190 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



tion of birds and beasts, wMcb feed upon them, spread 

 tlieir manured seeds abroad, thus giving trees and shrubs 

 possessing such berries a greater chance in the struggle 

 for existence. 



With profound analytic and synthetic skill, Mr. Dar- 

 win investigates the cell-making instinct of the hive-bee. 

 His method of dealing with it is representative. He falls 

 back from the more perfectly to the less perfectly devel- 

 oped instinct — 'from the hive-bee to the humble-bee, which 

 uses its own cocoon as a comb, and to classes of bees of 

 intermediate skill, endeavoring to show how the passage 

 might be gradually made from the lowest to the highest. 

 The saving of wax is the most important point in the 

 economy of bees. Twelve to fifteen pounds of dry sugar 

 are said to be needed for the secretion of a single pound 

 of wax. The quantities of nectar necessary for the wax 

 must therefore be vast; and every improvement of con- 

 structive instinct which results in the saving of wax is 

 a direct profit to the insect's life. The time that would 

 otherwise be devoted to the making of wax is devoted 

 to the gathering and storing of honey for winter food. 

 Mr. Darwin passes from the humble-bee with its rude 

 cells, through the Melipona with its more artistic cells, 

 to the hive-bee with its astonishing architecture. The 

 bees place themselves at equal distances apart upon the 

 wax, sweep and excavate equal spheres round the selected 

 points. The spheres intersect, and the planes of intersec- 

 tion are built up with thin laminae. Hexagonal cells are 

 thus formed. This mode of treating such questions is, 

 as I have said, representative. The expositor habitually 

 retires from the more perfect and complex, to the less per- 

 fect and simple, and carries you with him through stages 



