346 



ARCHITECTURE OF BEES. 



trust, enable the reader to understand the fore- 

 going description. 



The union of the lozenges in one point, in ad- 

 dition to the support which it is the means of 

 affording to the three partitions between opposing 

 cells, is also admirably adapted to receive the 

 little egg and to concentrate the heat necessary 

 for its incubation. 



Each obtuse angle of the lozenges or rhombs 

 forms an angle of about 1 1 0, and each acute one, 

 an angle of about 70. M. MARALDI found by 

 mensuration that the angles of these rhombs 

 which compose the base of a cell, amounted to 

 109 28' and 70 32' ; and the famous mathe- 

 matician KOENIG, pupil of the celebrated Ber- 

 nouilli, having been employed for that purpose 

 by M. REAUMUR, has clearly shown, by the me- 

 thod of infinitesimals, that the quantity of these 

 angles, using the least possible wax, in a cell of 

 the same capacity, should contain 109 26' and 



