CELL-MAKING INSTINCT. 251 



pendent of the quantity of honey which the bees can collect. 

 But let us suppose that this latter circumstance determined, 

 as it probably often has determined, whether a bee allied to 

 our humble-bees could exist in large numbers in any coun- 

 try ; and let us further suppose that the community lived 

 through the winter, and consequently required a store of 

 honey : there can in this case be no doubt that it would be 

 an advantage to our imaginary humble-bee if a slight modi- 

 fication in her instincts led her to make her waxen cells near 

 together, so as to intersect a little ; for a wall in common 

 even to two adjoining cells would save some little labor and 

 wax. Hence, it would continually be more and more advan- 

 tageous to our humble-bees, if they were to make their cells 

 more and more regular, nearer together, and aggregated into 

 a mass, like the cells of the Melipona ; for in this case a 

 large part of the bounding surface of each cell would serve 

 to bound the adjoining cells, and much labor and wax would 

 be saved. Again, from the same cause, it would be advan- 

 tageous to the Melipona, if she were to make her cells closer 

 together, and more regular in every way, than at present ; for 

 then, as we have seen, the spherical surfaces would wholly 

 disappear and be replaced by plane surfaces ; and the Meli- 

 pona would make a comb as perfect as that of the hive-bee. 

 Beyond this stage of perfection in architecture, natural selec- 

 tion could not lead ; for the comb of the hive-bee, as far as 

 we can see, is absolutely perfect in economizing labor and 

 wax. 



Thus, as I believe, the most wonderful of all known in- 

 stincts, that of the hive-bee, can be explained by natural 

 selection having taken advantage of numerous, successive, 

 slight modifications of simpler instincts ; natural selection 

 having, by slow degrees, more and more perfectly led the 

 bees to sweep equal spheres at a given distance from each 

 other in a double layer, and to build up and excavate the 

 wax along the planes of intersection ; the bees, of course, no 

 more knowing that they swept their spheres at one particu- 

 lar distance from each other, than they know what are the 

 several angles of the hexagonal prisms and of the basal 

 rhombic plates ; the motive power of the process of natural 

 selection having been the construction of cells of due strength 

 and of the proper size and shape for the larvae, this being 

 effected with the greatest possible economy of labor and 

 wax ; that individual swarm which thus made the best cells 

 with least labor, and least waste of honey in the secretion of 



