XTIIT. THE HOXEY BEE. 253 



Mr. Romanes justly concludes that these bees were guided 

 by local signs by a special knowledge of the flower- 

 gardens and not by any general sense of direction, 

 instinctive and innate. It was long ago observed that the 

 queen-mother, ere she takes her wedding flight, makes a 

 short preliminary excursion, flying round, and seemingly 

 taking notes of the position of the hive and its surroundings. 

 The experience of American bee-finders confirms this. 



Much has been written (and preached) upon the cell- 

 building instinct of bees, concerning which a curious cell- 

 myth has arisen. According to this myth, Maraldi is 

 said to have submitted the problem of cell-structure to 

 Kcenig, the mathematician, whose solution differed from 

 Maraldi's actual measurements by only the 30th part of a 

 degree. Not contented with an accuracy already exceed- 

 ing the possibilities of observation even with instrumental 

 appliances at that time undreamt of Maraldi begged the 

 mathematician to re-examine his calculations. The oblig- 

 ing Kcenig did so ; ami was thus enabled to correct a 

 printer's error in the mathematical table he had used. 

 His results and those obtained by actual measurements 

 were then, so runs the myth, in exact accord. Since 

 when, the bee has stood upon a pinnacle of perfection 

 fraught with danger. For human folk cannot permit per- 

 fection to go long unchallenged. No sooner is the eye of 

 man described as an optical apparatus without flaw, than 

 a Helmholtz comes forward to say that, were his instru- 

 ment-maker to provide him with no better work, he would 

 promptly return it for alteration and correction. 



Recent measurements and observations have tended to 

 dissipate the cell-myth, and to show, not only that the 

 honey-comb is far from regular, but that such regularity 

 as it has is due to merely mechanical conditions. Mr. 

 Frank Cheshire tells us that careful measurements of the 



