332 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



which are always filled with gums and the solidified 

 juices of plants, reduced into such minute particles, 

 that the microscope alone enables us to recognise 

 their true nature. Galleries and small empty cells 

 connect together all these well-stored chambers, and 

 secure a free passage to the attendants. 



The royal chamber and its dependencies are pro- 

 tected by a thick vault, the upper part of which 

 serves to support a large empty space, situated in 

 the very centre of the hillock. On this kind of 

 area, rise massive columns, which are sometimes 

 more than three feet high, and which give to this 

 vast hall the appearance of the nave of a cathedral. 

 These pillars support the nurseries, which differ from 

 the rest of the edifice as much in their structure as in 

 the objects for which they are intended. In every other 

 part of the edifice, clay is the only material employed, 

 and even in the nurseries it forms the skeleton of the 

 cells; but here the large apartments in which the 

 eggs are to be hatched, and in which the very young 

 larvas remain for a time, are subdivided into a great 

 number of little cells, whose walls are entirely con- 

 structed of parcels of wood, glued together with 

 gum. Nurseries of this kind are found of all sizes, 

 and some of them are as large as the head of a child. 

 All of them are surrounded by a casing of mason 

 work, interrupted by doors which open into the 

 galleries or passages of communication, and being 

 situated between the large air-chamber of the attic 

 and the nave of which we have just spoken, they 

 combine all the conditions favourable to equability of 

 temperature and ventilation. 



