he tree or
shrub from which the Bee has cut her pieces.

Another main condition is a fine and supple texture, especially for the
first disks used in the lid and for the pieces which form the lining of
the wallet. The rest, less carefully executed, allows of coarser
stuff; but even then the piece must be flexible and lend itself to the
cylindrical configuration of the tunnel. The leaves of the rock-roses,
thick and roughly fluted, fulfil this condition unsatisfactorily, for
which reason I see them occurring only at very rare intervals. The
insect has gathered pieces of them by mistake and, not finding them good
to use, has ceased to visit the unprofitable shrub. Stiffer still, the
leaf of the holm-oak in its full maturity is never employed: the Silky
Leaf-cutter uses it only in the young state and then in moderation; she
can get her velvety pieces better from the vine. In the lilac-bushes so
zealously exploited before my eyes by the Hare-footed Leaf-cutter occur
a medley of different shrubs which, from their size and the lustre of
their leaves, should apparently suit that sturdy pinker. They are the
shrubby hare's-ear, the honeysuckle, the prickly butcher's-broom, the
box. What magnificent disks ought to come from the hare's-ear and the
honeysuckle! One could get an excellent piece, without further labour,
by merely cutting the leaf-stalk of the box, as Megachile sericans does
with her paliurus. The lilac-lover disdains them absolutely. For
what reason? I fancy that she finds them too stiff. Would she think
differently if the lilac-bush were not there? Perhaps so.

In short, apart from the questions of texture and proximity to the
nest, the Megachile's choice, it seems to me, must depend upon whether a
particular shrub is plentiful or not. This would explain the lavish use
of the vine, an object of widespread cultivation, and of the hawthorn
and the wild briar, which form part of all our hedges. As these are to
be found everywhere, the fact that the different Leaf-cutters make use
of them is no reflection upon a host of equivalents varying according to
the locality.

If we had to believe what people tell us about the effects of heredity,
which is said to hand down from generation to generation, ever more
firmly established, the individual habits of those who come before, the
Megachiles of these parts, experienced in the local flora by the long
training of the centuries, but complete novices in the presence of
plants w