SOCIAL-WASPS. 85 



upon the geometrical arrangement of the cells, both 

 of the wasp and the social bee, in our description 

 of those interesting operations, which have long at- 

 tracted the notice, and commanded the admiration, 

 of mathematicians and naturalists. A few observa- 

 tions may here be properly bestowed upon the ma- 

 terial with which the wasp-family construct the in- 

 terior of their nests. 



The wasp is a paper-maker, and a most perfect 

 and intelligent one. While mankind were arriving, 

 by slow degrees, at the art of fabricating this valu- 

 able substance, the wasp was making it before their 

 eyes, by very much the same process as that by 

 which human hands now manufacture it with the 

 best aid of chemistry and machinery. While some 

 nations carved their records on wood, and stone, and 

 brass, and leaden tablets, — others, more advanced, 

 wrote with a style on wax, — others employed the inner 

 bark of trees, and others the skins of animals rudely 

 prepared, — the wasp was manufacturing a firm and 

 durable paper. Even when the papyrus was rendered 

 more fit, by a process of art, for the transmission of 

 ideas in writmg, the wasp was a better artisan than 

 the Egyptians; for the early attempts at paper- 

 making were so rude, that the substance produced 

 was almost useless, from being extremely friable. 

 The paper of the papyrus was formed of the leaves 

 of the plant, dried, pressed, and polished; the wasp 

 alone knew how to reduce vegetable fibres to a 

 pulp, and then unite them by a size or glue, spread- 

 ing the substance out into a smooth and delicate 

 leaf This is exactly the process of paper-making. 

 It would seem that the wasp knows, as the modern 

 paper-makers now know, that the fibres of rags, 

 whether linen or cotton, are not the only materials 

 that can be used in the formation of paper; she em- 

 ploys other vegetable matters, converting them into 



VOL. IV. 8 



