THE HONEY-BEE. 113 



haps no other insect has afforded a more decisive 

 proof of the resources of instinct, when compelled to 

 deviate from the ordinary course." 



It is singular that though the construction of the 

 cells of a honey-comb, so geometrically just, and so 

 well adapted to produce the greatest capacity, at the 

 least possible expense of superficial extent or of 

 materials, has been long an object of general admira- 

 tion ; one Naturalist, and that of no mean celebrity, 

 affects to disdain partaking of this almost universal 

 feeling. Buffon, as if to evince his superiority to 

 what he considers the vulgar enthusiasm excited by 

 the architecture of the bees, declares that " these 

 bee-cells these hexagons so much applauded and 

 admired, serve only to furnish us with a new argument 

 against enthusiasm and admiration. This figure, cor- 

 rectly regular and geometrical as it appears to us, and 

 as it actually is in theory, is, in this instance, but the 

 effect of a mechanical result, which is often found in 

 nature, and may be observed even in the most inani- 

 mate productions. Crystals, and several other stones, 

 and some kinds of salts, assume constantly this figure 

 in their conformation. Let a vessel be filled with 

 peas, or rather with some seeds of a cylindrical shape, 

 and let it be closely shut, after having first poured 

 in a sufficient quantity of water to fill up all the in- 

 tervals between the seeds ; let this water be boiled, 

 and all the cylindrical seeds will become columns of 

 six sides. The cause, it is evident, is purely me- 

 chanical. Every cylinder-shaped seed tends, by its 

 swelling, to occupy the greatest possible space in a 



