The Life of the Bee 
55 
The outline of the nascent comb may 
soon be divined. In form it will still be 
lenticular, for the little prismatic tubes 
that compose it are unequal in length, and 
diminish in proportion as they recede from 
the centre to the extremities. In thickness 
and appearance at present it more or less 
resembles a human tongue whose two sides 
might be formed of hexagonal cells, con- 
tiguous, and placed back to back. 
The first cells having been built, the 
foundresses proceed to add a second block 
of wax to the roof, and so in gradation 
a third and a fourth. These blocks follow 
each other at regular intervals, so nicely 
calculated that when, at a much later period, 
the comb shall be fully developed, there 
will be ample space for the bees to move 
between its parallel walls. 
Their plan must therefore embrace the 
final thickness of every comb, which will 
be fronr eighty-eight to ninety-two hun- 
dredths of an inch, and at the same time 
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