The Life of the Bee 



hive. And lastly, so as to connect in 

 orderly fashion the larger cells with the 

 small, the bees will erect a certain number 

 of what are known as transition cells. 

 These must of necessity be irregular in 

 form ; but so unerringly accurate are the 

 dimensions of the second and third types 

 that, at the time when the decimal system 

 was established, and a fixed measure sought 

 in nature to serve as a starting-point and 

 an incontestable standard, it was proposed 

 by Reaumur to select for this purpose the 

 cell of the bee.^ 



Each of the cells is an hexagonal tube 



^ It was as well, perhaps, that this standard was not 

 adopted. For although the diameter of the cells is 

 admirably regular, it is, like all things produced by a 

 living organism, not mathematically invariable in the 

 same hive. Further, as M. Maurice Girard has 

 pointed out, the apothem of the cell varies among 

 different races of bees, so that the standard would alter 

 from hive to hive, according to the species of bee that 

 inhabited it. 



189 



