488 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



norance, and are the admiration of the most enlightened 

 minds : So true it is, that the more we investigate the 

 general as well as particular laws of this vast system, the 

 more perfection does it present \" 



It is observed by M. P. Huber, in his appendix to the 

 account of his father's discoveries relative to the archi- 

 tecture of bees, that in general the form of the prisms 

 or tubes of the cells is more essential than that of their 

 bottoms, since the tetrahedral-bottomed transition cells, 

 and even those cells which being built immediately upon 

 wood or glass, were entirely without bottoms, still pre- 

 served their usual shape of hexagonal prisms. But a re- 

 markiible experiment of the elder Huber shows that bees 

 can alter even the form of their cells when circumstances 

 require It, and that in a way which one would not have 

 expected. 



Having placed in front of a comb which the bees were 

 constructing, a slip of glass, they seemed immediately 

 aware that it would be very difficult to attach it to so slip- 

 pery a surface : and instead of continuing the comb in a 

 straight line, they bent it at a right aiigle, so as to ex- 

 tend beyond the slip of glass, and ultimately fixed it to 

 an adjoining part of the wood-work of the hive which the 

 glass did not cover. This deviation, if the comb had 

 been a mere simple and uniform mass of wax, would 

 have evinced no small ingenuity ; but you will bear in 

 mind that a comb consists on each side, or face, of cells 

 having between them bottoms in common : and if you 

 take a comb, and having softened the wax by heat, en- 

 deavour to bend it in any part at a right angle, you will 



' Huber, ii. 230. 



