adopt the measures which are necessary to repair their loss. That the agitation of the bees arises from the loss of the queen scarcely admits of a doubt. "I cannot doubt," says Huber, "that the agitation arises from the workers having lost their queen; for on restoring her, tranquillity is instantly reestablished among them, and, what is very singular, they recognise her. This expression must be interpreted literally for the substitution of another queen is not attended with the same effect, if she be introduced into the hive within the first twenty-four hours after removal of the reigning one. Here the agitation continues, and the bees treat the stranger just as they do when the presence of their own queen leaves them nothing to desire. But if twenty-four hours have elapsed before substituting the stranger queen, she will be well received, and reign from the moment of her introduction into the hive."

In order to observe the habits of this insect-world, the best plan is either to have several glass hives, or overturn some common ones, that a comparative view may be taken of the works carrying on in the interior.

"It is absolutely necessary," says Reaumur, "that more than one hive should be thus exposed; for then we shall see the disposition of the combs to be various in the different ones. They are not restricted to a uniform mode of constructing their cells, but accommodate the structure to circumstances."

The combs do not touch each other, but are separated by intervals sufficiently wide to permit the bees to work at the surface of each contiguous comb, and approach any cell without quite touching each otherbesides these highways, the little city contains also narrower passages, by which the communication between one cake and another is materially shortened. The honey-comb is placed vertically in the hive. Each comb is composed of two layers of six-sided cells, united by their bases.