870 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



its end, without enthusiastic admiration. We hear from 

 raatbematicians that bees have practically solved a recon- 

 dite problem, and have made their cells of the proper 

 shape to hold the greatest possible amount of honey 

 with the least possible consumption of precious wax in 

 their construction. It has been remarked that a skilful 

 workman with fitting tools and measures would find it 

 very difficult to make cells of wax of the true form, 

 though this is effected by a crowd of bees working in a 

 dark hive. Granting whatever instincts you please, it 

 seems at first quite inconceivable how they can make 

 all the necessary angles and planes, or even perceive 

 when they are correctly made. But the difiiculty is not 

 nearly so great as it at first appears: all this beautiful 

 work can be shown, I think, to follow from a few 

 simple instincts. 



I was led to investigate this subject by Mr. Water- 

 house, who has shown that the form of the cell stands in 

 close relation to the presence of adjoining cells; and the 

 following view may, perhaps, be considered only as a 

 modification of his theory. Let us look to the great 

 principle of gradation, and see whether Nature does not 

 reveal to us her method of work. At one end of a short 

 series we have humble-bees, which use their old cocoons 

 to hold honey, sometimes adding to them short tubes of 

 wax, and likewise making separate and very irregular 

 rounded cells of wax. At the other end of the series we 

 have the cells of the hive-bee, placed in a double layer: 

 each cell, as is well known, is a hexagonal prism, with 

 the basal edges of its six sides bevelled so as to join an 

 inverted pyramid, of three rhombs. These rhombs have 

 certain angles, and the three which form the pyramidal 



