The Life of the Bee 
The two triangles, or extensions of the 
hexagon-faces which fill one of the conver- 
gent angles of the cavity enclosed by the 
three rhombs, form, by their junction, a 
plane angle on the side they touch; each of 
these angles, concave within the cell, sup- 
ports, on its convex side, one of the sheets 
employed to form the hexagon of another 
cell; the sheet, pressing on this angle, resists 
the force which is tending to push it out- 
wards; and in this fashion the angles are 
strengthened. Every advantage that could 
be desired with regard to the solidity of 
each cell is procured by its own formation 
and its position with reference to the others.” 
by 
“There are only,” says Dr. Reid, “ three 
possible figures of the cells which can make 
them all equal and similar, without any 
useless interstices. These are the equilateral 
triangle, the square, and the regular hexagon. 
Mathematicians know that there is not a 
fourth way possible in which a plane shall 
be cut into little spaces that shall be equal, 
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