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 pfesent a ." 



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- 

 markable 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 angle, 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 



a Huber, ii. 230. 



