122 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



thouglit, as also had appeared to M. de Eeaumiir, that they 

 softened it with the same frothy matter from the tongue 

 which they use to render wax more ductile. 



" We very distinctly observed the bees mixing fragments 

 of old wax with the propolis, kneading the two substances 

 together to incoi-porate them ; and the compound was em- 

 ployed in rebuilding the cells that had been destroyed. 

 But they did not now follow their ordinary rules of archi- 

 tecture, for they were occupied by the solidity of their 

 edifices alone. Xight intervening, suspended our observa- 

 tions, 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 con- 

 structed simply of wax, as Eeaumur believed ; and that, 

 after all the requisite conditions have been attained, it is 

 converted to a mixture of wax and propolis, as remarked 

 by Pliny so many ages before us. Thus is the apj^arent 

 contradiction between these two great naturalists 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 approach- 

 ing the foiTQ 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 constructing great 

 pieces of wax mixed with propolis, in the intervals, they 

 might be boi-ne down by the weight of the honey. These 

 pieeces 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 degrees, they nod 

 with age, and bend from their perpendicular ; — lodgers 

 damage everything, and time is continually introducing 

 some new decay. The mansions of bees, on the contrary, 

 * Huber ou Bees, p. 415. 



