An interesting account is given by Reaumur of another mason-bee (Megachile muraria,) selecting earthly sand, grain by grain; her gluing a mass of these together with saliva, and building with them her cells from the foundation. But the cells of the Greenwich Park nest were apparently composed of the mortar of the brick wall; though the external covering seems to have been constructed as Reaumur describes his nest, with the occasional addition of small stones. It is in instances such as these, which exhibit the adaptation of instinct to circumstances, that our reason finds. the greatest difficulty in explaining the governing principle of the minds of the inferior animals. The masonbee makes her nest by an invariable rule: the model is in her mind, as it has been in the mind of her race from their first creation: they have learnt nothing by experience. But the mode in which they accomplish this task varies according to the situations in which they are placed. They appear to have a glimmering of reason, employed as an accessary and instrument of their instinct. Cells of Mason-Bees, built, in the first and second figures, by Osmia-bicornis between bricks, and in the third, by Megachile muraria in the fluting of an old pilastor; about half the natural size. The structure, when finished, consisted of a wall of clay supported by two contiguous bricks, enclosing six chambers, within which a mass of pollen, rather larger than a cherry-stone, was deposited, together with an egg, from which in due time a grub was hatched.— Contrary to what has been recorded by preceding naturalists, with respect to other mason-bees, we found the cells in this instance quite parallel and perpendicular; but it may also be remarked, that the bee itself was a species altogether different from the one which we have described above as the Anthophora retusa, and agreed with the figure of the Osmia bicornis. Had There was one circumstance attending the proceedings of this mason-bee which struck us not a little, though we could not explain it to our own satisfaction. Every time she left her nest for the purpose of procuring a fresh supply of materials, she paid a regular visit to the blossoms of a lilac tree which grew near. these blossoms afforded a supply of pollen, with which she could have replenished her cells, we could have easily understood her design; but the pollen of the lilac is not suitable for this purpose, and that she had never used it was proved by all the pollen in the cells being yellow, whereas that of the lilac is of the same pale, purple color as the flowers. Besides, she did not return immediately from the lilac tree to the building, but always went for a load of clay. There seemed to us, therefore, to be only two ways to explain the circumstance; she must either have applied to the lilac blossoms to obtain a refreshment of honey, or to procure glutinous materials to mix with the clay. When employed upon the building itself, the bee exhibited the restless disposition peculiar to most hymenopterous* insects; for she did not go on with one particular portion of her wall, but ran about from place to place every time she came to work. At first, when we saw her running from the bottom to the top of her building, we naturally imagined that she went up for some of the bricklayer's mortar to mix with her own materials: but upon minutely examining the walls afterwards, no lime could be discovered in their structure, similar to that which was apparent in the nest found in the wall of Greenwich Park. Reaumur mentions another sort of mason-bee, which selects a small cavity in a stone, in which she forms her nest of garden mould moistened with gluten, and afterwards closes the hole with the same material. *The fifth order of Linnæus; insects with four transparent veined wings. VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. The Egg-Plant and Love-Apple. The love-apple, or tomata, is a native of the tropical parts of South America. It is an annual: the leaves and flowers have some resemblance to those of the potatoe, only the latter are yellow. The fruit, when ripe, attains the size of a small apple. It is compressed at the crown and base, and furrowed along the sides; the whole is of uniform color, and smooth and shining. There are some varieties both in the shape and color of the fruit; bright red and orange are the prevailing colors. The love-apple is used for eating in every stage of its growth. When green, it is pickled or preserved; when ripe, it is employed for soups and sauces and the juice is made into a kind of ketchup. THE EGG-PLANT Belongs to the same family, has the same habits, and requires nearly the same culture as the love apple. It is found in the warmer parts of Africa, Asia, and America it is an annual; rises to the height of about two feet; bears light violet flowers, which are followed by large fleshy berries, having the size and shape, and, in the white varieties, very much the color and resemblance of eggs,-whence the common name. The forms of the egg-plant, are globe-shaped and oval; and some of both forms are white, and others purple or mottled. The egg-plant, according to the 'Hortus Kewensis, has been cultivated in England since the year 1596; but it has seldom been made use of as an article of cookery. Even on the continent, where the temperature agrees better with its habits, it has not so much flavor as the love apple; but still it is used in soups and stews, and also eaten sliced and fried with oil or butter. Though the young plants require to be forwarded in a hot-bed, they may afterwards be made to produce fruit on warm and sheltered borders; and both they and the love-apple succeed best when placed against a sunny wall. Beside the white egg-plant, (the Solanum melongena of Linnæus,) which has been long cultivated as a curiosity, though never used as food, there are several others: and M. Dunal, in his History of Solanums, has separated the edible ones, of which he has enumerated four varieties, into the species of Solanum esculentum. The round and the long variety of the esculent are both cultivated in the garden of the Horticultural Society. The plants, which are annuals, are raised to the height of nine or ten inches in the stove, and then planted on the borders in the open air where they grow to the height of between two and three feet. The fruits of both are large the round, or rather oval (for that is its proper shape), is four inches long and about three thick. This variety is called the Mammoth egg-plant. The long has larger fruit, measuring sometimes as much as eight inches in length. They vary much more in color than the round, some of them being streaked with yellow. Other varieties are described as being found in India; but the seeds that have been sent to this country have produced fruit similar to the kinds now mentioned. Various species of the solanum are common in the Levant and three are particularly described by Dr. Walsh in the Horticultural Transactions. The following is the substance of his communication: Solanum Ethiopicum is the scarlet egg-plant, of which the fruit is produced in the neighborhood of Constantinople; but it is rare, being never sold in the markets, and but seldom seen in private gardens. It is used as an ingredient in soups. Solanum Sodomeum is a purple egg-plant, of which the fruit is large and handsome. A species of cynips often attacks and punctures the rind; upon which the whole fruit gangrenes, and is converted into a substance like ashes, while the outside is fair and beautiful. It is found on the borders of the Dead Sea, and is that apple, the external beauty and the internal deception of which have been so celebrated in fabulous, and so perplexing in true history. "Dead-Sea fruits, that tempt the eye, But turn to ashes on the lips." The dreadful judgment of the cities of the plain, recorded in sacred history,—the desolation around the Dead Sea, the extreme saltness of its waters, the bitumen, and, as is reported, the smoke that sometimes issued from its surface,-were all calculated for making it a fit locality for superstitous terrors; and among the rest were the celebrated apples which are mentioned by Josephus, the historian of the Jews, not as fabulous matters of which he had been told, but as real substances which he had seen with his own eyes. He says, they have a fair color, as if they were fit to be eaten; but if you pluck them with your hand, they vanish into smoke and ashes." Milton, who collected all of history or fable that could heighten the effect of his poem, refers to those apples as adding new anguish to the fallen angels, after they had been transformed into serpents, upon Satan's return from the temptation of man. A grove hard by, "There stood -laden with fair fruit, like that Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve, Us'd by the Tempter: on that prospect strange Their earnest eyes they fix'd, imagining, For one forbidden tree, a multitnde." * * * "They, parched with scalding thirst, and and hunger fierce, could not abstain; But on they rolled in heaps, and up the trees |