CHAPTER IX 



INSECT GEOMETRY 



THE industry of insects, especially that of 

 the Bees and Wasps, abounds in tiny 

 marvels. Newly manufactured with the 

 cotton supplied by various fluff-covered 

 plants, the nest of certain Anthidia forms 

 an exquisitely graceful pouch. It is accur- 

 ately fashioned, white as snow, pleasing to 

 the eye and softer to the touch than Swan's- 

 down. The Humming-bird's nest, a bowl 

 hardly half the size of an apricot, is by 

 comparison a piece of clumsy felt. 



But this perfection is of brief duration. 

 The artist is hampered by the exigencies of 

 the space at her disposal. Her workshop 

 is a chance shelter, a tunnel incapable of 

 modification, which she has to use as she 

 finds it. In this narrow retreat, therefore, 

 the cotton purses are placed in a row, each 

 compressing the others and distorting their 

 form; they are welded at either end to their 

 neighbours, till the whole becomes a lumpy 

 pillar moulded to the volume of the con- 

 tainer. For lack of space, the weaver has 

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