266 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



CELLS ON THE EDGE OF ATTACHMENT WHERE THERE IS NO EVEN PRESSURE ON ALL 



SIDES ARE NEVER HEXAGONS. 



but somehow their statements seem to 

 flee from our modern thought of the 

 honeycomb. Cheshire says, "All na- 

 ture apart from the mystery of life 

 solves everything mathematically. The 

 cricket ball flying from the bat of the 

 tyro, the spray from the maiden's mop, 

 the tiny soap-bubbles of the laundress's 

 lather, as much conform to perfect 

 mathematical solution as the path of a 

 comet or the form of a star." A child 

 may blow a soap bubble and toss it in 

 the air. No credit can inure to the 

 child for the beautiful spherical form 

 of the mid-air bubble. That form is 



simply the result of a natural law. If 

 the child blows several soap bubbles in 

 contact with one another, they become 

 beautifully hexagonal, but here again 

 no credit is due the child. The hexagons 

 are physically not biologically pro- 

 duced. 



The edge of the honeycomb built 

 wholly by bees is never hexagonal nor 

 angular. The side is a curve and the 

 cells immediately on that curve are 

 spherical at their bottom and circular 

 at their rim. All solitary bees work in 

 circles. I have felt about this like Lowell 

 when he argues in regard to the straight 



SOAP BUBBLES BLOWN BETWEEN TWO PIECES OF GLASS HAVE ANGLES AND FLATTENED 



SIDES. 



IF all were of same size under uniform pressure they would be regular hexagons. 



