APIAN MASONRY. 313 



Contiguous to the above we see some completed specimens 

 of masonry of a somewhat different construction, the work of 

 another yet allied class of builders. Here is a dome-shaped 

 tenement, composed apparently of mud or clay, and looking 

 at a distance not unlike a roundish mass of the former thrown 

 by accident against a roadside wall. Such a site it did indeed 

 once occupy, before removed to this our gallery of exhibition; 

 but only let us examine, and we shall see that instead of a 

 chance-thrown lump it is a pains-reared erection. Its walls are 

 in reality of mud or clay, kneaded into pellets, which being, 

 while moist, laid one upon another, adhere closely and without 

 interstices. A round, open orifice constitutes the entrance to 

 this solid building.* It is too small for discernment through 

 it of any interior arrangement, but that in the specimen before 

 us we can lay open by temporary removal of the exterior clay- 

 built dome. Within it we now discover two separate cells or 

 chambers " of the form and size of a lady's thimble, finely 

 polished, and of the colour of plaster of Paris." This material 

 is not clay, but apparently the mortar of the wall on which, 

 as we have said, the whole structure was originally placed. 

 The cells, with their outwork of concealment, were once the 

 nurseries of young bees of a solitary species, f and their 

 mother, one of the "masons" of her tribe, was the clever 

 architect and patient builder of the entire edifice. 



Here are several other not very dissimilar structures, trans- 



* See Vignette. t Anthopfiora retusa. 



