102 THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



on this subject, " and herein we may find yet another fact 

 which appears to prove that they reason." 



56 



We know that the bees construct four kinds of cells. 

 First of all, the royal cells, which are exceptional, and con- 

 trived somewhat in the shape of an acorn ; then the large 

 cells, destined for the rearing of males and storing of provi- 

 sions when flowers superabound ; and the small cells, serving 

 as workers' cradles and ordinary store-rooms, which occupy 

 normally about four-fifths of the built-over surface of the 

 hive. And lastly, so as to connect in orderly fashion the 

 larger cells with the small, they 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 incon- 

 testable standard, it was proposed by Reaumur to select for 

 this purpose the cell of the bee.^ 



Each of the cells is an hexagonal tube placed on a 

 pyramidal base, and two layers of these tubes form the comb, 

 their bases being opposed to each other in such fashion that 

 each of the three rhombs or lozenges which on one side 

 constitute the pyramidal base of one cell, composes at the 



1 It was as well, perhaps, that this standard was not adopted. For although the 

 diameter of the cells is admirably regular, it is, like all things produced by a living 

 organism, not mathematically invariable. Further, as M. Maurice Girard has pointed out, 

 the apothem of the cell is generally different among each species of bee, so that the 

 standard would vary from hive to hive, according to the race that inhabited it. 



