THE CELLS 385 



* ' I am just coming to that magnificent topic, but I 

 shall treat it briefly, I warn you. You are far from 

 being able to follow yet in its superior beauties the 

 architecture of the bees. Yes, my dear Jules, the 

 wax house of a poor insect, to be well understood, 

 demands knowledge that very few persons possess. 

 Ah, you may study ever so long before you are able 

 fully to understand this marvel! For the present, 

 here is what I will tell you. 



"The cells serve, some as store-rooms for the 

 honey, others as nests for the little ones. They are 

 made of wax, a material that the bees cannot procure 

 in indefinite quantities. They must wait until the 

 stomach sweats a little layer of it, and it forms very 

 slowly, at the expense of the insect's very substance. 

 The bee builds with the materials of its own body, it 

 impoverishes itself in sweating the wherewithal to 

 construct the cells. You can judge from that how 

 precious a thing wax is to the bees, and with what 

 strict economy they must use it. 



"And yet the innumerable family must be lodged, 

 honey store-rooms must multiply to supply the wants 

 of the community. Moreover, it is necessary that 

 these store-rooms and nurseries take up as little 

 room as possible, so as not to encumber the hive, and 

 to permit free circulation to the twenty or thirty 

 thousand inhabitants of the city. In fine, one of the 

 hardest problems is presented to the bees: they must 

 make the greatest possible number of cells in the 

 least space and with the least wax possible. \\V11 . 

 friend Jules, do you think you could solve the bees ' 

 problem?" 



