The Life of the Bee 



hive. And lastly, so as to connect in 

 orderly fashion the larger cells with the 

 small, the bees will erect a certain number 

 of what are known as transition cells. 

 These must of necessity be^ irregular in 

 form ; but so unerringly accurate are the 

 dimensions of the second and third types 

 that, at the time when the decimal system 

 was established, and a fixed measure sought 

 in nature to serve as a starting-point and 

 an incontestable standard, it was proposed 

 by Reaumur to select for this purpose the 

 cell of the bee.* 



Each of the cells is an hexagonal tube 



* It was as well, perhaps, that this standard was not 

 adopted. For although the diameter of the cells is 

 admirably regdar, it is, like all things produced by a 

 living organism, not mathematically invariable in the 

 same hive. Further, as M. Maurice Girard has 

 pointed out, the apothem of the cell varies among^ 

 different races of bees, so that the standard would alter 

 from hive to hive, according to the species of bee that 

 inhabited it. 



189 



