140 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



that had been destroyed. But they did not now foi- 

 low their ordinary rules of architecture, for they were 

 occupied by the solidity of their edifices alone. 

 Night intervening, suspended our observations, but 

 next morning confirmed what we had seen. 



" We find, therefore, that there is an epoch in the 

 labour of bees, when the upper foundation of their 

 combs is constructed simply • of wax, as R' aumur 

 believed; and that after all the requisite conditions 

 have been attained, it is converted to a mixture of wax 

 and propolis, as remarked by Plin^' so many ages 

 before us. Thus is the apparent contradiction be- 

 tween these two great naturahsts explained. But 

 this is not the utmost extent of the foresight of these 

 insects. When they have plenty of wax, they make 

 their combs the full breadth of the hive, and solder 

 them to the glass or wooden sides, by structures 

 more or less approaching the form of cells, as 

 circumstances admit. But should the supply of wax 

 fail before they have been able to give sufficient 

 diameter to the combs whose edges are rounded, 

 large intervals remain between them and the upright 

 sides of the hive, and they are fixed only at the top. 

 Therefore did not the bees provide against it, by con- 

 structing great pieces of wax mixed with propolis, in 

 the intervals, they might be borne down by the 

 weight of the honey. These pieces are of irregular 

 shape, strangely hollowed out, and their cavities void 

 of symmetry."* 



It is remarked by the lively Abbe La Pluche, that 

 the foundations of our houses sink with the earth on 

 which they are built, the walls begin to stoop by de- 

 grees, they nod with age, and bend from their per- 

 pendicular; — lodgers damage everything, and time is 

 continually introducing some new decay. The man- 

 sions of bees, on the contrary, grow stronger the 



* Huber on Bees, p. 415. 



